Oil History in Wharton County

Drilling for oil began in 1904 southwest of El Campo, but the first productive oil well was drilled east of the Colorado near Iago in the Boling Field in 1925. Subsequent oil and gas fields include Withers-Magnet, Spanish Camp, West Bernard, New Taiton, Lissie, and numerous others. Between 1925 and 1973 over 230 million barrels of crude oil were produced in the county, with a peak year in 1947 reaching 8,341,000 barrels. Several natural gas transmission plants were built around 1944 near Nottawa and Hungerford, boosting pressure and sending natural gas north from the area fields.

From J. O. Graham, The Book of Wharton County, Texas (Wharton?: Philip Rich, 1926). Grace Cone Grantham, The Danes in Wharton County (M.A. thesis, Texas College of Arts and Industry, 1947). Ora E. Roades, History of Wharton County, Texas, in the World War (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1938). Annie Lee Williams, A History of Wharton County (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1964).