The Big Rich

Summer is the time for excessive reading for me, and the current captivator has been "The Big Rich" by Bryan Burrrough. I didn't count the pages (I am always surprised when my friends ask how many). Trust me....it is a big book, but so is the material inside. I received it as a gift for my birthday, and I had completed it in 6 days (I don't watch much television). It is the story of the early discoveries of the huge oil reserves from the 1920's forward and those men and their families who participated in this unique part of history.

Since I am a native Texan, I knew the names of these men and even some of their shenanigans, but never in the detail that this author shares. And since Bill worked for a bank in Dallas, he had some indirect contacts with a couple of these men....H. L. Hunt(in the same office building) and Clint Murchison, Jr. (Overdue payments and their collection comes to mind!)

The amounts of money acquired in the oil industry of Texas is mind-boggling. One has to admit, though, that it required tremendous courage to believe that the oil was there and that they could find it and bring it out. All this had a great influence on the Texas mindset. For instance, my dad, Walter Mackoy, owned 75 acres of land in Grayson County. He would walk around that property and come to a rocky place, which was seemingly useless, and he would say, "I think there is oil under there".* Also, there was an occasional lease for rights to drill which he welcomed. He had heard about the drilling successes; he and his friends talked about them frequently. This kind of thing became just a natural part of Texas thinking.

Ironically, there was a discovery of shallow oil rserves on Dad's property in 1952, and the ultimate result was 5 producing wells. It is nice to believe that he dreamed, and it came true, although not to the level of Spindletop!

Is this story just an obsolete part of Texas history with no impact on today, and especially since Margaret and I don't own dad's farm anymore? The mineral rights? They're not for sale!!



*Mr Burrough described a scene or two in his book when "where to drill" decisions were made just that casually.