Historical Marker
Anahuac Oil and Gas Field
Monroe City, Chambers County · Texas
Erected 1967
The plaque gives the field's engineering; the harder problem was selling the oil. In the mid-1930s Texas had far more crude than it could sell, and the wildcatter Glenn McCarthy struck oil near Anahuac with a well that could have flowed 3,000 barrels a day but was held to twenty. Even so, the Handbook of Texas says oil work and royalties carried Chambers County through the Depression with little hardship. Its population climbed from 5,710 in 1930 to 7,511 in 1940, and new fields followed at Lost Lake, Monroe City, Turtle Bay and near Hankamer.
What the plaque says
Anahuac Oil and Gas Field Although oil production of major value began in Chambers County in 1916, this prolific Anahuac field was discovered on March 3, 1935, with completion of Humble Oil & Refining Company's A. D. Middleton No. 1 (1.8 mi. SE). The camp which housed Humble crews who developed the field was adjacent to this site. The field encompasses some 14,000 acres of prime rice and grazing land and produces from 21 zones in a highly faulted domal structure. Producing depths range from 6,600 feet to 8,600 feet. Peak production was reached in world War II, when in 1944 annual total was 11,916,137 barrels. discovery well had an original potential of 144 barrels a day from depth of 7,050 feet. It was deepened to 7,088 feet and recompleted March 14, 1935, with a new potential of 518 barrels. Through 1966, A. D. Middleton No. 1 has produced in excess of 390,000 barrels of oil. Over 177 million barrels of oil and 268 billion cubic feet of gas have been produced from the field. (In Chambers County, a pioneer oil producing area, over 475 million barrels of oil have been produced since 1916.) At present, there are 408 wells in the Anahuac field, and it is expected that production will continue into the 21st century. Incise in Base: Erected by Chambers County Historical Survey Committee, Guy C. Jackson III, Chairman (1967)
Where it stands
29.78869, -94.58720 · Directions