{"nrhp_refnum":"77001462","name":"Corsicana Oil Field Discovery Well","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"400 block S. 12th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Corsicana","county":"Navarro County","state":"TX","lat":32.08930466500004,"lon":-96.46411417899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-08-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A quarter-acre site in the 400 block of South 12th Street, Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas, marking the 1894 water well where oil was first struck in the Corsicana Oil Field. It lies within Petroleum Industry Park and is owned by the City of Corsicana.","why_significant":"The well is the site of the first discovery of oil in the Corsicana Oil Field, which the nomination says gave oil development in Texas its impetus. The field led to a refinery, the perfecting of the rotary drilling rig, and new markets for oil. It was the first large field west of the Mississippi River and supplied technology used at later fields such as Spindletop.","narrative":"In spring 1894, drillers hired by the Corsicana Water Development Company began a water well on South 12th Street. On June 9 they struck oil sand at 1,035 feet, an unwelcome result that had to be cased off to protect the artesian water found later at 2,470 feet. Oil kept seeping around the casing, and local speculators began leasing land nearby. Further wells soon followed, derricks spread across eastern Corsicana, and a refinery began operating in December 1896. The field also drew the Baker brothers, who perfected the rotary rig in Corsicana; an improved version went on the market in 1901. The nomination argues that this equipment made later development of Spindletop possible. Today the discovery well is a 6-inch pipe rising 3 feet from the ground, capped and surrounded by brick within Petroleum Industry Park. The nominated area is about a quarter acre, and the site is listed as the first discovery of oil in a field that launched Texas oil development.","period_of_significance":"1894","architect_builder":"City of Corsicana (drilled by Horace G. Johnson, Elmer H. Akin and Charles Rittersbacher of the American Well and Prospecting Company)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Well preserved in Petroleum Industry Park; the well head is capped and the site is bricked to protect the pipe.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.645201-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/84/9730/40973084/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/77001462.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973084","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110000491"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/navarro-county/corsicana-oil-field-discovery-well-77001462/"}