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Black Gold
At Spindletop Hill, Texas, Patillio Higgins and Anthony Lucas strike
“Black Gold”. Lucas and Higgins dug as far as 1,139ft. to find this big
pocket of oil. This was today, January 10, 1901. It was the biggest
oil reserve the world ever seen. Oil shot from the rig and went over
it and sprayed oil over 150ft. in the air. Each day, 70,000 through
100,000 barrels were made.
Over night, U.S. became the #1 oil producers in the world.
Towns started booming and the population of towns grew
tremendously. What a day!
From this great find, companies started to pop up such as
TEXACO, Mobil, and etc. The economy is going sky high and oil is
going down in price as low as 3¢ per barrel.
Also, it created a lot of businesses such as hotels and
restaurants for people working near oil rigs. Another thing was that
by-products were created such as plastic, clothing, nail polish, and
etc. Oil contributed to the creation of many industries.
So in conclusion, oil has been good to our economy and has
open up a lot of opportunities and jobs for people. Also, oil by-products
have been created because of Spindletop Hill.
Plastic Industry
Oil Industry
Railroad Industry
Are Boom Towns Good or Bad?
Positive
I think Boomtowns are good. The population of towns increase and jobs go up to support people working in oil rigs. This is also good because it will support our economy, Boomtowns also contribute to the economy because the raise of jobs and population. So as many said, " You better come to the oil or the oil will come to you."
Negative
Boomtowns have been a big problem. Since the Model T came out, cars have been clogging up the roads. Also, the Boomtowns become overpopulated, while other towns become underpopulated. People once said, " Boomtowns have become overpopulated; too crowded." That's why Boomtowns are fatal to our economy.
Political Cartoon
Clell Reed Interview
The following is the interview on Clell Reed. We are doing a Q&A session on Clell Reed. Here is what we got.
Here is our Q&A session.
"Do you like working for the oil industry?"
"Yes"
"Is working for oil dangerous?"
Yes, you can die any minute when you start drilling. There are a lot of poisonous gases and an explosion could happen at any moment."
"How much do you get paid?"
"$200 per year."
"How often do you hit oil?"
"I hit oil every week or so; not very hard."
"How many people do you work with?"
"I work with 4 people when I drill."
So that was our Q&A session about Clell Reed. We want to thank Clell Reed for bearing with us on our session.