Public Engagement

The Railroad Commission at Conference in 1908.
Texas State Library. Archives Division. W.D. Hornaday Collection

Governor M. Ferguson signing the Hot Oil Bill, 1934.
Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Chalberg Photo Collection

Engineering Division of the Railroad Commission office.
Capitol Building in the early 1900s.
Texas State Library. Archives Division.

Site of Texas' first producing oil well. In the Big Thicket area near Nacogdoches, Lyne T. Barret used an auger to drill his way down in the earth 106 feet to a pool of oil.

The Pick and Shovel Crew digging a pipeline ditch
Courtesy of the Petroleum Museum

The Old Way and the New Way of the Galveston Causway.
Courtesy of the Barker History Center, UT Austin.

Downtown Kilgore, Texas. Within a little more than a year after the discovery well was drilled on October 6, 1930, an additional 3,400 had been drilled. The number kept rising as shown here, a sign on the 25,000th well.

The Texas Oil & Land Company's Santa Rita No. 1 discovery well on the university lands in Reagan County, Texas
Courtesy of the Petroleum Museum.

View of Alcoa mining pit
Courtesy of Alcoa

RRC Reports dating back to 1917