The Texas oil boom , sometimes called gusher age , is a period of dramatic change and economic growth in the US state of Texas during the early 21st century. 20 which began with the discovery of large oil reserves near Beaumont, Texas. The findings were unprecedented in size and ushered in the age of rapid regional development and industrialization that has some parallels in US history. Texas quickly became one of the leading oil producing countries in the US, along with Oklahoma and California; soon the nation took over the Russian Empire as the largest oil producer. By 1940 Texas had dominated US production. Some historians even define the beginnings of the World Oil Age as the beginning of this era in Texas.
The major oil strikes that started rapid growth in oil exploration and speculation occurred in Southeast Texas, but reserves were soon discovered in Texas and wells were built in North Texas, East Texas, and the Permian Basin in West Texas. Although limited oil reserves had been beaten during the 19th century, strikes in Spindletop near Beaumont in 1901 gained national attention, spurring exploration and development that continued into the 1920s and beyond. The Spindletop and Broadcaster strikes in East Texas, at the beginning of the Great Depression, were the main strikes that launched an era of change in the country.
This period has a transformative effect on Texas. At the turn of the century, the country dominated the countryside without a big city. By the end of World War II, the country was highly industrialized, and the population of Texas cities had entered the top 20 nationwide. The city of Houston is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the explosion, and the Houston area is home to the largest concentration of refineries and petrochemical plants in the world. The city grew from a small commercial center in 1900 to one of the largest cities in the United States for decades after that era. This period, however, changed all of Texas commercial centers (and developed the Beaumont/Port Arthur area, where the boom began).
H. Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Sid W. Richardson, and Clint Murchison are the four most influential entrepreneurs during this era. These people became one of the richest and most powerful politically in the nation and nation.
Video Texas oil boom
Time frame
Some events in the 19th century have been considered the beginning of oil-related growth in Texas, one of the earliest was the opening of the Corsicana oil field in 1894. Nevertheless, most historians regard the Spindletop strike of 1901, at that time the most oil productive in a world ever discovered, to be a starting point. This single discovery embarked on a rapid pattern of change in Texas and brought the world's attention to the country.
In the 1940s, the Texas Railway Commission, which had been given control of the regulation of the Texas oil industry, managed to stabilize American oil production and eliminate most of the wild price changes that were common during the early years of the boom. Many small towns, such as Wortham, who became boomtown during the 1920s saw their boom end in the late 1920s and early 1930s when their local economies collapsed, resulting from their reliance on relatively limited petroleum reservoirs. As production peaked in some of these smaller areas and the Great Depression lowered demand, investors fled. In major refining and manufacturing centers such as Beaumont, Houston, and Dallas, the boom continued to change until the end of World War II. At the end of the war, the major urban areas of the country's economy have matured. Although Texas continues to grow and develop, extreme growth patterns and dramatic socioeconomic changes in previous years largely subsided as the cities entered a more sustainable growth pattern. The local explosions in West Texas and other areas, however, continued to change some small communities during the post-war period.
Maps Texas oil boom
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Post Civil War Texas
After the American Civil War, the Texas economy began to develop very quickly centered on cattle and cotton farming, and then wood. Galveston became the largest cotton shipping port in the world and the largest commercial center in Texas. However, in 1890, Dallas had surpassed the Galveston population, and in early 1900, the Port of Houston began to challenge Galveston dominance.
In 1900, a major storm hit Galveston, destroying much of the city. That and other storms in 1915 shifted much of the focus from investors from Galveston and headed for Houston nearby, which is seen as a safer location for commercial operations. Due to these events, the impending oil explosion became highly concentrated in the city of Houston as both a port and a commercial center.
Although Texas has a famous urban area at the turn of the century, the country is still dominated by rural country. Texas is largely an open range, meaning that cattle can freely roam across the state.
Early history of petroleum
In the 1850s, the process of filtering kerosene from oil was created by Abraham Gesner. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting around the world is growing rapidly. Oil exploration was developed in many parts of the world with the Russian Empire, particularly the Branobel company in Azerbaijan, which led production at the end of the 19th century.
In 1859, Edwin Drake of Pennsylvania invented the drilling process to extract oil from the earth. Drake's discovery is credited with giving birth to the oil industry in the US. The first oil refinery in the United States opened in 1861 in Western Pennsylvania, during Pennsylvanian oil fever. Standard Oil, founded by John D. Rockefeller in Ohio, became a multi-state trust and dominated the young US petroleum industry.
The Texans know about oil underground in the country for decades, but this is more often seen as a problem than a benefit because it inhibits the digging of well water. The farmer William Thomas Wagoner (1852-1934), who later became an influential oil businessman in Fort Worth, struck oil while drilling water in 1902. He was quoted as saying, "I want water, and they give me oil." I am angry, crazy. We need water for ourselves and for our cattle to drink. "
Despite previous negative associations with oil among many farmers and farmers, demand for kerosene and other petroleum derivatives fueled oil prospects in Texas after the American Civil War in oil-producing springs and unexpected discoveries while drilling for water. One of the first important wells in Texas was developed near the town of Oil Springs, near Nacogdoches. The site began production in 1866. The first oil field in Texas with substantial economic impact was developed in 1894 near Corsicana. In 1898, the first state-built modern refinery fields. The success of the Corsicana field and the increasing demand for oil worldwide has led to more exploration across the state.
Mechanization
In 1879, Karl Benz was awarded the first patent on a reliable gasoline engine in Germany. In 1885, he produced the first true gasoline car, Benz Patent Motorwagen. The new discoveries are quickly refined and gained popularity in Germany and France, and interest is growing in the UK and the United States. In 1902, Ransom Olds invented the concept of a production line to produce low-cost cars in bulk. Henry Ford soon perfected the concept so that in 1914, middle-class workers could buy cars built by Ford Motor Company.
Automobile production exploded in the US and elsewhere during the 1920s. This, and the increasing use of petroleum derivatives for power generation and industrial equipment, substantially increased world oil demand.
The growth of "Big Oil"
Spindletop
After years of failed attempts to extract oil from a salt dome near Beaumont, a small company known as Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company merged in 1899 by Croatian/Austrian mechanical engineer Anthony F. Lucas, an expert on dome salt. Lucas joins the company in response to various advertisements founding company Pattillo Higgins placed in industry magazines and trade journals. Lucas and his colleagues fought for two years to find oil in a location known as Spindletop Hill before striking in 1901. The new well produced about 100,000 barrels of oil per day, an unprecedented level of production at the time. The annual production of 1902 at Spindletop exceeded 17 million barrels. Total state production in 1900 was only 836,000 barrels. The abundance of supplies caused oil prices in the US to drop to a record low 3 cents per barrel, less than the price of water in some areas.
Beaumont almost instantly became a boomtown with investors from all states and states participating in land speculation. Investing in Texas speculation in 1901 reached about $ 235 million US (about $ 6.91 billion in the present). The level of oil speculation in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States was quickly surpassed by speculation in Texas. Lucas Gusher himself was short-lived; production fell to 10,000 barrels per day in 1904. However, the strike was only the beginning of a much larger trend.
Discovery spread
The exploration of the salt dome across the Texas Gulf Coast plain began with the opening of a large oil field at Lake Sour in 1902, Batson in 1903, Humble in 1905, and Goose Creek (modern Baytown) in 1908. Pipes and refineries were built in many parts of Texas Southeast, leading to substantial industrialization, particularly around Houston and Galveston Bay. The first offshore oil field in the state opened in 1917 at Black Duck Bay in the Goose Creek field, although serious offshore exploration did not begin until the 1930s.
Initially, oil production was done by many small producers. Initial exploration and production madness produce an unstable supply of oil, which often results in overproduction. In the early years, some of the major findings led to easy availability and substantial price reductions, but were followed by limited exploration and sudden spikes in prices as production shrank. This situation caused exploration to spread to neighboring states in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas, which compete with Texas for dominance in oil production. The strike at Glenn Pool near Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1905 established Tulsa as the leading US oil production center until the 1930s. Although Texas soon lags behind Oklahoma and California, it is still a major producer.
During the late 1910s and 1920s, oil exploration and production continued to expand and stabilize. Oil production was established in North Texas, Central Texas, Panhandle, and Permian Basin in western Texas. The findings in North Texas, beginning with the 1917 strike at the West Ranger of Dallas-Fort Worth, were very significant, bringing great industrialization into the area. Texas soon became dominant as the nation's leading oil producer. In 1940, Texas production doubled from California, the next largest US producer.
In 1930, Columbus Marion Joiner, an independent inventor, discovered the East Texas Oil Field, the largest oil discovery ever made. Because East Texas has not been explored significantly for oil before that, many independent miners, known as "wildcatters", are able to buy land to exploit new fields. The new oil field helped revive the Dallas economy during the Great Depression, but interest rates dropped sharply in West Texas as new supplies led to another big drop in oil prices. Uncontrolled production in the east makes the country's oil industry unstable, trying to control production rates to stabilize prices. Overproduction in East Texas was so great that then Governor Ross Sterling tried to turn off many wells. During one of the forced closures, he ordered the Texas National Guard to enact the closure. Efforts to control this production, intended to protect independent operators and large producers, were initially unsuccessful and led to widespread oil smuggling. In the 1930s, the federal government intervened and brought production to sustainable levels, leading to a stabilization of price fluctuations. The revenue provided by the stabilization allows the less populated Texas West and Panhandle to be explored and exploited more fully.
The emergence of industry
The first refinery operation at Corsicana was built by Joseph S. Cullinan, former Standard Oil manager in Pennsylvania. His company, later absorbed by the Magnolia Petroleum Company and later acquired by Standard Oil of New York, built the first modern refinery west of the Mississippi River. After the strike at Spindletop, Cullinan partnered with Arnold Schlaet to form the Texas Fuel Company in Beaumont with funding from an investment group run by former Texas Governor James S. Hogg and other investors. In 1905, when the new company rapidly expanded its operations, the company moved its headquarters to Houston. The company's strength in the oil industry makes Houston an industrial hub in Texas. The company was later absorbed into the Texas Company and later renamed the Texaco.
The interest in Lucas's operation in Spindletop was purchased by J. M. Guffey and his colleagues, creating the Guffey Petroleum Company and the Gulf Refining Company of Texas. These companies then became Gulf Oil Corporation, which decades later was bought by Chevron California. The Guffey Company became the largest oil producer in the state during the boom period. Standard Oil initially opted not to be directly involved in oil production in Texas, and instead established the Oil Security Corporation as a purification operation that utilized the Gulf Company and Texas Guessy as a supplier. After the state law relating to anti-trust law, Security Oil was reorganized into Magnolia Petroleum Company in 1911. In the same year, Humble Oil Company (today Exxon Corporation) was formed by Ross Sterling and Walter William Fondren in Humble, Texas. The headquarters was moved to Houston, and the company eventually sold half of its shares to Standard Oil of New Jersey, building long-term, multi-decade partnerships. The company built the Baytown Refinery, which became the largest refining operation in Texas. In the post-World War II period, Humble became the largest crude carrier in the United States, and built a pipeline connecting Baytown to Dallas-Fort Worth and West Texas to the Gulf of Mexico.
Apart from some major operations, the first decade of the boom was dominated by many small producers. When production is expanded and new companies are formed, there is consolidation. In the late 1920s, ten companies produced more than half of the oil in the state: Gulf Production Company, Humble Oil and Refining Company, South Petroleum Purchasing Company (later absorbed by Amoco which was later absorbed by BP), Texas Company, Shell Petroleum Corporation , Yount-Lee Oil Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, Hugh Hughes Oil Company, Pure Oil Company, and the Kansas Oil and Gas Company (later Marathon Oil).
During the 1930s, a Dallas company known as the General American Finance System, struggling through the Great Depression, began funding drilling operations in the state using oil reserves as collateral. This enabled Dallas to establish itself as a financing hub for the oil industry. The Great American Financial System eventually reorganized itself as Texas General Oil Company, which became an oil producer in its own right and, several decades later, was bought by Phillips Petroleum.
Effects
Economy
At the beginning of the 20th century, agriculture, timber, and livestock were the leading economic engines in Texas. This was changed by the boom, which led to rapid industrialization. Although the refineries were initially concentrated around the Beaumont and Houston areas, gradual refining operations grew throughout the state in the late 1920s. In 1940, the value of petroleum and natural gas produced in Texas exceeded the value of all agricultural products in the state. The country's GDP grew from about $ 119 million ($ 3.5 million in current terms) in 1900 to about $ 29 billion ($ 253 million in current terms), more than 240-fold. US GDP as a whole grew less than 24 times during the same period.
The opening of the Houston Ship Channel in 1914 caused Port of Houston to overtake the Port of Galveston as the dominant port in the state. That situation led to Houston also taking over Galveston as the main shipping center for cotton. Large amounts of oil and gas moving through Houston, Baytown, Texas City, and surrounding communities make the area around the ship channel attractive for industrial development. Chemical plants, steel mills, cement plants, automobile manufacturing, and many other heavy industries can benefit from the rapidly developing low-cost fuel supply in the area. By the 1930s, Houston had emerged as the dominant economic center of the country, despite continuing to compete with Dallas throughout the 1900s. The effects of the explosion helped offset the effects of the Depression so Houston was called "the depressed city of Depression." Dallas and other Texas communities are also able to overcome depression better than many cities in America because of oil.
The explosion in the oil industry also helps promote other industries in other regions of the country. Wood production grew rapidly in line with increasing demand for railway construction, refineries, and oil mining, and, in 1907, Texas was the third largest timber producer in the United States. The growing city needs lots of new homes and buildings, making it profitable for the construction industry. Agriculture and livestock grows stronger as a rapidly growing population creates more demand for their products.
Demographics
Major commercial centers in the state grew rapidly during this period. The city of Houston grew by 555% between 1900 and 1930, reaching a population of 292,352. Other cities, from Beaumont to El Paso, saw similar growth rates. In contrast, New York City grew by 101% and Detroit, where an auto explosion occurred, grew by 485%.
The population of many small towns in Texas has an increasingly large population when oil discoveries bring in seekers, investors, field workers, and entrepreneurs. Between 1920 and 1922, the town of Breckenridge in rural North Texas grew from about 1,500 people to nearly 30,000. Between 1925 and 1929, the town of Odessa in the Permian Basin grew from 750 to 5,000. Between 1924 and 1925, the city of Wortham in northern Texas grew from 1,000 to about 30,000. The town of Kilgore in eastern Texas grew from about 500 to 12,000 between 1930 and 1936 after the discovery of the East Texas field.
Growth for many cities is only temporary. Growth in some communities is often driven by the exploitation of limited oil resources, so that as soon as the wells dry or demand slows down, their population declines rapidly. When the Wortham boom ended, the population fell from a 1927 peak from 30,000 to 2,000 in 1929. The Breckenridge population fell from the same height to 7,569 in 1930.
One of the most significant demographic changes in the state is the percentage of urban dwellers. Between 1910 and 1930, the percentage of urban dwellers (those living in cities more than 2500 people) increased by 32%, resulting in 41% of Texans living in urban areas by 1930. World War II pushed urban populations above 50%.
Urban development
Urban urban landscape changed dramatically during this period. The Praetorian Building in Dallas (1907) and the Amicable Life Insurance Company building in Waco (1911) are among the first skyscrapers in Texas. The Perlstein Building in Beaumont is the first skyscraper built as a direct result of the explosion. Downtown Beaumont thrived during the first decade after the 1901 strike. After the second major strike in Spindletop in 1925, Beaumont had the largest horizons in every city between Houston and New Orleans by the end of the decade. The twenty-two Edson Hotel story, completed in 1929, was the tallest hotel building in Texas for several years.
Though important for Beaumont during the early boom period, Houston's nearest commercial center and already stands as the leading city of the period. Houston's status was driven by the completion of the 1914 Houston Ship Channel, an artificially dug channel through the shallow Gulf of Galveston, enabling the Houston Port to serve large ships. Refineries and related operations are built along the Houston Ship Channel between Houston and Goose Creek. Heavy industry grows in the area and gradually creates one of the largest industrial complexes in the world. In the 1930s, Houston emerged as the largest city state and central railway and road network. The effects of petroleum-related growth helped to offset the substantial effects of the Great Depression, especially after the discovery of the East Texas field. The rich Texans of the boom are forming high-end communities including River Oaks, which is a model for community planning in the US. Oil-related growth led to the creation of many new institutions, including the University of Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Hermann Park, the Houston Zoo, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
Dallas and Fort Worth experienced one of their biggest oil construction booms in 1930 and 1931, when the opening of the East Texas oilfield helped set up Dallas as a financial hub for the oil industry in Texas and Oklahoma. New business offices and city buildings appeared in the city, including the Highland Park Village shopping center, one of the country's earliest shopping centers. The depression slowed population growth in the Dallas area during the 1930s, but the rapid growth patterns returned again during the 1940s. At this time, though, Dallas has begun rediversify, becoming a center for aircraft manufacturing and electronic technology in addition to various other industries.
Transportation
Cheaper gasoline drives car ownership, which provides a huge source of revenue to the government, leading to the rapid expansion of toll road construction. Despite the country's geographic size and rural nature at the turn of the century, the country's road system developed to a level comparable to the more established industrial estates in the United States.
The oil boom assists the expansion of several Texas ports including four ports that are currently classified as the twenty highest busiest ports in the United States in terms of cargo tonnage. The Houston Ship Channel and Port of Houston are becoming the busiest shipping resources in the state and one of the top two in the country. Although Houston was leading, the oil explosion benefited other regions. The Sabine-Neches Waterway, located in the Beaumont/Port Arthur region, saw growth as a result of the oil explosion. The ship's existing channel deepened after the discovery of Spindletop 1901 and has been deepened several times since then. The channel serves two US ports that fall into the top twenty in terms of cargo tonnage, Port of Beaumont, and Port of Port Arthur. In December 2013, The Sabine-Neches Waterway is the third busiest waterway in the United States in terms of tons of cargo behind the Port of South Louisiana and the Houston Ship Channel. The Sabine-Neches Waterway is also the largest bulk importer of bulk crude, the largest liquid waterway, and is projected to be the largest LNG exporter in the United States. Other beneficiaries include Port of Corpus Christi and Port of Texas City. Because the discovery of oil brings refinery construction at various locations along the coast, the main cargo for most ports from cotton to petroleum products.
Education
University systems in Texas are rising dramatically because of the boom. Prior to the boom, the University of Texas consisted of a small number of raw buildings near Austin. Oil speculation on university land in western Texas led to the creation of the Santa Rita oil well, giving the University of Texas, and then Texas A & amp; M University, access to major revenue sources and lead the university to become one of the richest in the United States. Other universities in the state, especially the University of Houston, can also benefit from the country's oil production and donations from wealthy oil investors, which encourage substantial growth and development on their campuses.
Primary and secondary education also increased, although extreme growth in new boom towns initially caused severe stress on school systems that were not ready for rapid student entry. Even when money flows quickly in society, getting tax revenue efficiently in the places needed is often complicated. Communities are facing these problems by building independent school districts, education districts established independently of municipal or district governments with their own independent tax authorities. This type of school district is still the standard in Texas today.
Government and politics
One of the most significant developments in the Texan administration was the result of the creation of a state oil production tax in 1905. Income generated by taxes generates funds available for development in the country without the need for income taxes and similar revenue mechanisms adopted in other countries.. In 1919, tax revenues from oil production surpassed $ 1 million ($ 14.1 million in current terms) and in 1929 reached $ 6 million ($ 85.5 million in current terms). In 1940, the oil and gas industry accounted for about half of all taxes paid in the state.
Politics in Texas in the early 1900s was determined by the spirit of Progressiveism. Oil money is funding the expansion of road systems and education systems. In general, however, the attitude towards business is laissez-faire . There are some regulations on issues such as minimum wages and child labor.
Permissive attitude towards business does not always extend to large companies. Lack of venture capital in the state becomes a significant problem with the early industry. Civil and business leaders, and even ordinary citizens, fear that capital inflows from outside the country will lead to a loss of political power, income, and business opportunities. This sentiment led to a series of antitrust lawsuits by the state Attorney General began in 1906. The lawsuit easily succeeded and limited the ability of outside investors, especially Standard Oil, to control the state oil company.
The distrust of Standard Oil is partly due to the suspicion of carpet riders, ironically also a source of trade union skepticism. The union organizers are often seen as trying to support the Northern agenda of promoting opportunities for African-Americans at the expense of the white population. Because of this created situation, labor reform is slowly developing. Despite anti-union sentiment, groups such as the International Petroleum Union attracted membership and held influence in state industry and government.
Culture
The eternal theme during and after the oil boom has been a reluctance among Texans to abandon their identity and stubbornness in defending their cultural heritage in the face of drastic changes to the state brought about by sudden wealth. Despite growth and industrialization, the Texas culture in the mid-20th century remained different from other industrial centers in the country.
The possibility of becoming rich from oil creates a "wildcatter" culture, a reckless entrepreneurial spirit, in many areas of the country. Independent entrepreneurs pursue the dream of wealth by buying land and equipment to find oil. Farmers and farmers, both from within and outside the country, move on to prospecting. The Oil and Gas Journal once published the following statement.
Although many have failed in their efforts, there have been many success stories. The majority pioneered and sought new oil fields in this era carried out by these independent people, not big business interests. Competition with big oil interests will lead to the establishment of the Texas Independent Petroleum Association as a lobbying group for these small entrepreneurs.
Houston pioneered the American car culture in the early 1900s thanks to the availability of cheap gasoline. By 1920 traffic congestion had become so serious that it became the first in the country to install traffic lights that were interconnected. Visitors to the city are often surprised by the lack of pedestrian access to shopping spots and the importance of cars within the city. Although mass transit has been successful in previous years in Houston, subsequent efforts aimed at promoting mass transportation and city planning were largely defeated in Houston because of public opposition, which favored public investment in roads over mass transit. Urban concepts pioneered in Houston, such as building shopping centers outside the city center and encouraging suburban expansion, became a major trend adopted in many cities, both within the country and across the country.
Other indirect effects of the explosion are the growth of gambling and prostitution in many communities. This activity is not uncommon in Texas before the boom, but the wealth brought by the oil industry, as well as the difficulty in upgrading law and law enforcement agencies, created many new opportunities for illegal business and organized crime. Many communities develop casinos and red light districts; especially the gambling empire in Galveston, which attracted wealthy businessmen from Houston and lasted until the 1950s, is the longest of all. Prostitution, which always exists in the state, thrives in the big cities, crowded with single men who earn relatively high wages. Beginning The prohibition and reluctance of state governments to enforce representative legislation only encouraged gambling growth and retail sales during this period.
Rapid social change during this period, especially in the 1920s, led to the reappearance of the Ku Klux Klan in the cities of Texas, with their strongest presence in Dallas. As in other countries, the new Clan is not outwardly focused on the suppression of black civil rights, but it supports traditional morality including opposition to piracy, gambling, and other crimes that have grown during that period. However, bigotry is never far from the group's agenda. During the Depression, anti-New Deal sentiment among some leaders, such as John Kirby, caused their relationship to become loose with the Klan and its ideals.
The petroleum industry is affecting long-term trends in Texas and American culture. The conservative view among the early business leaders in Texas led them to help finance the emergence of modern Christian rights and the American conservative movement.
Environment
Although from the beginning of the oil boom there were conservation efforts and environmental protection, they generally enjoyed little success. Because of the ease of finding oil in the early decades, wells are often not fully developed before prospect seekers start looking for more productive wells. The wildcatters are not only wasting valuable resources, but creating environmental contamination that can be avoided with many oil strikes. The rush to take oil often leads to the construction of poor storage facilities where leaks are frequent and water pollution becomes a serious problem. In parallel, land clearing for oil exploration and timber demand for use in new construction, all following large logging activities in the 19th century, destroyed much of the formerly densely forested state land in the state. Then environmental management efforts help restore some forest land but they remain a shadow of what they were before becoming a country.
Industrial activity, which has little regulation, creates great air pollution. The practice of burning gas pockets in new oil fields is common, thus increasing the problem. When Houston became the most industrialized area in the state, it accumulated the most serious air quality problems. In the 1950s, aircraft pilots were able to use fog lines in the air to navigate to the city. Although the quality of air in urban areas has improved, in 2012 Texas remains a major producer of greenhouse gases in the United States, and by 2017 NASA has placed Houston as the country with the worst air quality in the country (though other sources rank the city somewhat better).
Other serious effects created by oil-related industries are pollution around the Houston Ship Channel and in Galveston Bay. In the 1970s, these waterways were among the most polluted waters in the United States. Although industrial sources are a major source of pollution, urbanization around the bay also contributes significantly to pollution levels. In recent decades, much of the pollution in the bay has been the result of storm runoff from smaller commercial, agricultural, and residential sources, compared to large industrial complexes. Conservation efforts in the mid to late 20th century by local industry and municipalities have helped dramatically improve water quality in the bay that reverses at least some of the previous damage to the ecosystem.
After gushers
In the 1940s, production at East Texas Oil Field and oil prices stabilized. Although major urban areas continue to grow, extreme growth patterns of the first three decades begin to slow down. As West Texas and the panhandling region begin to be explored more fully, Permian Basin is gradually becoming the country's top producing region. Although independent oil companies are still an important part of the industry for some time, new big strikes are increasingly being created by established companies. World War II helped complete the transition of the country to industrial and urban countries with oil that facilitated the transition.
During the 1960s and 1970s, as a result of both peak production in some countries and political instability in other countries, the world's oil supply was getting tighter which caused the energy crisis during the 1970s and early 1980s. Oil prices rose dramatically, greatly benefiting Texas, especially when compared to other parts of the US that are facing recession so far. A new economic boom emerged which, although not as transformative as the early 1900s, propelled the Texas population to the point that, by the end of the century, Texas was the second most populous country in the country. Some sources, in fact, use the phrase the Texas oil boom to refer to this period rather than the early period following the Spindletop.
The iconic figures of the era
Four great
Four entrepreneurs symbolize the 1920s and 30s boom years - H. Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Sid W. Richardson, and Clint Murchison. Cullen is an autonomous educated cotton and real estate entrepreneur who moved to Houston in 1918 and immediately began looking for oil. The success of Cullen led to the establishment of the company of South Texas Petroleum (with partner Jim West Sr.) and Quintana Oil Company. Cullen and his wife founded the Cullen Foundation, which is one of the largest charitable organizations in the state, and contributes a lot to the University of Houston, Texas Medical Center, and many other causes in Texas, particularly in the Houston area.
Hunt's first success was in the Arkansas oil field, but he lost most of his wealth since the beginning of the Depression because of the excess production of his fields and his speculation on land and oil drained his resources. He joined the Columbus Joiner effort that opened East Texas Oil Field. Hunts bought most of the merged interests in east Texas and his company, Placid Oil, had hundreds of wells. He became established in Dallas and was labeled the country's richest man in 1948 by Fortune Magazine. A scandal appeared in 1975, after his death, when it was known that he had a great hidden relationship, with his second wife living in New York.
Richardson was a cattle trader who established an independent oil production business in Fort Worth in 1919. He soon expanded into businesses and owned Texas City Purification Company, cattle farms, radio and television networks, among other businesses. He is a very private person who is sometimes referred to as a "bachelor's billionaire." Murchison, who began his career at his father's bank, soon became an oil leasing dealer working with Richardson. He expanded to exploration and production in northern Texas, then around San Antonio, and finally the Dallas area. He then created Southern Union Gas Company and became a developer in East Texas. He expanded his business into international oil and gas operations in Canada and Australia. His son, Clint Jr., went on to form the Dallas Cowboys football franchise. For their part, Murchison and Richardson are known to have become major national politicians and have close ties with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and vice president Richard M. Nixon, as well as FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover and President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Other icons
Other rich Texans who were involved in the oil industry, though not so influential, became famous, often because of their eccentricity as their wealth. Howard Hughes, son of Howard R. Hughes Sr. (Houston's business expert who created the bits of bor-bit technology during the early days of the boom), became a nationally recognized figure for his success in the aviation and film industry. She became famous for her eccentricity and her mental deterioration, as well as her heavy investment in the Las Vegas gambling company.
Glenn McCarthy is a simple oil worker who pioneered a well around the Houston area. In 1932, he attacked oil at Anahuac near Galveston Bay. Over the next decade, he made dozens of other strikes and quickly became one of the richest men in Texas. His luxury was legendary which caused him to be $ 52 million in debt in 1952 ($ 479 million in current terms). Her love for bourbon made her discover the bourbon WildCatter label. Its advantages made it a reluctant national celebrity during the 1940s and 1950s when media became captivated by stories of Texas oil wealth.
Jim West Jr. is the heir to the wealth of Jim West Sr., an early Houston businessman who helped shape the city and state before the boom and during the early years of the boom. Known as the "Jim Silver Dollar", because of his habit of carrying a silver dollar and throwing it to the doormen, the poor, and whoever waited for him, West Jr. considered by many to be the most flamboyant of Houston's oilmen. Luxury shopping habits and its tendency for amateur law enforcement have been known. Using his car, filled with guns, sirens, and radio, he often chases criminals in Houston with police.
In popular culture
Although the general public of the United States is aware of oil production in Texas, the wealth it produces in the state for the first three decades after the Spindletop is unknown. Of the four most prominent oil gurus in Texas at the end of World War II - Murchison, Cullen, Richardson, and Hunt - only three articles about them appeared in the New York Times during their lifetime, Despite their philanthropy and influence in Washington DC, Stereotypes about Texas in American imagination generally revolve around cowboys and cows.
In the late 1940s, the national media began reporting the extreme wealth of some Texans in magazines like Life and Fortune. A stereotype emerged from Texas oil-rich niveve-riche, popularized by the media. Popular imagery is often characterized by rough and aggressive personalities, heavy drinkers, and wasteful spending. In 1956, the Movie Giant helped crystallize the image of the Texans in popular imagination as eccentric and funny characters. Glenn McCarthy is the inspiration for Jett Rink's character in the movie. Other films such as Boom Town and War of the Wildcats, and books like The Lusty Texans of Dallas and Houston: Land of Big Rich , also contributes to public perceptions of the influence of oil in Texas and surrounding countries.
See also
- Energy in the United States
- The history of the petroleum industry in the United States
- The history of petroleum
- Hydrocarbon exploration
- List of oil fields
- Midland, Texas
- Odessa, Texas
- Oil and gas laws in the United States
- Oil reserves in the United States
- US oil politics
- Howard R. Hughes Sr.
- Another similar event in North American history:
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- California Gold Rush
- Indiana Gas Boom
- Mexican oil boom
- Ohio Oil Rush
- rush of Pennsylvanian oil
Note
References
External links
- The Oil and Gas Industry (The Association of Texas State History)
- Brief History of the East Texas Oil Museum
- Oil and Texas: Cultural History (Texas Almanac)
- Oil Boom (The Depot Museum, Henderson)
- Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum
- The Texas Energy Museum, Beaumont
- "Santa Rita No. 1 - Big Lake ~ Marker Number: 4587". Texas Atlas Historical Site . Texas History Commission. 1965.
- "Hundred Million Barrels of Oil From Block 31 Units - Crane ~ Marker Number: 3862". Texas Atlas Historical Site . Texas History Commission. 1969. Ã,
- "Well discovery of Wells and Island Well - Crane ~ Marker Number: 851". Texas Atlas Historical Site . Texas History Commission. 1978.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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