While eager prospectors searched for oil all
around the world, beneath the sea and in the mountains, high-living
Houston last week took a look under its garbage and found black gold.
An independent driller, Trice Production Co., brought in a rich well from 8,000 ft. below the city dump, and gave it an
appropriate label: “Houston City Dump No. 1.”Dump No. 1 is the latest strike in the old Pierce Junction salt dome,
where wells are pushing ever closer to Houston's city limits. For more
than three decades prospectors in Pierce Junction made occasional
strikes at conservative depths of 2,000 ft. to 5,000 ft. Then, in
1949, Wildcatter Glenn McCarthy dared to go deeper, brought in a well
from between 7,000 ft. and 8,000 ft. But McCarthy did not follow
through. Not until lesser-known Wildcatter E. C. Scurlock brought home
a deep payload late in 1954 did the Pierce Junction boom begin.In the past year it has become the biggest of all Gulf Coast oil booms.
Thirty-five companies have sunk 171 producing wells deep into the
treeless flat, now get around 24,000 bbls. daily from the field. Said
one Houston newsman: “The whole town is on the verge of being overrun
by derricks.” Oil rigs are creeping within 100 yds. of the residences
and businesses off Houston's primary north-south thoroughfare, South
Main Street. One derrick stands 75 yds. from the roller coaster at
Playland Park: another is within No. 7-iron distance of the
South Main Golf Center driving range. Two more wells have been drilled
in the path of a proposed $20 million freeway, which probably will be
rerouted. Worried Harris County officials have urged the Texas Railroad
Commission to deny future oil permits on freeway land.Musing about the fact that traces of oil have been found downtown when
water wells were drilled, some Texans crack about tearing down Houston
to get at the oil. Since the
downtown real estate is worth more than the oil potential, even Houston
is not likely to go that far. But the oil is worth a lot to the city of
Houston. The city holds a one-fourth interest in “City Dump No. 1,”
should reap $40,000 yearly from it. Trice already has begun drilling
“City Dump No. 2'' on the same profits deal with Houston. Geologists
figure that the 300-acre dump is good for at least 15 producing wells.
Such a sea under her garbage could enrich the city government by
$600,000 a year.
