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The East Texas Basin, a rather large Jurassic-Aged basin containing a number of hydrocarbon-bearing formations stretched across the northern part of East Texas and West Louisiana, has been making fortunes for mineral-rights owners, drillers, landmen and entrepreneurs since oil was first struck by Columbus Marion (Dad) Joiner (and his rather creatively-financed syndicate) on September 5, 1930 in Rusk County, Texas.

Image Source: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/starr/ur_haynesville.php

The initial focus of operations was the Woodbine  – a late-cretaceous formation which had abundant pressure and reserves across a five-county chunk of Northeast Texas to create plenty of gushers along the way and has produced 5.42 billion barrels of oil to date.

A few very interesting asides about those early operations:

• The price of oil collapsed from 99 cents a barrel to 46 cents with the first year of operations. The drillers responded by producing more.
• During World War 2 the “Big Inch” pipeline delivered East Texas crude to Pennsylvania through its 24” diameter pipe.
• In 1960, some drillers working for Shell oil noticed fresh drilling mud coming up from their operations, and uncovered what ultimately turned out to be 380 “View Full Article