578 F. G. CLAPP CLASSIFICATION OF PETROLEUM AND GAS FIELDS 



"The success of this well demonstrated the possibility of attaining economic 

 results by drilling for oil, gas, and sulphur on the domes of the coastal plain. 

 This theory held good throughout the hundreds of wells drilled around Spindle 

 Top in the effort to extend the area laterally, without results, however, for it 

 was subsequently proved that if the original well had been located only sixty- 

 five feet further to the northwest there would not have been a discovery well. 



"There are scattered throughout the Texas Coastal Plain many well known 

 domes which have been prospected directly or indirectly by the writer, the 

 most important of which are known as Saratoga, Sour Lake, Big Hill, High 

 Island, Damon Mound, Kaiser Mound, Barber Hill, Hoskins Mound, and Bryan 

 Height. In the last named mound the writer found in 1901 hydrogen sulphide 

 under heavy pressure and also native sulphur, which is now being heavily 

 exploited by a New York syndicate, which hopes to make this equal to the 

 sulphur mines of Louisiana. Whether or not this mound is also a salt dome 

 remains to be proved by deeper drilling." 



Spindletop is the best known of the saline dome type of pools. This 

 dome rises only 12 feet above the snrroiinding prairie and the surface is 

 only about 235 acres in extent. Although prospecting had been done in 

 1882, 1885, and 1888, the drillers were prevented by alternating beds of 

 quicksand and gravel from going deeper than 300 feet. Lucas made the 

 final effort and reached the oil rock at 1,120 feet, the pressure being so 

 great that the 4-inch drill pipe was shot from the well, after which there 

 was a great rush of muddied water, followed by large fragments of dolo- 

 mite and fossils. The well then settled to a steady flow of oil, which rose 

 to a height of about 200 feet through a 6-inch pipe, and flowed continu- 

 ously for ten days, being estimated to have flowed about 750 barrels in 

 that time. The oil was very offensive in odor, saturated with hydrogen 

 sulphide and sulphur dioxide, so that all houses within a radius of several 

 miles which were painted with white lead, as well as all silver coins, 

 spoons, and other silver in them, were blackened. 



This type of quaquaversal structure was described by Hayes and Ken- 

 nedy in 1903*^ and more fully by Fenneman in 1906.*^ The saline domes 

 of Louisiana were described by Harris in 1908,^° 1909," and 1910. ^^ 

 The structure is typical of most of the fields in Louisiana and Texas ; in 

 fact of most fields in the Ignited States situated within 100 miles of the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The Caddo field, Mexia field, the north Texas fields, 

 and some of the southwest Texas fields are not included in this type. 



*8 C. W. Hayes and William Kennedy : Oil fields of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coastal 

 Plain. Bull. 212, U. S. Geol. Survey. 



*» N. M. Fenneman : Oil fields of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coastal Plain. Bull. 282, 

 U. S. Geol. Survey. 



50 G. D. Harris : Rock-salt. Bull. No. 7, Rept. of 1907, Geol. Survey of La., 1908. 



" Geological occurrence of rock-salt in Louisiana and East Texas. Econ. Geol., vol. 

 4, no. 1, 1909, pp. 12-34, 8 figs. 



^ Oil and gas in Louisiana. Bull. 429, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1910. 



