Oil Project
By- Peyton Hotchkiss, Caitlin Bishop, and Oliver Homann
Spindletop and the OIi Boom
Spindletop was a hill near Beaumont where that caused the oil boom in Texas. In October of 1900 a oil drilling team started to drill in Spindletop with the new equipment used at Corsicana. Previous attempts had failed due to unfit drilling equipment. The new equipment was able to penetrate the sturdy surface and begin to drill for oil. On January 10 of 1901 the oil well had dug about 1,400 ft, which caused a massive oil spill. Oil shot out of the well for 9 days, causing roughly 100,000 barrels worth of oil. After the drill was fixed, the drill started producing about 75,000 barrels of oil a day. The success of this well spread and soon dozens of wells were being operated at Spindletop. With the immense success of all the drills, drills were built and operated in other locations all over Texas. This oil boom increased the population of Texas, mainly in the form of “boomtowns”. They were towns in which oil attracted a sudden outburst of people to move into the top to harvest oil, but then people moved out of the towns because all the oil had been harvested.
Modern Day Oil Industry
Many people are losing jobs due to the low oil prices worldwide. Around 60 of those companies are in Texas. They are filing for bankruptcy because there is nothing they can do to change the oil prices. Many people and families are affected by this because they have jobs with the oil companies, and now that the companies are going out of business, they have nowhere to go for a job. However, drilling the oil and finding the oil has not been an issue. Many places along the coast are being used for oil as well as new rigs being found all across Texas.
Effects of Oil
- Economic- Many jobs in both the oil and lumber industry opened up
- Economic- The lumber industry in East Texas grew
- Economic- Oil took lumbers place as the leading natural resource in Texas
- Social- Population of Texas increased