DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, most folks know the name Spindletop — that first great oil gusher that roared in and changed everything. But here's what doesn't always get its due: the story of what happened next.
Because oil in the ground is one thing. Oil moving through the world — that's a whole different kind of revolution. And it happened fast.
Two months after Spindletop roared in, traffic in oil tankers and barges in Texas mushroomed. Two months. That's not gradual change.
That's the world rearranging itself before the dust settles. On March 11, 1901, a boat called The Atlas left Sabine Pass carrying about three thousand barrels of crude oil — the first vessel ever to transport the Spindletop product. Think about that moment.
One boat, three thousand barrels, heading out into open water with something most people hadn't yet decided they even wanted. Then, around April or May of 1901, Port Arthur exported one of the earliest large shipments of oil — the Atlas again, joined this time by two other vessels. That cargo was bound for the refineries of the Standard Oil Company of Philadelphia, to be tested for what they called illuminating purposes.
And here's where you have to appreciate just how uncertain the whole thing felt at the time. Many persons scoffed — outright scoffed — at the idea of using oil as a fuel. Not a handful of skeptics.
Many persons. The world wasn't convinced yet. Texas commerce, the marker tells us, had long been based on cattle and cotton.
That was the foundation, the language of the economy. But one year after Spindletop, that foundation had been vastly changed by petroleum. More than half of all ships entering Sabine Pass and Port Arthur were connected with the oil industry.
More than half. By April of 1902, shipments had already exceeded the one million seven hundred fifty thousand barrels that had been exported in all of 1901. And those steamers that once burned other fuels?
By 1902, they were burning Texas oil. The Guffey Petroleum Company had begun building what would become Texas' first tanker fleet — five ships. The scoffers had gone quiet.
The Atlas had already sailed. And what started with one boat and three thousand barrels out of Sabine Pass would eventually anchor an economy measured, by the time this marker was written, at more than three billion dollars yearly in crude oil alone. That's the thing about a gusher.
The oil comes up all at once — but the story keeps flowing.
What the marker says
Part of the huge transportation complex that moves petroleum to world markets. Traffic in oil tankers and barges in Texas mushroomed two months after the state's first oil gusher, "Spindletop," roared in. On March 11, 1901, the first boat to transport the Spindletop product, "The Atlas," left Sabine Pass with about 3,000 barrels of crude oil. Port Arthur exported one of the earliest large shipments of oil about April or May, 1901, on the "Atlas" and two other vessels. The cargo was bound for the refineries of Standard Oil company of Philadelphia to be tested for "illuminating" purposes. Many persons then scoffed at the idea of using oil as a fuel. One year after Spindletop, Texas commerce, formerly based on "cattle and cotton," had been vastly changed by petroleum. More than half of all ships entering Sabine Pass and Port Arthur were connected with the oil industry. By April of 1902, shipments had already exceeded the 1,750,000 barrels exported in 1901. By 1902, steamers were burning Texas oil as fuel and the Guffey Petroleum Company had begun to build Texas' first tanker fleet-- five ships. Today the value to Texas' economy of crude oil alone totals more than three billion dollars yearly. (1968) Early travel, transportation, and communication series erected by the Moody Foundation.