The Wortham Oil Boom

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it — the story of the Wortham Oil Boom, right out of Freestone County. Now, you want to talk about a town that almost missed the whole thing? Let's talk about Wortham.

Back in 1912, a man named C. L. Witherspoon drilled a well here.

The city was hoping for water. What they got was gas. And Wortham said — no thank you.

Rejected it outright. Walked away from what the ground was offering and didn't look back. For a while, that decision seemed just fine.

But the earth has a long memory. Through 1919 into 1923, oil and gas wells were bringing prosperity to the neighbors north and south of Wortham — towns sitting right on the edges of something big — and that got people thinking. Petroleum exploration finally began here.

Then came November 27, 1924. That's the date you want to remember. A well called Roy Simmons No. 1, sitting about a mile south of town, came in as a gusher.

That was the discovery well for the Wortham Field, and when it blew, the whole calculation changed. Within three weeks — three weeks — over three hundred drilling rigs were in the field. Three hundred.

The ground that Wortham once turned down was now covered wall to wall with rigs and ambition and men who smelled money in the air. And the numbers that followed? They are almost too large to say out loud.

In January of 1925 alone, the Wortham Field produced three million, five hundred nine thousand, seven hundred sixty-eight barrels of oil. One month. By the end of that year, the total had climbed to sixteen million, eight hundred thirty-eight thousand, one hundred fifty barrels.

But here's where the wry twist lives in this story. All that hunger, all those rigs crowding the field — it was wasteful drilling that did the boom in. By September of 1927, the yield had slowed to three thousand barrels a day, and just like that, the boom was concluded.

The ground had been generous. Wortham had almost missed it entirely back in 1912 when it said no to gas instead of yes to possibility. And when the boom finally ran its course, it left behind numbers so staggering they still don't quite fit inside an ordinary sentence.

That's how fast a gusher can write a town's whole story — and how fast wasteful hands can close the book.

What the marker says

The city of Wortham rejected a well drilled by C. L. Witherspoon in 1912 when it produced gas, not water. However, oil and gas wells in 1919-23 gave prosperity to neighbors north and south, and petroleum exploration began here. Discovery well for the Wortham Field, Roy Simmons No. 1 (1 mi. S), came in as a gusher on Nov. 27, 1924. Within three weeks over 300 drilling rigs were in the field. 3,509,768 barrels of oil were produced in Jan. 1925; total for the year was 16,838,150 barrels. Wasteful drilling slowed yield to 3,000 barrels a day by Sept. 1927, and the boom was concluded.