Accidental Bonanza - Navarro County Northbound Safety Rest Area - Richland, TX
N 31° 54.740 W 096° 23.640
14R E 746422 N 3533681
The Navarro County Safety Rest Area on northbound I-45 has a sign to provide some history of how an inconvenient oil strike while drilling for water changed industry in the state of Texas ... forever.
Waymark Code: WM144M5
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/13/2021
Views: 0
They're called "Safety Rest Areas" because there are storm shelters to be found, a change from the classical rest stops along the Interstates. They're a little more than just facilities with picnic areas and vending machines, in that there are signs and exhibits for notable attractions in the county that sponsored the rest area. This sign is with several others that are at the back of the exhibit area, reached by going through the main entrance and veering off to the left. It reads:
During the agricultural depression that struck Navarro County cotton production in the 1890s, Corsicana businessmen and civic leaders decided to diversity the county's economic base by luring industry to the area. But there was a problem. Industry required water, and the town's water supply was woefully inadequate. They contracted a drilling company to drill three water wells for the city. When the first well reached a depth of slightly over 1,000 feet, something both terrible and wonderful happened. They struck oil. At first it was such a great disappointment that the city refused to pay the driller more than half of his $1000 fee. But, upon reflection, the civic leaders began to realize the enormity of what they had found. Soon local interests and a Pennsylvania oilman organized the Corsicana Oil Development Company. The Bonanza was underway. By 1900, so many wells had been drilled that the field covered an area of twelve to fifteen square miles around Corsicana. By the end of the year, these wells brought 839,554 barrels of oil to the surface. And so the site of that failed Corsicana water well is now recognized as the birthplace of the Texas petroleum industry and the Corsicana field proved to be the first oilfield with a substantial economic impact on the State. What is most amazing of all is that the field is still producing after more than one-hundred years.
Inset photos show:
"Christmas Tree" Corsicana discovery well 1894.
"Powell Oil Field", a bit northeast of Corsicana.
Oil field photo, captioned "By 1898 there were 287 producing wells in Corsicana."