When Oil Went Offshore: Goose Creek, 1916

Before the refinery skyline, there were wells pushed out over the water at Goose Creek. Oil was first struck there in 1908; the wells out over Galveston Bay came in 1916.

"In 1916 the Goose Creek oilfield became famous as the first offshore drilling operation in Texas." That sentence from the Handbook of Texas ties one year to one place on Galveston Bay. The Handbook also describes it as the second offshore operation in the nation.

The field sits at the root of Baytown's story.

The short version

• The Handbook of Texas says the 1916 Goose Creek development was the first offshore drilling in Texas and the second in the nation.
• Oil was struck at 1,600 feet on June 2, 1908, in the marsh along Galveston Bay.
• A gusher on Aug. 23, 1916 came in at 2,017 feet and produced roughly 8,000 barrels a day.
• Peak annual output was 8,923,635 barrels in 1918, from wells onshore and out over the bay.
• Over its working life the field produced roughly 140.6 million barrels.

The first strike

The Goose Creek Production Company struck oil at 1,600 feet on June 2, 1908. The well sat in the marsh along Galveston Bay. That strike opened the Goose Creek field.

1916: wells over the water

The Handbook describes first offshore drilling in Texas as taking place along Goose Creek in southeast Harris County on Galveston Bay, opening a new chapter in the state's oil industry.

The same year brought a gusher. On Aug. 23, 1916, a well struck oil at 2,017 feet and produced roughly 8,000 barrels a day. That cemented the field as one of the earliest oil giants in Texas.

A famous well and a peak year

On Aug. 4, 1917, the well nicknamed "Sweet 16" came in. It was Simms-Sinclair's well, and it gushed an estimated 35,000 barrels a day from 3,050 feet.

Output peaked a year later. In 1918 the field reached 8,923,635 barrels, pumped from wells both onshore and out over the bay.

The 1918 peak of 8,923,635 barrels was about 6% of the field's roughly 140.6 million barrels over its working life.

A date that sources dispute

Sources do not all agree on the field's dates. The Handbook of Texas says the field became famous in 1916 as the first offshore operation. The Texas Historical Commission's City of Baytown marker gives a different date for the Goose Creek oilfield: 1903. We attribute the 1916 offshore claim to the Handbook, as the claim is its own.

What the oil built

The field helped make the people and companies that shaped Baytown. Ross Sterling, a Humble Oil co-founder, built his fortune in the Goose Creek oil fields and was inaugurated as Texas governor on Jan. 20, 1931.

The town of Goose Creek voted to incorporate on Jan. 28, 1919. Humble's partners bought about 2,200 acres near the field in 1919 for a refinery. The first oil went into a still at the new refinery on May 11, 1920.

Ross Sterling first invested in oil in 1909. Two years later he formed Humble Oil Company with five partners, including Walter Fondren and Robert Lee Blaffer. Before that, in 1903, he opened a feed store at Sour Lake. In 1917 the company received its state charter as Humble Oil & Refining Company, with Sterling as its first president.

Sterling's political story had a turn. He lost his 1932 reelection bid for Texas governor to Miriam A. Ferguson, then rebuilt his fortune with Sterling Oil and Refining Company.

The cost to the ground

Pumping had a cost. Land subsidence near Baytown became a serious problem after the 1920s, when industrial-scale groundwater pumping joined the earlier, more local drawdown from the Goose Creek oilfield. Subsidence hit Goose Creek early, and later swamped the Brownwood neighborhood.

What this means for you

Baytown's name is tied to a refinery, but its oldest story is a marsh well and a field out over the water. The Handbook's 1916 date is for the offshore operation, not for the first oil strike, which came in 1908. When you read a "first" claim in local history, ask who says so. Here, the answer is the Handbook of Texas.

Sources

• Handbook of Texas: Baytown, TX (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/baytown-tx)
• Handbook of Texas: Goose Creek Oilfield (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goose-creek-oilfield)
• Handbook of Texas: Sterling, Ross Shaw (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sterling-ross-shaw)
• Handbook of Texas: Goose Creek, TX (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goose-creek-tx)
• Texas Historical Commission: Atlas, City of Baytown marker (https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5507018941)
• U.S. Geological Survey: Land subsidence report (https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/wri7421)
• Houston History Magazine: Brownwood (https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Brownwood.pdf)
• Texas Historical Commission: https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5201010703
• Historical Marker Database: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=64396