Linne Oil Field

Oil was found in Wilson County about a century before the Linne field, by a local account. Around 1853 or 1854, men digging a water well on Dr. Gray Jones Houston's homestead, some three miles west of the Polley plantation, met a foul-smelling black seep. Houston had the hole covered. His friend Samuel A. Maverick later carried a sample to Titusville, Pennsylvania, and reported that it matched the oil found there. Drilling did not follow, and the county waited until the 1953 Mueller well and the April 1, 1955, Linne strike.

What the plaque says

Linne Oil Field The oil discovery in this field in 1955 was the most extensive and significant in the area. It was preceded, however, by several earlier strikes. Maple C. Hughes, a wealthy rice farmer from Louisiana, drilled the Austin Chalk formation on property owned by Fritz Mueller, striking oil in 1953. At the time, it was the largest oil find in the area, and soon speculators and oil drilling companies came to Wilson County in search of quick wealth. On the heels of the Mueller discovery, the L.H.&S.A. Olson Drilling Co. of Midland leased acreage from merchant Oscar W. Linne that had been part of the Old Polley Plantation. The company found oil on April 1, 1955, on what would be named Linne Poth A Sand Field. The discovery dwarfed other finds in the area. By the next year, the company completed over 30 wells in the field that yielded high quality oil. The Linne oil discovery had a profoud impact on the economy of Wilson County. Although dating later than most major oil finds in Texas, this one still led to a similar economic boom for the discovery area. The county's population grew as businessmen flooded in and discovered additional fields. More importantly, the impact was long-lasting. From 1967 to 1968, Linne Field produced another 25 wells as the oil industry continued to grow. Additionally, O.W. Linne Well No. 1 was still producing over 50 years after its initial founding, and the field has supplied millions of barrels of oil over the years, continuing to be an important source of tax revenue for Wilson County. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 24 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• Mission San Juan — 24 mi
  The mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 26 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Concepción — 27 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.

More markers nearby

• Pat Higgins Grass Farms — 2.6 mi
• Sutherland Springs School Site — 3.4 mi
• Sutherland Springs — 3.4 mi
• First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs — 3.5 mi