Black Diamonds! Black Gold!: The Saga of Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company - Hardcover

Woodard, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0896723798 ISBN 13: 9780896723795

Publisher: Texas Tech University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Texas, they say, is so rich you can pull money right out of the ground. It must be true, because in a West Texas town called Thurber, the Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Company. grew rich digging coal, drilling oil, and making bricks from the clay soil. The Texas Pacific Co., or TP, as it was known at the beginning, was born in 1888 just seventy-five miles west of Fort Worth and took its name from its only customer, Texas Pacific Railroad. Employing mostly immigrant workers in the coal mines, the company prospered, creating a town—eventually called Thurber—and adding a brick works in 1894. For several years Thurber rivaled Fort Worth as the largest population and cultural center of the region. The discovery of the famous Ranger oil field in 1917 by a TP employee began not only a whole new chapter in the development and expansion of the company, but also in the growth of Texas.Through photographs, newspaper articles, company archives, and oral recollections, Woodard gives the reader a glimpse of the life and times of the people and events that shaped the socioeconomic growth of the region. The latter part of the book offers a tantalizing glimpse of the post–World War II development of Fort Worth, including the political maneuverings of the last chairman of the company, H. B. Fuqua. Oil money, cattle barons, politicos—the history of Texas Pacific Coal and Oil is a story not only about a company, but also of the people whose dreams and actions moved a fortune from the dusty ground of the prairie into the new bustling frontier economy that created twentieth-century Texas.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In a West Texas town called Thurber the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company grew rich digging coal, drilling oil and making bricks from the clay soil. The Texas Pacific Company as it was known at its beginning, was born in 1888 just seventy-five miles west of Fort Worth. Employing mostly immigrant workers in the coal mines, the company prospered and created a town eventually called Thurber. The company added a brick works in 1894. For several years Thurber rivaled Fort Worth as the largest population and cultural center for the region. The discovery of the famous Ranger oil fields in 1917 by the company's general manager, W. K. Gordon, began not only a whole new chapter in the development and expansion of the company, but also in the growth of Texas. The company survived by both anticipating and adapting to the changing economy until its eventual sale in 1963. The latter part of the book offers an insider's look into the post-World War II development of Fort Worth, including the political maneuverings of the last chairman of the company, H. B. Fuqua. Through photographs, newspaper articles, company archives, and oral recollections, the reader catches a glimpse of the life and times of the people and events that shaped the socioeconomic growth of the region from its beginnings, through wars, the Depression, and post-war booms.

About this edition

• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0896723798
• ISBN 13: 9780896723795
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 322