Pampa Daily News from Pampa, Texas • Page 3

Oil Began at Spindletop The Lucas Gusher By JAMES L.OVERTON BEAUMONT, Tex. (UPI) From a low mound on the prairie four miles south of town a wildcat test blew over the top of a derrick 75 years ago and with a roar heard around the world the Spindletop oil field was born. That explosion of black fury at the Lucas Gusher created the nation's greatest oil field, opened the Gulf Coast for oil development, began the modern petroleum industry and thrust America into the liquid fuel age. The gusher was the first major oil strike in Texas. In Titusville, 42 years before, Col E.L.

Drake drilled a shallow well and began small- scale production. In those days 50 barrels a day was considered good production and the oil was used mostly to make kerosene for lamps and for lubrication. Spindletop made 800,000 barrels in nine days before it was even capped. "Spindletop started a real boom," millionaire wildcatter Michael T. Halbouty of Houston said recently.

"Why, the potential there for one year (in 1901) was more than the entire world was producing. "Spindletop told the world there was enough oil in the ground to revolutionize industry and the standard of living for people. Spindletop stands as a fountainhead of American progress and prosperity," Halbouty said. Founders of three great oil industry giants The Texas Company, Gulf Oil Corp. and the Humble Oil and Refining Co.

first entered the oil business at Spindletop. Cities like Houston, Dallas, Corpus Christi and Beaumont became commerce centers in the post Spindletop hysteria. Before Spindletop, Beaumont was a sleepy logging town of 10,000. Almost overnight the population doubled and the reek of liquor and gas fumes went hand-in-hand with instant millionaires who paid $6-a-barrel for water when oil was selling for 3 cents a barrel. Wildcatters, roughnecks, gamblers and others lived in tents, slept in the streets, settled arguments with six shooters and would pay $250 for a night's rest ina real bed.

Halbouty said the initial Spindletop boom lasted about three and a half years, then ran on for another seven before petering out. A second boom hit the field in the early 1920s when he was a youngster. "The first job I ever had in my life was at Spindletop," Halbouty said. "I worked there in high school as a water boy. I carried water there from one rig to another and they gave me 50 cents a day." Today, Halbouty, who has a pretty good track record as an oil prophet, owns producing wells on the 250 acres that mark the original site of Spindletop.

Since Spindletop, Texas oil men have drilled some 630,000 oil and gas wells, according to the Texas Mid-Continent Oil Gas Association. From these wells, more than 40.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 188 trillion cubic feet of natural gas have been produced. Come See Our Potential investors and visiting journalists often were treated to displays representing the tremendous potentital of the Spindletop field. "Gusher shows which ended as oil men began to understand the need for conserving underground pressures, excited people, wasted oil and gas, killed mosquitoes, ruined clothes and created fire hazards. WASHINGTON (UPII -The overall quality of the Marine Corps has been decreasing, resulting in discipline problems and higher than average rates of drug use and desertion, according to an official report sent to Congress.

One cause was the end of the draft, it said. In a "report on manpower quality and force structure released Wednesday, the Marines took a hard look at themselves. In a letter to Sen. Sam Nunn, the Corps' commander, Gen. Lewis Wilson, said some of the problems were being corrected by increasing standards.

"Various Defense Department studies and reports indicate that the Corps had the highest rates in the armed forces on a per capita basis in such categories as unauthorized absences, desertion and drug abuse, "the report said. For example, it estimated 49 per cent of the Marines at the rank of sergeant and below had used marijuana at least once. A survey of commanders found the problem was in the raw material: the younger, the less intelligent, the less educated, those who never succeeded. "The American public has endowed Marine recruit training with an almost mystical ability to imbue young men with soldierly virtue no matter what their character or origins," the report said. "But there are limits to what even the Corps can achieve." The report said many of the worst joined up in 1973, which "appears to have been directly related to introduction of the all- volunteer force in that year.

"Because of a widely held belief that a great majority of Marine accessions had been true volunteers, it was assumed that the all-volunteer force would not significantly alter the Corps' recruiting prospects. With the demise of the draft, however, it soon became apparent that such was not the case." It found the Marines could not recruit competitively and that "some recruiters have resorted to irregular practices in order to meet numerical quotas." This, sources said, included cheating on entrance exams. "Once enlisted, many of these disadvantaged young men have found it difficult to meet military standards, have succumbed to defeatism and have retreated into lethargy or indicipline." Ford Feels Intense Pressures WASHINGTON (UPI) President Ford says recession and unemployment have intensified pressures for tougher trade restrictions, but he is determined to keep working for tower barriers. Ford told the first gathering of his Advisory Committee on Trade Negotiations Thursday that as he looks around the world at the interdependence of nations, "we can't live alone under protectionism in the United States." He said he believed that the multilateral trade negotiations under way in Geneva "offer the best prospect for an improved world trading system," and added: "I am determined to resist, within our own country and worldwide, trade restrictions. ''While recession, unemployment and inflation have intensified protectionist pressures in many, many areas in this country, as well as in other countries, I think it is extremely important that for the betterment of all that we resist those pressures." "I don't believe that we can sit idly by in any industry in any segment of our society and let these pressures pick us off one by one," he said.

ONTARIO, Calif. (UPI) The Army considered Ronald Rupe an exceptional soldier and sharp enough to make him a platoon leader. Rupe is still angry that the Army wouldn't let him stay, just because he's only 14 years old Rupe spent five weeks in the Army. Tough, smart and big for his age, he successfully masqueraded as five years older. By the time his brief career ended, he was in charge of 55 other recruits.

Rupe said lie dropped out of school because "classes were too easy" and enlisted in the Marines, using his older brother's birth certificate and high school diploma. But his father alerted Marine recruiters just before he was to be sworn in. Several weeks later, using doctored documents, he enlisted in the Army and was sent to Ft. Ord, Calif. This time it took his father five weeks to track him down.

Recruiting Sgt. Joe Simental, contacted by Rupe's father, called Rupe's superiors and discovered the teen-ager had become "an exceptional soldier." He qualified as an expert marksman and was made a platoon leader over some 55 other recruits, some twice his age. "When I talked to his first sergeant he said Rupe was the best trooper in the entire company," Simental said. The recruiter said he had no suspicion Rupe was underage. "He had a birth certificate that said he was 19 years old.

He gave us all the necessary information on his past history Nude Dancers Charged in Colorado COLORADO SPRINGS Colo. (UPI) The city attorney's office will prosecute indecent exposure charges against two nude dancers, but prosecutors aren't too hopeful of getting a conviction. The two dancers Gisela Dumaine, 26, and Bobby Tremaine began their nude act this week after the Colorado Supreme Court declared the state's obscenity law was unconstitutionally vague. They were arrested Wednesday on local etiarges of indecent exposure, but pleaded innocent and returned Thursday to put on their act again. "We're not trying to cause a hassle, we're just trying to prove a point," said bar owner Neil Hutton.

"We plan to continue the same kind of performance until the court decides. "We had standing room only last night and it looks the same tonight. They'll be on again." Trial has been set Feb. 26 for the couple, but prosecutor Matt Railey of the city attorney's office said lie was skeptical he could win a conviction because of the supreme court decision. "I think we're going to have difficulty in the extreme winning this one," said Railey.

"If I were betting money on this one, I would say our chances art- one out of 10. and it all jibed. "When he took our tests he scored above the average level for high school graduates. He wasn't hesitant or unsure of himself and he looks like he's 19 years old." Rupe had completed most of his basic training. Discharged and sent home, he wrote President Ford, asking him as commander-in-chief to bend the rules so he could go back.

"If I could take all the hell they gave me in basic, I don't see why I can't stay in," he argued. Otherwise, he plans to re-enlist when he reaches legal age. The recruiting sergeant held little hope Rupe could return. "Not even an act of God can get a 14-year-old in the Army," he said. lor most Texas drivers For most drivers.

Slate Farm has rates that are less tiian ratos sut by the Stale. See Hurry V. Garden Tuy 0' Tascis fur $7 Coiwiudo North Brown and Price Road is under new management Frances Dishmtm and IPaui Edwards OPEN 24 MRS. DAILY closed Sunday End-of-the Week Special SPAGHETTI and MEAT SAUCE Salad French Bread Special runs thru Saturday IN TOWN Premium Casa 1106 Akoek 304 E. Spindletop Field More than 125.500,000 barrels of oil came from Spindlelop.

For 40 years after its development, Spindletop had expenditures of $750 million a year or more than enough every nine months to build a new Panama Canal built originally at a cost of $525 million. On Saturday Texas oil men and Gov. Dolph Briscoe commemorate the dream of amateur geologist Patillo Higgins who ran out of money trying to find the oil and the success of the interested Capt. Anthony Lucas, an Austrian mining engineer who proved to skeptical oilmen his theory that oil reservoirs were concentrated around salt domes. They will gather on the campus of Lamar University to dedicate Gladys City, a $340,000 replica of the 1901 boom town in Beaumont when the Lucas Gusher blew in.

Officials of the outdoor museum, a product of the Beaumont Bicentennial Commission and the university, will recreate what happened at 10 a.m. on Jan. exact moment Lucas' second drilling test literally blew up. Pampa, Texas PAMPA DAILY NEWS 3 69th Year Friday, January 9, 1978 DIAMOND NNIVERSARY FIRST PRIZE rDAY HAWAII VACATION PLUS IN DIAMOND JEWELERY More than l.OOO other prizes! Enter the Hones Sweepstakes this week in our hosiery department. And' take advantage of money-saving Diamond Anniversary prices on elegant Hanes and stockings.

Sale ends January 17. Come ond help Hanes celebrate 75 years of making legs more beautiful. You don't have to buy a thing to enter the Diamond Anniversary Sweepstakes. Style No. I Description Regular Sale 3 Pair Price Price Sale Price PANTYHOSE 709 ULTRA SHEEI? Tummy Control Nude Heel $3.00 710 ULTRA SHEER Tummy Control Sandalfoot 3.00 500 EVERYDA Sheer Stretch, Nude Heel 1.95 SHEER SUPPORT 805 ALIVE' Stocking Heel and Toe 809 ALIVE' Pantyhose Reinforced Heel STOCKINGS 415 Dress Sheer Heel and Toe 210 Cantrece' Heel and Toe $3.95 5.95 $1.65 1.75 $2.50 2.50 1.60 $3.25 4.95 $1.40 1.50 7.50 7.50 4.80.

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