Petroleum Industry Park

On June 9, 1894, drillers from the American Well and Prospecting Company were sinking a water well for the city of Corsicana. At 1,027 feet they hit oil. The Handbook of Texas calls the Corsicana field the first in Texas to produce oil and gas in important quantities. One account says the contractor was annoyed that the well could not be plugged, though it showed the city the site held oil.

Local men and a Pennsylvania oilman formed the Corsicana Oil Development Company in September 1894, and John H. Galey agreed to drill five wells for half the leases. The first commercial well came in on October 15, 1895. Mayor James E. Whitesell brought in Joseph S. Cullinan in 1897; his refinery fired its stills at the end of 1898 and made its first shipment on February 24, 1899. On March 29, 1899, Texas passed its first law regulating how oil and gas wells are drilled, cased and plugged. The field peaked in 1900 at 839,554 barrels, and Corsicana gas fuelled Texas users until 1909.

The park sits in the 400 block of South 12th Street. It has historical markers, a drilling tower and two pipes, one marking the water well that struck oil and one the first successful commercial well. The Corsicana Preservation Foundation put up the discovery marker. It is an outdoor site with no admission listed.