McMullen County Research Articles

Activities in South Texas, 1937-1938

There were 46 new producing areas opened in South Texas during 1937, and 68 new productive horizons in old producing fields were encountered. The Frio and Jackson formations and most of the newer sands found in old producing areas accounted for most of the discoveries. Important fields discovered during 1937 are North Sweden in east-central Duval County; Ezzell in northeastern McMullen County; Killam-Oilton in Webb County; South Burnell in Bee County; Luby in Nueces County; and East Premont in Jim Wells County. There is a definite trend toward deeper drilling in the South Texas district, nearly half of the discoveries of this year being below 5,000 feet. The Frio section is becoming increasingly important as an objective in wildcatting.

I.—Notes on the Semi-Arid Conditions in a Part of Southern Texas

Introduction.—The conditions described below were observed over a large part of South-West Texas; but the local details apply to an area of one or two hundred square miles in McMullen County, geologically surveyed by the writer in 1912. The centre of observations was a little mining ranch named Crowther, about 50 miles south of San Antonio and 80 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, near the inland limit of the Gulf coastal plain. The country for many miles around Crowther is practically untouched by man, though a somewhat primitive little local railroad now under reconstruction reaches to within 16 miles of it.