Oil and Texas: A Cultural History"Soon the 4-inch drill pipe... shot skyward. After the mud, water, and pipe were ejected, gas followed, but only for a short time. Then the well was very quiet. We ventured back, after our wild dash for safety, to find things in a terrible mess... We began shoveling. away the mud, when, without warning, a sack of heavy mud shot out of the well with the sound of a cannon... In a very short time the oil rose through the top of the derricks and the rocks were thrown hundreds into the air. of feet. Within a matter of minutes, oil held a steady flow at more than double the height of the derrick…”—AW Hamill (one of the Spindletop drillers) Houston Daily PostTexas tea, black gold, crude oil, dinosaur wine, petroleum, motor lotion, motor spirits, these are just a few of the slang terms for that precious resource known as petroleum. If you were to ask a random person what three things come to mind when the word Texas is said, common answers include cowboys, tumbleweeds, cattle, the Alamo, and oil. Texas is the leading producer of crude oil in the United States and of the state's 254 counties, only 22 have never produced oil or gas and approximately 200 of 254 still produce oil today ("State Energy Profiles: Texas" and "Working in Texas ”). At a time when there is great demand for oil and prices are higher than ever, the United States must look to alternative energy options and implement ways to conserve the oil that the nation has left for 110 years ago, oil rose 150 feet into the sky at Spindletop Hill in southeast Texas, and the state was catapulted into the age of oil and industry. Before that, Texas was primarily an agricultural state which produced a small amount of oil but not all of it. .... center of paper .......Smith, Julia C. "East Texas Oilfield Handbook of the Texas State Historical Association, April 14, 2009. Web. April 1, 2011. the birth of the modern oil industry." Petroleum Education: The History of Oil. The Paleontological Research Institution, 2010. Web. April 02, 2011. “State Energy Profiles: Texas.” US Energy Information Administration. U.S. Department of Energy, March 24, 2011. Web. April 1, 2011.Weisman, Alan. The world without us. New York: Macmillan, 2008. Print.Williams, James L. “Crude Oil Futures Prices – NYMEX.” WTRG Economy. 01 April 2011. Web. 02 April 2011. .Wooster, Robert; Christine Moore Sanders. “Spindletop Oil Field.” Texas Handbook Online. Texas State Historical Association, October 18, 2009. Web. April 1, 2011"Working in Texas." TexasHistory.com. 2011. Network. 02 April. 2011.