A great rush began immediately; operators and speculators flocking in from the older fields of the east, converted the little town of Corsicana into a noisy, hustling city. Derricks sprang up by scores; wells were drilled within a few feet of one another, and yards, gardens, house lots, every available foot of surface was soon occupied. The production of crude oil in the State rose from fifty barrels in 1895 to over 800,000 barrels in 1900, but these results fell far below the original expectations. The ex citement, therefore, subsided almost as rapidly as it had appeared, only to be repeated tenfold a few years later.
The great Texas strike of 1901 is still fresh in the memories of many. For years the escape of gas from the earth about a low mound near Beau mont, known locally as Spindle Top, had been re garded as indicating the presence of petroleum. In fact, a town had been laid out in 1894 and a well some 400 feet deep had been drilled there without finding oil. Nothing more of importance happened until a new well drilled in January, 1901, suddenly burst forth as a giant gusher, send ing a solid stream of oil high above the derrick and yielding at the rate of 70,000 barrels a day. Such production had never before been heard of in this country. The news of the great Beaumont spouter brought consternation to the hearts of oil men in every important field. They could hardly realize the magnitude of a well capable of pro ducing nearly half as much as the previous yield for the whole country. Only three such wells would more than double the former production ! Small wonder it is that the news of the inferior quality of the oil was hailed with delight by oil men all over the world.
But the quality of the oil did not in any way lessen the mad rush to secure territory in the vicinity, any more than it had in Ohio fifteen years before. Land sold at the rate of $100,000 an acre, and many experienced operators, failing to secure plots on any favorable terms, deserted the field entirely. Their places, however, were more than filled by the swarm of speculators and promoters who would agree to any terms, no mat ter how exorbitant, in order to get a lease. An enormous crop of stock companies was started immediately, and for a few months investments and actual drilling operations were made in an ab surdly reckless manner. The belief that the oil territory extended for many miles in every direc tion was speedily and effectively shattered. Nu merous other gushers, some approaching 100,000 barrels a day at first, were struck, it is true, but it soon became clear that the productive area was wholly confined to about 300 acres covered by the Spindle Top mound. Outside of those narrow limits drilling was of no avail. Nowhere since the
days of Pithole City had there been such a wild rage of oil excitement. Never before had so much utterly worthless stock been unloaded on a guile less public, despite the bitter lessons of half a dozen previous bubbles. No other collapse was quite so sudden and complete.
The Beaumont gusher, however, was the fore runner of developments which temporarily placed Texas among the leading oil-producing districts in the world. Spindle Top alone yielded to the few lucky ones over 30,000,000 barrels in the first four years of its meteoric career, while other pools quickly appeared with yields more than sufficient to counteract its failing supply. Sour Lake, Bat son, Saratoga, Humble, all repeated on a smaller scale the history of Spindle Top, with gusher after gusher helping to swell the total for the State until, in 1905, it reached its climax with over 28,000,000 barrels.
This unprecedented rise of California and Texas greatly changed the aspect of the industry. Up to 1901, the Appalachian and the Lima-Indiana fields had been the main source of supply. In spite of the gradual decline in all the older areas, these two fields were still yielding more than three fourths of the total for the country, which had never risen much above 60,000,000 barrels a year. Practically all of it was high-grade oil for both illuminating and lubricating purposes. Beginning with 1901, however, the enormous supplies of the lower-grade fuel oil from California and Texas pushed the total production steadily upward, more than doubling the output in five years.
Indiana was the next scene of great excitement over gushers struck in deep sand in 1904. Fabu lous prices were paid for land, dividends of fifty per cent a month were declared, and the state rose with a single bound to an important position in the production of high-grade oil. Kansas followed the same example with extensive operations begun in 1903 and extending into the following years, when scores of wells were often completed daily. The productive territory was proved to extend over several thousand square miles in Kansas and what was then Indian Territory—the largest pro ductive area in the United States, and perhaps in the world. Two years later the yield from this district ranked second only to the California fields, and in 1907 it broke every existing record with an output of over 45,000,000 barrels, or more than the whole country ever produced in a single year until 1890. This enormous yield was entirely beyond all expectations, and it became a serious problem to take care of the oil, a difficulty that was solved only by the erection of hundreds of storage tanks to hold the surplus stock.