Published: May 16, 2009 07:26 pm      

The Second Navarro County Oil Boom

Jane Dunn Taylor wrote an excellent account of the oil industry in Navarro County, providing excellent insights into the economic and social impact the industry had not only in this area but in Texas and the United States. The first commercial oil field in Texas was developed when oil was accidentally discovered with the city limits of Corsicana only blocks from the business district in 1894. By the end of the decade there were 500 wells within the city, producing 800,000 barrels of oil per year.

The real boom for Navarro County came in 1923 with the development of the Powell field. Located 10 miles east of Corsicana, the community of Powell was organized in the 1880s with the extension of the Cotton Belt Railroad, and named for a pioneer settler in the area. Powell was a typical cotton-based town until an operation called the Corsicana Deep Well Company announced plans to drill for oil in the Powell area. Spurred by discoveries in Mexia and Wortham, company geologists were convinced that significant oil deposits lay in eastern Navarro County as well.

An announcement in the June 9, 1919, issue of the Corsicana Daily Sun invited the public to a site near Powell on June 11 to watch the “spuddingin” of the first deep well to be drilled in Navarro County. After six months of drilling the well was abandoned as a dry hole. The second attempt was also a failure. Persistence finally paid off when on January 7, 1923, more than three years after the original well failed, a gusher came in. The boom was on! Oil men from all over the country converged on Navarro County as word of the discovery spread, and they would not be disappointed.

By July 14, 17 gushers had been drilled. Seven came in on a single day — August 1. The Powell field was producing more oil than all the fields in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, and Kansas combined. It was one of the most remarkable fields in the history of the oil business.

Despite all the euphoria that accompanied the boom, there was also tragedy. Drillers hit a gusher on May 9, 1923. The following day, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a new crew reported to work to begin their shift. While changing a control valve on the new well, a spark ignited the derrick floor, turning the area around the well into an inferno. Two crewmen stumbled out of the flames, alive but seriously burned. Both died later that evening. The final death toll was 13. Fueled by a steady flow of oil and gas, the fire burned for 11 days, lifting heavy clouds of smoke into the air. There were other fires in the field, but none as disastrous as this one.

With no controls on production, drillers literally pumped the field dry, and by the late 1920s the boom had ended. The drillers, roustabouts, roughnecks, and other “oilies” moved on to work in the East Texas field that was discovered in 1930. But the Powell boom brought significant economic and social changes to Navarro County.

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Dr. Tommy Stringer is executive director of the Navarro College Foundation. He may be reached by e-mail at tommy.stringer@navarrocollege.edu. Want to “Soundoff” on this column? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com