Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Black Gold
As early as 1866, oil wells were striking in east Texas. At the time, oil was being put to a
number of uses, including the sealing of dirt roads. But speculators bet that oil, found in
sufficient supply, could replace coal as an energy mainstay.
Everything changed on January 10, 1901, when a drilling site at Spindletop, east of Hou-
ston in Beaumont, pierced a salt dome, setting forth a gusher of oil so powerful that it took
days to bring it under control. Spindletop began producing an estimated 80,000 barrels of
oil per day. As automobiles and railroads turned to the oil industry for fuel, discoveries of
'black gold' financed the construction of much of modern Texas.
San Antonio's early-20th-century growth was also due to the military; Fort Sam Houston
was joined by Kelly Air Force Base, now the nation's oldest air force base, in 1917, fol-
lowed by Lackland, Randolph and Brooks Air Force Bases.
RECONCILIATION BARBECUE
On the eve of WWI the central Texas town of Brenham was heavily German; kids of different heritages all studied
German in school. Then the Ku Klux Klan rode into town, tarring and feathering those of German descent, beating
up prominent town businesspeople, and torching the German newspaper print shop. People began avoiding the
mean streets of Brenham, and businesses withered.
The city decided to solve the problem Texas-style: by throwing a giant barbecue to which they would invite all
sides. On the day of the festivities, October 29, 1923, more than 10,000 people - German speakers, African Amer-
icans, Czechs, Mexicans, you name it - gathered at the firefighters' park to eat smoked meat cooked over giant
pits, plus German potato salad and peach cobbler with Brenham Creameries' (later Blue Bell) ice cream. The Ger-
man community agreed to stop publicly speaking or teaching in their native tongue in exchange for an antiviolence
truce. Soon after that the KKK - at least in Brenham - disbanded.
