Gilcrease Oil Company, East Texas "Early Days" video

This collection consists of one video from which were made two DVDs, one of which is marked as the master copy while the second is for public viewing. The video appears to be a copy of a film showing oil-drilling related activities of the Gilcrease Oil Company in East Texas centering on the East Texas Oil Field near the Texas towns of Longview and Gladewater. The video, which is silent with English and French titles, shows drilling rigs, derrick construction, oil gushers, burning oil, flaring gas, and transportation in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

The video is a reproduction of a film possibly made in the late 1920s or early 1930s during the oil boom associated with the East Texas Oil Field. The origin and the purpose of the film is unknown, but, because the titles are in French and English it may have been produced for Gilcrease Oil as a marketing tool to attract European investors.

The image quality is poor, but suitable for viewing. The content of the video is divided into 23 segments with the beginning of each segment marked by titles in white lettering on black backgrounds. The titles are in English and French. Four oil and gas leases are depicted: Christian, Fenton, Tooke, and Cowder, all of which appear to have been owned or operated by Gilcrease Oil, because of Gilcrease signage in the video.

The video shows early gas traps, gushers, flowing oil, burning oil and burning natural gas. Early means of transportation are also depicted, including trucks slogging through axle deep mud on East Texas roads and mule-drawn and horse-drawn wagons hauling pipe or road-building materials. Drilling operations are shown including the process of building derricks, removing drilling equipment, pulling pipe, and an on-site refinery and casing head gasoline plant.

The video shows views of two booming East Texas towns complete with traffic jams. The towns depicted are Longview, located 125 miles east of Dallas, and Gladewater, 13 miles west of Longview. Both towns are associated with the East Texas Oil Field. “The East Texas oilfield, located in central Gregg, western Rusk, southern Upshur, southeastern Smith, and northeastern Cherokee counties in the east central part of the state, is the largest and most prolific oil reservoir in the contiguous United States. Since its discovery on October 5, 1930, some 30,340 wells have been drilled within its 140,000 acres to yield nearly 5.2 billion barrels of oil from a stratigraphic trap in the Eagle Ford-Woodbine group of the Cretaceous.” Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "EAST TEXAS OILFIELD," http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/EE/doe1.html (accessed January 6, 2005).