The document summarizes the rise of the oil industry in Texas and its effects. It describes how Pattillo Higgins' discovery of oil at Spindletop Hill in 1901 sparked the Texas Oil Boom. This led to enormous population and economic growth, transforming Texas from an agricultural to an industrial economy dominated by oil and gas. New boomtowns emerged and the government implemented an oil production tax, using the new revenues to develop the state without other taxes.

1. The Age of Oil

2. Products of Oil
Natural Gas – a gas that can be used for fuel
Natural gas production in the world

3. Petroleum – Commonly called
oil, petroleum is a dark, thick, liquid
fossil fuel
Fossil Fuel – formed underground from
plant or animal remains

4. Refinery - A factory where crude oil is refined, or made pure, and then
made into various products like kerosene for lamps!
(I used to call Pasadena Stinkadena because the whole town smelled so bad!!)

5. Derricks – towers that support oil-
drilling equipment

6. Boomtowns
• Beaumont and Sour Lake are boomtowns
because they grew along with economic
booms.

7. Wildcatters
• Independent oil operators who
search for new fields. In
particular Wildcatters
competed with one another to
find salt domes in the Gulf
Coast Plain just like the
Spindletop strike.
Glenn Herbert McCarthy
“King of the Wildcatters”

8. Howard Hughes Sr.
• Howard Hughes Sr. got the
double drill bit patented
and it revolutionized the
oil industry.
• With this new technology
changed the oil industry by
allowing drilling where it
was previously
impossible!!!

9. Pattillo Higgins
• Dug for oil under a
salt dome at a place
called Spindletop Hill
• After many failures,
they hired an engineer
named Anthony Lucas
and he eventually
struck oil.

10. The famous Lucas Gusher, 1901
Spindletop's Boiler Avenue, 1903
It is known as the Spindletop Strike and it
marked the beginning of the Texas Oil Boom

11. The Effects of the BOOM
• In 1917 the legislature gave the Texas Railroad
Commission, an agency originally created to
regulate railroads, authority to enforce laws
concerning the petroleum industry.

12. Most Texans thought the
land set aside for education
was a waste until the Santa
Rita No. 1 struck oil in 1923!!

13. Changes in Government
One of the most significant
developments in Texan
government resulted from the
creation of a state oil
production tax in 1905. The
revenue generated by the tax
made funds available for
development in the state
without the need for income
taxes and similar revenue
mechanisms adopted in other
states.

14. Change in
Demographics
Population growth
City
Percent
growth
(1900–
1930)
1930
population
Beaumont 512% 57,732
Houston 555% 292,352
Dallas 511% 260,475
Fort Worth 504% 163,447
El Paso 578% 102,421

15. Economic Changes
• At the start of the 20th century, agriculture, timber, and
ranching were the leading economic engines of Texas.
This was changed by the boom, which led to rapid
industrialization.
• By 1940, the value of petroleum and natural gas
produced in Texas exceeded the value of all agricultural
products in the state.
From:
To:

16. What issues does the oil industry
face today? (Watch this video!)
• http://video.foxnew
s.com/v/153789244
1001/tax-break-
debate-for-oil-
companies/