Orangefield

Orangefield's boom was counted in wells. The Orange Leader says Orange's field had 29 producing wells in November 1921, the most on the Gulf Coast, and 33 by the end of that month. By May 1922 about 200 rigs were working, 70 of them producing 20,000 barrels a day, on a field about 1.5 miles long and 1.25 miles wide. When Humble's Wonder Well on the Chesson farm came in, the paper says, some 10,000 speculators and roughnecks arrived, and the mayor of Orange sent 50 deputies against lawlessness and violence.

What the plaque says

Orangefield THIS COMMUNITY HAS ITS ORIGINS IN THE FIRST WELL DRILLED IN THE ORANGE OIL FIELD. A SHALLOW WELL DRILLED IN 1903 YIELDED NO OIL. AFTER SUCCESSFUL DEEPER DRILLING ON OTHER SALT DOMES, RIO BRAVO OIL CO., A SUBSIDIARY OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD, DRILLED THE NO. 1 BLAND WELL IN 1913. THIS "WONDER WELL" PRODUCED 150 BARRELS PER DAY FROM 3,209 TO 3,227 FEET, THEN THE DEEPEST WELL IN TEXAS. IN 1921, HUMBLE OIL'S CHESSON NO. 5, ON A HILL ON THE WEST SIDE OF COW BAYOU NEAR THE OLD BRIDGE, PRODUCED 15,000 BARRELS DAILY. ITS SUCCESS SPURRED WILDCATTING AND LED TO DISCOVERY OF THE ORANGE OIL FIELD. TO OVERCOME MARSHLAND AND COW BAYOU FLOODING, ORANGE COUNTY BUILT A SIX-MILE PLANK ROAD TO ACCOMMODATE HEAVY OIL COMPANY EQUIPMENT. EIGHT BUSES HAULED WORKERS TO ORANGE FIELD, WHICH WITH ORANGE EXPERIENCED A POPULATION BOOM. BUSINESSES SPRANG UP, INCLUDING STORES, HOTELS, ROOMING HOUSES, CAFES AND TWO THEATERS. JAPANESE NATIVE KICHIMATSU KISHI ESTABLISHED AN AGRICULTURAL COLONY NEAR THE OIL FIELD. JAPANESE INVESTORS ALSO HEADED THE ORANGE PETROLEUM COMPANY, WHICH RECORDED THE WORLD'S DEEPEST ROTARY-DRILLED WELL AT 5,589 FEET IN 1922. THE ORANGEFIELD POST OFFICE OPENED IN 1922. A JULY 1923 FIRE SPREAD THROUGH THE BUSINESS DISTRICT, CAUSING AN ESTIMATED $75,000 IN DAMAGES. THIS MAY HAVE MARKED THE TURNING POINT IN THE TOWN'S PROSPERITY. BY 1925, MOST OF THE DRILLING CREWS WERE GONE, AND ONLY ONE SECTION CREW REMAINED IN 1927. A 1926 TORNADO AND 1927 FIRE WHICH RAZED THE SCHOOLHOUSE WERE ADDITIONAL SETBACKS. DEMAND FOR OIL AND GAS AFTER WORLD WAR II LED TO A SURGE IN DRILLING ACTIVITY. IN 1963 THE U.S. CONGRESS AGREED TO CHANNEL THE FIRST 7.7 MILES OF COW BAYOU TO SOLVE FLOODING PROBLEMS. HURRICANES AUDREY (1957), RITA (2005) AND IKE (2008) DESTROYED OIL DERRICKS ALONG COW BAYOU. TODAY THE COMMUNITY IS CENTERED AROUND THE ORANGEFIELD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, CHURCHES, BUSINESSES AND HOMES. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 6.8 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Stark Museum of Art — 7.5 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 13 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 15 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Winfree Baptist Church — 2.4 mi
• Peyton Bland — 3.8 mi
• Site of World War II P. O. W. Camp — 4.3 mi
• Site of The Kishi Colony — 4.6 mi