The Modern Era Begins
 During the late 1800s Galveston was Texas’ most
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modern city.
Galveston was the first Texas city to have electric
lights, a telephone and baseball team
During the 1800s Galveston was a center for Cotton
shipping for Texas and the United States.
It grew to be the largest city in Texas by 1870 and
remained that way through 1880 with a population
of 22,248 people
Beautiful architecture adorned the streets of the
city, and Galveston enjoyed its role as the financial
center of Texas, a true White-Collar City.
 On Sept. 8, 1900, Galveston was struck by a
hurricane of unbelievable force.
 120 mph winds and
 High-cresting tidal waves left more than half
of Galveston completely destroyed
 Nearly 6,000 people died, and of the city left
in ruins.
 Thousands injured and left homeless
It was the worst natural disaster in U.S.
History!
1900 Storm Path
 Galveston reformed (changed) its city
government to a commission system to speed
up the process of recovering
 A seawall was proposed to block the island
from deadly storm surges and the city planned
to raise its elevation by bringing in sand from
the gulf
 Galveston built a 17 foot sea wall that extends for
over three miles of the islands coastline.
 They increased the elevation of the town by 16
feet
 These projects were completed by 1904, causing
Galveston to miss out on the oil boom.
 1543 - Oil first found in Texas in by
survivors of the de Soto Expedition
 1866 - First Oil Well in Texas was drilled by
Lyne Barret in Oil Springs, Texas.
 1890 - Oil Springs has 40 wells, refinery
and pipeline to Railroads in Nacogdoches,
TX.
Brainstorming!!
List the uses of petrochemical products:
Ink
Crayons
Parachutes
Telephones
Tape
Antiseptics
Purses
deodorant
Panty hose
Rubbing alcohol
Rugs
Paint
Pajamas
Hearing aids
Motocycle
helmets
Pillows
Shoes
Tires
Dishwashing
liquid
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Tents
Lipstick
Tennis rackets
Eyeglasses
Life jackets
Insect repellent
Fertilizers
Hair color
Toilet seats
Speakers
Candles
Credit cards
Apirin
Golf balls
Trash bags
Shampoos
Shaving cream
Cameras
Dentures
Pens
Nail polish
Perfumes
Rubber
Balloons
Footballs
Antifreeze
insecticides
Before 20th Century
During 20th Century
- Lubrication of
- Fuel for gasoline
machine parts
- Greasing wagon
axles
- Kerosene for
lighting lamps
powered
automobiles
- Fuel for planes,
tanks and ships
- Fuel for farm
equipment
- Engine Lubricant
 Spindletop Hill in Beaumont was located on a Salt
Dome
 Pattillo Higgins and Anthony Lucas struck oil on
Spindletop Hill on January 10, 1901
 500,000 barrels of oil spewed for six days before
the well was capped.
 Overnight, Beaumont
became transformed, as oil
prospectors and drillers
flocked to the small city.
 Oil companies like Texas
Company (later TEXACO)
began, and within a few
months, Beaumont’s
population grew from about
9,000 to over 50,000
 Early Boomtowns were
noisy, dirty, crowded, and
sometimes dangerous
because some of the
escaping gas fumes were
deadly when inhaled.
 A new settlement near
the refinery joined with
Goose Creek and Pelly to
become the prosperous
Baytown.
Question:
What does the term
“boomtown” mean?
Definition: A town undergoing rapid
growth due to sudden prosperity.
In other words, the population and size
of the town “booms” in a very short
amount of time.
 Oil Workers, speculators, gamblers,
adventurers all flocked to the oil
boom towns like Beaumont
 Very similar to what happened 30
years earlier in the cowtowns of the
Mid-West and in the 1849 Gold
Rush.
 Spindletop led to the rise of a whole
new economy and new future for
Texas
 Huge oil Companies were forming
 Refineries built to refine oil to
gasoline
Spindletop Oil Field during the boom years
of 1910's
A depiction of the
crowded nature of
oil fields during
the Oil boom. 500
wells were drilled
on 144 acres. Large
and small
businessmen
wanted to make
their fortune. The
burgeoning oil
industry was the
Texas equivalent of
the California gold
rush.
By 1903 more than 400 wells were drilling on
the Salt Dome.
 Pipelines and tankers built to carry oil
 Storage Facilities built to store oil
 Lumber used to build oil derricks
 After Spindletop, Oil operators spread
their searches throughout Southeast Texas
where salt domes were found
 Oil Fields opened all throughout this
region
 Saratoga
 Sour Lake
 Balston
 1904 – Drillers discover a salt dome about
20 miles North of Houston, in Humble
 This was the beginning of the Humble Oil
Company, which later became Exxon
Company, U.S.A, part of Exxon
Corporation
 Refineries were first located in Humble,
then moved to the community of Goose
Creek.
 Located Southeast of Houston close to
Galveston
 Much of the drilling took place in
Galveston Bay - offshore
 Made it easy for ocean shipping

A large refinery was built here and the
town was later renamed Baytown
 1901 – Petrolia-19 miles from Wichita
Falls
 Electra – discovered by cattle rancher
W.T. Waggoner had the first big
boom in North Texas
 Burkburnett – 1918– well named
‘Fowler’s Folly’ – gusher that
produced thousands of barrels a day
Other Oil Discoveries
 Oil in North Central Texas in 1917
 Breckenridege, Mexia, Corsicana, Luling
 Geologists believed fault zone contained
oil in Central Texas.
 1922 – Oil workers drilled into a fault near
Luling and struck oil
The Industry Today!
Class discussion: What
issues does the Oil
Industry face today!
38
 The oil boom in southeast Texas created a
demand for products needed by oil
companies – such as lumber to build the oil
derricks and buildings.
 Lumber operations created thousands of
acres of deforested land, which some people
believed should have been converted into
farmland.
 Conservationists like W. Goodrich Jones urged
replanting of pine trees for trees cut.
 Many Texas leaders urged the development of
additional industries
 Brickmaking was a successful industry, which used
local clay deposits to make high quality bricks.
Question:
What was the effect of the oil and
lumber industries on the
environment?
 Houston – “Where 17 railroads meet the
sea”
 Houston provided banking, insurance,
transportation, and legal services for oil
companies
 Gradually Houston became the epicenter
of the oil industry
 In 1914, the Houston Ship Channel opened
the city as a modern port
Houston Ship Channel
1915
Houston - 1914
 Due to it’s central location and many railroad lines,
Dallas became the major city of central Texas by
1900.
 It became a center for shipping, distributing, and
storing cotton, as well as other goods.
 It also became a financial center for banking,
insurance, and legal services.
 Dallas becomes a “White Collar” city
 Leading retail center for TX, OK, NM
 Neiman-Marcus department store opened in
Dallas in 1907;
 Sears and Roebuck (later “Sears”), a Chicago mailorder company, opened its southwestern U.S.
distribution center in Dallas.
Question:
Why would Sears and Roebuck
choose to locate in Dallas?
Assignment
 When Spindletop blew, people flooded East Texas
looking to strike it rich! Advertisements in the
newspaper told of the great investments, profits, and
benefits of oil.
 You must create an advertisement to either entice
investors, wildcatters or workers to come to East Texas.
Advertisement Examples
 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84
020274/1902-02-23/ed-1/seq-20/
 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86
071197/1902-03-26/ed-1/seq-9/
 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96
060547/1920-01-31/ed-1/seq-7/