North Louisiana Historical Association

08/26/2026

The Dorcheat Historical Association and its fantastic museum are strong supporters of the NLHA. Support this vital fundraising extravaganza if you can.

The Dorcheat Historical Association and Museum, Inc. will host its annual fundraiser gala at the museum, located at 116 Pearl Street at 6 p.m. Monday, September 14. As a nonprofit organization, the…

07/31/2026

The 2027 annual meeting of the Louisiana Historical Association will be held March 4-6 at the historic Hotel Bentley in Alexandria, La. Please visit www.lahistory.org for more information, including paper/session submissions.

07/27/2026

THE HORSE-DRAWN STREET RAILWAY: The Beginning of Public Transportation in Shreveport, 1870–1872

By Debbie Wikstrom

(Originally published in the North Louisiana Historical Association Journal, Spring 1976, Vol. 7, No. 3. At the time, Wakstrom, was a history major at Centenary College. The paper won second place Overdyke Award for undergraduate students. Her post-graduate work was at Vanderbilt.)

The street railway, which Burton J. Hendrick, a prominent American economic historian, called a "peculiarly American contrivance," was the first successful form of urban public transportation.¹ The first horse-drawn streetcar line in the world began operation in New York City in 1832. These first cars were primitive, similar to stagecoaches, and mules, usually past retirement age, provided the only reliable power. Streetcar companies in the major Northern cities made improvements in the facilities, and before 1860, thirty new lines opened in cities throughout the United States.² According to Hendrick, "practically every city of any importance" had a streetcar line by 1870.³

Shreveport in 1870 could not be considered an important American city. Editors of Shreveport's newspapers defended its right to even be called a "city" at all.⁴ A small number of Shreveport citizens were anxious for their community to merit that name, and from 1870 to 1872, different groups formed three companies to build street railway lines through the downtown district and to outlying areas. Of these companies, two succeeded in building and operating their lines, and only one proved to be a profitable enterprise.

Shreveport's potential growth was the basis for most claims to cityhood. Civil War refugees continued to move into East Texas and the Shreveport area, which was relatively untouched by the war. The city expanded so quickly that the gas company could not meet the increased demand. At this time, natural gas was the principal fuel used for lighting. For seven weeks in the first three months of 1870, the company left the streets in darkness so that it could supply gas to private consumers.⁵ Shreveport became a popular cotton market and shipping center. The new farmers in the area brought their produce to Shreveport for shipment, but they did not patronize retail firms. Instead rural stores supplied these people with staple goods they needed, and they purchased larger items from New Orleans or New York by mail. The South-Western, a local weekly newspaper, advised that citizens of Shreveport should make the town more attractive to "our country friend" in order to become "a city in every sense of the word."⁶

One group of men took a step to modernize Shreveport. On June 11, 1870, stockholders of the Shreveport City Railroad Company met in Brewer's Hall for an organizational meeting. The men accepted the company charter, which the city council had granted on June 8, by a unanimous vote. The charter gave the company a twenty-five year right-of-way for a streetcar line in Shreveport, with a tax exemption for the first five years. Stockholders also elected company officers for the year: Judge A. B. B. Levisee, president; Edward Jacobs, vice-president; L. L. Tompkies, treasurer; and Thomas Phillips, secretary.⁷ The company did not decide on the route for the line until it had received recommendations from a surveying team a month later. The decision was that the line would begin at the intersection of Spring and Texas Streets, follow Texas Street to Texas Avenue, and end at the corporation line, then at Jordan Street.⁸

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The stockholders chose Captain James F. Utz, a local dealer of heavy machinery and a director of the company, to act as purchasing agent. For two months, he traveled to New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York.⁹ He bought iron railing for the tracks in New Orleans. This arrived in Shreveport in early July aboard the steamship Rudolph.¹⁰ When Captain Utz returned home on the Tidal Wave in mid-August, he informed the South-Western "that the cars, three in number, are perfect beauties—light enough for one mule to draw with twenty passengers up a considerable grade with perfect ease. They will seat comfortably fourteen passengers, and twenty-five can find room by a little 'scrounging.'"¹¹ The cars arrived in early November by way of New Orleans on the Silver Bow.¹²

The contract for laying the track was awarded to John Rooney. His crews began grading Texas Street and Texas Avenue in early October, 1870, and by October 26, they began to lay the cross ties and iron rails. Rooney stated at this time that he and his men would have the line completed in forty days.¹³ By November 2, the track had been completed as far as McNeil Street, about one-fourth of the entire route.¹⁴ In late December, Rooney finished construction at a final cost of about $35,000.¹⁵

Rooney put the first car on the track about eight o'clock the night of Saturday, December 31, 1870, twenty-five days later than he had forecast. A crowd gathered along Texas Street, and greeted the car with cheers. As the car passed a theater, a band, "accidentally or by design," began to play "Dixie." The South-Western commented that this was "an important event to our city, (and may we not without any twinge of conscience call Shreveport a city now?)."¹⁶ Two of the cars were on the track that night, each making three circuits of the track with a full load of selected prominent citizens. Rooney asked that the newspaper "return his thanks to the citizens for their enthusiastic demonstration on the first appearance of the cars on the track," and promised "to do all in his power for the accomidation [sic] of the public."¹⁷

Sunday, January 1, 1871, Rooney put all three cars into operation making hourly runs. The cars earned thirty dollars each in five-cent fares on the first day.¹⁸ Judge Henry G. Hall, a Shreveport lawyer, recorded his reaction to the new street railway in his diary entry for January 3: "attended to some business but concluded to go home at 2 on the streetcar! This institution was put into operation Saturday night—carries me 5 quarters and I walk the 6th home."¹⁹ The South-Western felt that "the novelty of the thing" was the reason for the first success, but throughout the next weeks, Judge Hall mentioned having to walk because the streetcars were so crowded.²⁰

As far as appearance was concerned, the streetcars were open on the sides with five or six seats each. The seats were hard, straight-backed, and faced forward in a single line with no aisle. Poles suspended the flat roof over the seating area. The driver was the only attendant, and was also responsible for collecting fares. The company allowed male passengers to sit at front with the driver if they wished. Bells attached to the one mule announced the approaching car to the people. The metal wheels turned on the single track, which was four feet four inches wide and lay in the middle of the street. The cars changed direction at each terminus on the turntables there. They could pass each other at a switching area half way between the Spring Street and Jordan Street ends of the track. The barns, offices, and depot building were located at the city limits at the Jordan Street terminus.²¹

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The Shreveport City Railroad Company did not manage the line itself the first few years. Rooney, the contractor, leased it in 1871 at a cost of $2,500 per year.²² For the year 1872, William Heffner, who had just moved to Shreveport from Kentucky, leased the road for $5,850. He renewed his lease in 1873 for $6,010.²³ In November and December, 1873, the City Railroad advertised for sealed bids for the leasing of the road for the coming year. Only one bid was submitted and was so low that the company decided to run the line itself in 1874.²⁴

In the fall of 1871, another group organized a company to provide the Fairfield suburb of Shreveport with streetcar service. This was a residential section which was rapidly growing. By September 9, $20,000 worth of stock had been subscribed. Judge Henry G. Hall, who lived in Fairfield, entered the company and was in charge of the surveying party. Judge Hall was familiar with the organization and construction of the City Railroad through his friendship with Judge Levisee, president of that company. The new company decided on the terms it wanted to incorporate into its charter at a meeting on October 18.²⁵ These terms were similar to the ones included in the charter of the Shreveport City Railroad Company. On October 24, the city council granted the Fairfield Streetcar Company a twenty-year right-of-way for a line along the Norris Ferry Road from its junction with Texas Avenue, with a five year tax exemption. The city council also changed the name of Norris Ferry Road to Fairfield Avenue at this time.²⁶

John G. Gragard purchased the iron, cars, and equipment for the Fairfield line in New Orleans. Crews began laying the track by February 1, 1872. The cars, manufactured in New York by the Stephenson Company, arrived in Shreveport on April 9 aboard the Lady Lee.²⁷ Service began on Tuesday, June 18, 1872. The cars made hourly runs to coincide with the schedule of the City Railroad, with an additional fare of five cents. W. Dyer leased the line from the company and acted as manager. In March, 1875, the company established a market in the depot building stocked with groceries and other supplies to save suburbanites the added trouble and expense of making frequent trips into town.²⁸

In January, 1872, a third group formed a company to continue the street railway from the Texas Avenue terminus of the other two companies for another three-quarters of a mile down Texas Avenue. By February 25, the company had sold subscriptions amounting to $11,750, but needed $5,000 more to begin the construction of the line. On June 11, the company had not been able to collect the necessary funds, and stockholders met to discuss the situation. The group elected L. L. Tompkies to preside over the meeting. Tompkies chose T. F. Bell to act as secretary, and appointed a committee of three to raise pledges for the amount needed, and collect ten percent of the subscriptions which they sold. Unable to get the necessary support, the Texas Avenue Railway Company failed before it really began.²⁹

There was not much faith in the success of the streetcar when the Shreveport City Railroad began operation. Newspapers recorded the development of the company as being in spite of "the prognostications of the skeptical."³⁰ Stockholders of the company, however, considered their investments sound, and supported the other ventures. Of the Shreveport City Railroad Company stockholders, twenty-five percent held stock in one of the other two companies. The Fairfield line had twenty-eight percent of its stockholders investing in another line. Over half of the backing of the proposed Texas Avenue Railway Company came from the stockholders of one of the other lines. Oddly enough, no one person invested in all three lines.³¹

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The first street railway company forced early doubters to reverse their positions. The South-Western mentioned that the success of the Shreveport City Railroad Company was "quite a reflection on the 'power of the press'" since none of the city's newspapers had supported it.³² The South-Western complained earlier of the inconvenience that the construction of the line brought to travelers on Texas Street, but after the opening of the City Railroad Company, the newspapers began to support streetcar endeavors.³³ The Times tried to help the proposed Texas Avenue Railway raise the money it needed by encouraging both stockholders in the other two companies and landowners along the proposed route to invest.³⁴

The Times included landowners in its plea because property values increased wherever the streetcar went. Judge Henry Hall was very satisfied with the price he received when he sold a lot west of Fairfield Avenue eight days before the opening of the Fairfield Street Railway.³⁵ Advertisements for selling land began to state the convenience of the street railway in getting to town from the distant lots. Even advertisements for the sale of lots along Texas Avenue outside the city limits during the time that the Texas Avenue Railway was being considered included mention of the advantages of the streetcar.³⁶

The Shreveport Times on December 7, 1872, reprinted a story from the New York Herald dealing with the testing of a new steam-powered streetcar. At the same time, an epidemic of "epizooty," so-called by the Times, infected the horse and mule population of Shreveport, threatening the continued service of the street railway companies.³⁷ Epizoon is a contagious respiratory infection, and is often referred to as a cold or influenza in equine animals. The disease lasts from one to four weeks, and in the most severe cases, requires a three week convalescence period.³⁸ At first, the streetcar lines gave limited service. On December 16, 1872, the Fairfield Avenue streetcars were forced to shut down. Two days later the City Railroad also discontinued service, with seven of its eight mules ill. By December 21, the companies were able to resume running on schedule, making "hourly trips during the day, weather permitting."³⁹

The weather also hindered service of the street railway lines, especially during the winter months. If any ice or snow was on the track, cars failed to run. Even when not operating, the street railway was an asset to the people since walking on the tracks was easier than walking through the snow. As Judge Hall recorded in his diary on January 14, 1871, "Snow on the ground and hard freeze. One car being stopped for a time, Col. Tompkies walked down on the track."⁴⁰ In rainy weather, the mules had trouble pulling the cars down muddy streets. The animals would often stumble, and Judge Hall recorded an incident when, "A mule fell down while pulling the car."⁴¹

The streetcar companies had a leisurely attitude and gave each customer individual service. Cars would make unscheduled runs upon request, as they did for a theater performance after regular hours on January 1, 1876.⁴² Special attention was given to the ladies. Smoking was forbidden if a single female were present. Maude Hearne O'Pry, a Shreveport journalist, emphasized the chivalry of the early streetcar companies, and at the same time, criticized the young ladies of the 1920's saying:

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“The gallant conductor of the car would patiently wait for some lady fair to return to her home to get a letter she wished to mail or to seek a dainty kerchief. It was not lipstick or rouge then. Mercy me, what a disgrace that would have been!”⁴⁴

The poor condition of roads in Shreveport hurt the street railway companies. No streets were paved, and frequent rains kept most of them muddy. It was hard to keep the tracks from sinking out of sight.⁴⁵ A South-Western reporter gave this description of the streets: "We floundered in the darkness from one mud-hole into another in such rapid succession that we began to entertain serious fears that we would be swallowed up and heard of no more forever."⁴⁶ The newspapers attacked the city for not keeping the roads in better shape throughout the early 1870's. Finally the city paved the streets with wooden planks, but this was not satisfactory. The planking was uneven and easily broken. At last beginning in June, 1877, Texas Avenue was paved with rock.⁴⁷

The downtown streets were kept in good enough condition to save the city railroad. In May, 1873, business was good enough to justify replacing the one old switch with two new ones. This allowed the company to double its service, running four cars at the same time rather than two.⁴⁸

The Fairfield Railway Company did not see such success. Louis Hennick, in his book, Louisiana: Its Streets and Interurban Railways, attributed this failure to the yellow fever epidemic in 1873 in Shreveport, and a business depression which occurred the same year.⁴⁹ In truth, there were still other reasons for failure. The main problems of the Fairfield line seem to have been poor management and maintenance of the tracks, partially due to the condition of the streets. The business depression of these years did not greatly affect Shreveport, according to the Shreveport Times. Though Shreveport lost some of its newfound Texas trade, it was able to hold up under the economic pressure.⁵⁰ The yellow fever epidemic cut drastically into the white population of Shreveport, but a special census taken in 1875 showed Shreveport's population as 7,066, a fifty-five percent increase over the U. S. Census of 1870.⁵¹ The epidemic did cause the deaths of some of the leading stockholders in the company, Judge Henry Hall among them, but since the lessee ran the company, this should not have contributed to its decline. The growth of Fairfield was slowed for a time, but there were still enough people to support the line. On April 1, 1875, the residents of Fairfield held a meeting at the depot building to discuss the future of the streetcar company, and "to prevent the contemplated interference."⁵² The condition of Fairfield Avenue was worse than most of the other streets in Shreveport. As the Shreveport Times reported, there was one hole "in which a wagon almost disappears from view," and already in the hole there were "two or three dead horses and several 'bogged' wagons."⁵³ Cars frequently ran off the track. The Times recorded such an accident which took place on July 19, 1875. The car was derailed and overturned. The one passenger and driver received only minor injuries, but the Times states that "If the car had been crowded at the time of the accident serious injuries might have resulted."⁵⁴ The Fairfield Railroad Company declared bankruptcy on December 28, 1876, and the sheriff seized it. Captain Peter Youree purchased the line at auction on February 3, 1877, for $500 and made no attempt to restore it.⁵⁵

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An authority on Louisiana street railways has noted that the business depression and Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1873 were reasons for the failure of the Texas Avenue Railway Company.⁵⁶ This company, however, was formed in January, 1872, and was unable to raise the necessary funds long before these two things began in 1873. The citizens of Shreveport were skeptical of the success of one streetcar line in their small city. Doubting even more the chances of a third line, the people were not willing to give the idea the financial support it needed to develop.

The Shreveport City Railroad Company was the only surviving horse-car line in Shreveport. This small line, though perhaps insignificant in itself, began the public transportation system of Shreveport. The City Railroad did not remain the only streetcar in Shreveport. In 1890, the electric cars of the Shreveport Railway and Land Improvement Company began operation. The two companies had a strong feeling of rivalry, and in 1892, the Shreveport Railroad installed electric cars, and put their mules out to pasture. In 1902, the Shreveport City Railroad Company and the Shreveport Railway and Land Improvement Company merged to form the Shreveport Traction Company. The Shreveport Railways Company took over the Shreveport Traction Company in 1914. In 1937, streetcar service in Shreveport stopped, and trackless trolleys and buses began to do its work.

The streetcar companies laid the foundation for the buses of the Shreveport Transit Company of today, with the Shreveport City Railroad Company as the cornerstone.⁵⁷ On the Fifty-Seventh Anniversary of the street railway in Shreveport, Captain H. B. Hearne, president of the Shreveport Railways Company, stated, "Were it not for the Street Railway our city could never have expanded to its present size and importance."⁵⁸ This was the basic contribution of the streetcar, allowing Shreveport to expand and spread out as it grew.

NOTES

1. Burton J. Hendrick, The Age of Big Business, New Haven, 1919, 119.
2. Alvin F. Harlow, "Street Railways," The Dictionary of American History, ed. James Truslow Adams, New York, 188-189.
3. Burton J. Hendrick, The Age of Big Business, New Haven, 1919, 119.
4. South-Western, October 12, 1870, and Shreveport Times, December 23, 1871.
5. South-Western, January 12, 1870, and March 2, 1870. Also, Louis C. Hennick and E. Harper Charlton, Louisiana: Its Streets and Interurban Railways, Shreveport, 1962, 63; hereafter cited as Hennick, Interurban Railways.
6. South-Western, January 18, 1870, and Shreveport Times, February 8, 1872.
7. South-Western, June 8, 1870, and June 15, 1870. Also, Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64.
8. South-Western, June 8, 1870, and Maude Hearne O'Pry, Chronicles of Shreveport, Shreveport, 1928, 134; hereafter cited as O'Pry, Shreveport. Also, Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64.
9. South-Western, June 22, 1870, and August 17, 1870. Also, O'Pry, Shreveport, 134.
10. South-Western, July 6, 1870. Also, O'Pry, Shreveport, 134.
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11. South-Western, August 17, 1870. Also, O'Pry, Shreveport, 134.
12. South-Western, November 9, 1870.
13. Diary of Henry Gerard Hall, MS, Xerox Copy, Centenary College, and October 26, 1870; hereafter cited as Hall, Diary. Also, South-Western, October 26, 1870.
14. South-Western, November 2, 1870.
15. Shreveport Times, December 4, 1872.
16. South-Western, January 4, 1871.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Hall, Diary, January 3, 1871.
20. Hall, Diary, January 8, 1871, January 10, 1871, February 5, 1871, and February 2, 1871.
21. South-Western, October 26, 1870; Shreveport Times, May 2, 1873; Maude Hearne O'Pry, "Highlights of the Shreveport of Yesterday," Shreveport Magazine, VII (March, 1926), 13; and Captain H. B. Hearne, "Fifty-seven Years of Street Railway Service," Shreveport Magazine, VIII (June, 1927), 14.
22. South-Western, January 4, 1871.
23. Shreveport Times, December 4, 1872.
24. Shreveport Times, November 13, 1873, and December 16, 1873.
25. Hall, Diary, November 23, 1870, September 2, 1871, September 9, 1871, October 11, 1871, October 14, 1871, October 16, 1871, October 17, 1871, October 18, 1871. Also, Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64, and O'Pry, Shreveport, 134.
26. Ordinances of the City of Shreveport, Shreveport, 1902, 50.
27. Shreveport Times, February 18, 1872, February 1, 1872, and April 11, 1872. Also, O'Pry, Shreveport, 134, and Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64.
28. Shreveport Times, June 16, 1872, and June 18, 1872, and March 26, 1875.
29. Shreveport Times, January 18, 1872, and February 5, 1872, March 26, 1872, and June 11, 1872.
30. South-Western, October 26, 1870, and Shreveport Times, May 3, 1873. Also, Captain H. B. Hearne, "Fifty-seven Years of Street Railway Service," Shreveport Magazine, VIII (June, 1927), 14.
31. Lilla McClure and J. Edward Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders, Shreveport, 1937, 124-125; and Shreveport Times, February 25, 1872.
32. South-Western, November 2, 1870.
33. Ibid., October 26, 1870.
34. Shreveport Times, February 22, 1872.
35. Hall, Diary, June 10, 1872.
36. Shreveport Times, June 19, 1872 and March 6, 1873.
37. Ibid., December 7, 1872.
38. U. S. Department of Agriculture, The Yearbook of Agriculture—Animal Diseases, Washington, D. C., 1956, 534-536.
39. Shreveport Times, December 17, 1872, December 19, 1872, and December 21, 1872.
40. Hall, Diary, January 14, 1872, January 28, 1873, and January 29, 1873.
41. Ibid., January 13, 1871.
42. Shreveport Times, January 1, 1876.
43. Ibid., September 9, 1875
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44. Maude Hearne O'Pry, "Highlights of the Shreveport of Yesterday," Shreveport Magazine, VII (March, 1926), 13.
45. Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64.
46. South-Western, January 26, 1870.
47. Shreveport Times, June 1, 1877, March 6, 1873, January 4, 1871; and South-Western, February 12, 1870.
48. Shreveport Times, May 3, 1873.
49. Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64.
50. Shreveport Times, March 31, 1875.
51. Ibid., August 24, 1875.
52. Ibid., April 1, 1875.
53. Ibid., March 6, 1873.
54. Ibid., July 20, 1873. Also Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64.
55. Hennick, Interurban Railways, 64.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid., 65–85.
58. Captain H. B. Hearne, "Fifty-seven Years of Street Railway Service," Shreveport Magazine, VIII (June, 1927), 14.

07/18/2026

As a service to our members, we are periodically running articles from previous issues of the NLHA Journal. We hope those who follow us on Facebook who are not members will join us. You can find an application form in the Photos section of this page. You won't find a better bargain!

The following article first appeared in the Journal issue of Fall 1977, Vol. VIII, No. 5.

PLUNDERED LEGACY: THE EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH LOUISIANA'S OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

by William I. Hair

During the nineteenth century no one paid much attention to the evidence of substantial oil and gas accumulations under the soil of North Louisiana. Well diggers looking for water occasionally, to their annoyance, hit gas pockets instead; fishermen on Caddo Lake often noticed gas bubbles in the water—sometimes the v***rs rising to the surface set on fire. Even earlier, the Indians had found oily springs and used the petroleum residue as soothing medicine for skin ailments and injuries. White settlers in Louisiana and Texas would utilize the oil seeps for similar purposes, and also to lubricate the axles of their wagon wheels.1

The only major commercial product made from petroleum in the nineteenth century was kerosene, used chiefly in lamps, and most of the wells that supplied the kerosene refineries were located in the Northeast, especially Pennsylvania. West Virginia in the 1870's became the South's first oil producing state, but not until 1889, when some primitive, shallow wells near San Antonio, Texas reported a mere 48 barrels of oil—not until then was the Deep South classified by Federal statisticians as an oil producing region. 2 Nowhere in America, as yet, was there a great producing field. As late as 1901 the average daily production of the Eastern wells was only two barrels each.³

It was, of course, the Spindletop gusher near Beaumont in January of 1901, coincidentally the first month of the twentieth century, that touched off the first genuine wave of oil fever in Texas and neighboring Louisiana and Oklahoma. Spindletop, spewing out 100,000 barrels a day before it was capped, was the harbinger of things to come; and soon America's gasoline automobile industry offered a rising market for the "black gold" of the Southwest. Louisiana's first commercial oil field came in near Jennings in August of 1901, followed by Anse-la-Butte (near Lafayette) in 1902.⁴

Oil prospecting in North Louisiana began on a serious basis near Caddo Lake in 1904, after small amounts of petroleum were discovered in a shallow well. Surface evidence of abundant natural gas in the Caddo Lake area convinced oil prospectors that a large oil pool must be in the vicinity, since gas usually occurs in association with petroleum. The suspense was heightened in 1905 when four wells near the lake produced strong gas flows, but no measurable oil.

Two of these 1905 wells were not even plugged, but were left to blow their v***rs into the atmosphere. Regrettably, abandoned "wild gassers" would become an all too common phenomenon in North Louisiana during the years to come. This best and cleanest of all fuels was considered worthless by the pioneer drillers because it had no immediate market; oil could be put in storage tanks and barrels, but there was no way to store or transport natural gas without installing expensive pipelines. Yet the potential value of natural gas was common knowledge; the town of Fredonia, New York had been lit by it since 1821. Even as far back as 900 A.D., communities in China were making use of natural gas, piping it from wells through bamboo tubes.⁵

The first oil producing well in Caddo Parish—and North Louisiana's first—came in on March 28, 1906. By 1907 eighteen petroleum wells near Caddo Lake yielded an annual total of 50,000 barrels - a figure far below that of the Jennings field, or the Texas Gulf coast, and even more outdistanced by the fabulous Glenn Pool of Oklahoma, which was then producing over 3,000,000 barrels a month.⁶ But, even if Caddo's early petroleum yield seemed modest when compared to other places, its waste of natural gas during the first decade of this century was second to nowhere on this earth.

Wells that brought in gas were customarily left to "blow," in the hope that liquid petroleum lay beneath the hydrocarbon v***rs. The Louisiana Conservation Commission cited one case where $1,000 worth of gas was wasted daily at one of the wells "in order to secure ten dollars worth of oil." Month after month, the roar of escaping gas was heard in towns near Caddo Lake. This uncontrolled gas made widening craters in the earth; several derricks along with drilling machinery fell into these great holes. One crater grew to 300 feet in width before the pressure below was exhausted. Summer lightning caught several "wild gassers" on fire and the residents of Shreveport, twenty-five miles away, could see gigantic flames from the Caddo field illuminate the night sky. Each day by 1907 an estimated 70,000 cubic feet of Caddo's natural gas simply vanished into the atmosphere, prompting a staff member of the United States Geological Survey to exclaim that this was "the most flagrant abuse of natural wealth yet recorded in the industry." But for the next six years this squandering of Louisiana's most precious resource actually increased. In 1908 oil prospectors drilling a well named Dawes Trustee Number One hit gas under extraordinarily high pressure; efforts were made—unsuccessfully—to stop the flow, and during the next five years this solitary "wild gasser" wasted, according to the Louisiana Conservation, a total of 27,000,000,000 (twenty-seven billion) cubic feet of gas.⁷ To my knowledge no one tried to estimate the total waste of natural gas in the Caddo field from 1906 to 1913, but based on available evidence it could not have been less than 150,000,000,000 (one hundred fifty billion) cubic feet, and probably exceeded 200,000,000,000 (two hundred billion) cubic feet.

Some of the Caddo gas was not wasted. As early as 1906 a pipe line near the lake carried the v***r to Shreveport, where it sold for 35¢ per thousand cubic feet to homeowners, and for one-half that price to businesses. Communities around Caddo Lake were presently supplied with this clean and relatively cheap fuel; by 1910 pipe lines from the Caddo gas fields extended to Bossier City, Texarkana, and Marshall, Texas. It had begun to dawn upon some citizens and state officials that Louisiana had more gas than liquid hydrocarbon, and that it was not in the state's interest to permit further squandering of this great gift of nature.⁸'
But North Louisiana also had, it soon became apparent, impressive reservoirs of petroleum. Prior to 1910 the Caddo field took place to Jennings, but in that year Caddo oil production zoomed to over 5,000,000 barrels -- three times that of its South Louisiana competitor. The quantity of Caddo oil climbed even further in 1911 due to the Gulf Company's successful drilling on the bed of Caddo Lake; as historian Carl Rister observed, this was the freshwater beginning of Louisiana's aquatic oil exploration, which has assumed so much importance since the 1940's. Some of the increased flow from Northwest Louisiana's wells was carried by oil pipeline to the new Standard Oil Refinery in Baton Rouge; this 270-mile pipeline had been completed in May of 1909. Two years later the Texas Company completed its pipeline from Caddo to Port Arthur, Texas.⁹

By 1911 it became evident that North Louisiana's petroleum was not confined to Caddo Parish. That year producing wells came in near Mansfield and Naborton in DeSoto Parish, and by 1915 additional wells were pumping oil from DeSoto and Red River parishes. Meanwhile Caddo Parish continued to sprout new derricks as the producing area of the Caddo field increased.¹⁰ Some optimists even began dreaming that this region might contain the world's largest supply of both liquid and gas hydrocarbons. One such fantasizer was the young lawyer and railroad commissioner, Huey P. Long, who, shortly after moving from Winnfield to Shreveport in 1918, sent his brother George this message:
"It would appear that oil could be discovered in every part of North Louisiana. Gas and oil wells are constantly being brought in. There are negro wood choppers in this country that are worth a million dollars."

But Huey concluded this otherwise ebullient letter with the glum note that "not a great deal of the money has hit me, however."¹¹
Moving eastward across the upper tier of Louisiana's parishes, oil men began exploration near the town of Homer in 1917. Two preliminary wells yielded nothing of consequence, but the third drilling (in January of 1919) inaugurated successful oil production in Claiborne Parish. Later that year the Homer Guardian Journal observed an influx of "tramps and beggars" into the community, along with "an occasional jezebel" walking the streets with "highly painted cheeks and 'immodest apparel.'" Yet the editor decided not to complain about their presence, since he had heard that "all such things belong in an oil town."¹²

In 1920 Louisiana's annual petroleum output reached 35,700,000 barrels, which was eight per cent of the nation's total production. By then virtually all the Pelican State's crude oil came from the Northwest parishes of Caddo, DeSoto, Red River, Bossier, and Claiborne, with the Homer field in Claiborne furnishing the largest portion. But from this point the state's annual production declined for several years, as no important new fields of petroleum were discovered in Louisiana until the great Rhodessa strike in northern Caddo Parish in 1930. By the time of the Rhodessa discovery geologists had generally concluded that Louisiana's recoverable oil reserves were mostly confined to the northwestern parishes, and the parishes along the Gulf coast. Offshore oil deposits were suspected, but the technology to exploit them did not yet exist. And Northeast Louisiana had proven a disappointment insofar as petroleum was concerned.¹³

Yet Northeast Louisiana was anything but lacking in the lighter form of hydrocarbon. The first hint of this region's abundance of natural gas came in 1901, when an artesian water well in East Carroll Parish suddenly transformed itself into a "wild gasser"; someone came by and struck a match to see what would happen, and something happened; for weeks afterward a 50-foot high flame was visible for miles. But not until 1916 did commercial gas production begin in what came to be called the Monroe field, located primarily in Ouachita and Morehouse parishes. The prospectors there had been hoping for oil. They found instead one of the nation's largest accumulations of natural gas. By 1922, 40,150,000,000 (forty billion, one hundred fifty million) cubic feet of gas per year was being drawn off the Monroe field (this was the official figure, the actual amount was much more). "Wild gassers," though not unknown, were less in evidence here than in the old Caddo field.¹⁴ In Northeast Louisiana there was also tragic waste, but it took a different form.

The carbon black industry consumed ninety per cent of the officially reported production of the Monroe gas field, and took one hundred per cent of an illegal amount upon which no taxes or royalties were paid. Carbon black itself was a necessary item in the modern world, being a basic ingredient for paint, printer's ink, and automobile tires. Manufacturing it from natural gas, however, was only one of several ways it could be produced. In the 1920's, Louisiana's low-cost natural gas offered the cheapest way. But making carbon black by this method was grossly wasteful of a natural resource that deserved better usage. Several other gas-producing states had either outlawed or severely restricted the consumption of natural gas by the carbon black industry. Only three per cent of the gas piped to the Louisiana carbon black plants was actually converted into carbon black; the remainder dissipated into the atmosphere as lost heat. Not only were these plants wasteful, but they ranked among the worst polluters known. Clinging black particles impregnated the air near the carbon black plants; the Ouachita River was befouled with industrial discharges, and a leaden pall frequently hung over the landscape around Monroe.¹⁵

Louisiana Attorney General A. V. Coco in 1924, sent by Governor John M. Parker to investigate conditions in the Monroe gas field, found the carbon black plants in violation of several state laws which prohibited "waste of any natural gas." Coco personally opposed the carbon black industry's use of natural gas, saying that "it seems almost criminal" to utilize one of Louisiana's greatest assets in such a profligate way. But the Attorney General was most outraged by what he termed "a positive fraud" practiced by the major carbon black companies. For the Louisiana Carbon Company, the Monroe Carbon Company, the Humphreys Carbon Company, and the La-Del Oil Company were all caught in the criminal act of bypassing gas. This simply meant that these companies were periodically using valves that bypassed the meters at the wellheads, and thus the state was cheated of an estimated two to four million dollars in severance taxes each year, while landowners were being defrauded of an even larger total amount of royalty money. Several spokesmen for the carbon black industry did not bother to deny the Attorney General's accusations, and justified their companies' bypassing of gas with that oldest of all excuses: "Everybody else is doing it."¹⁶

The threat of prosecution and a tougher state conservation law passed in 1924 apparently did much toward reducing fraud by the carbon black companies. Overproduction of carbon black subsequently caused a slackening off of the legal use of natural gas by these manufacturers. But by 1930 at least a trillion cubic feet — probably more than that — had been taken from the Monroe field.¹⁷

It was in 1930 that a National Geographic writer, although finding much to admire about the Pelican State, pointed out that a great deal of its natural wealth had already been squandered, and even then conservation these resources could not last forever. "It is inevitable," noted Ralph Graves, "that some day Louisiana's oil fields will be depleted and its gas wells will cease to flow." In the case of the Monroe and Caddo gas fields he made a specific prediction: that North Louisiana's natural gas would all be gone by 1980.¹⁸ Although this estimate almost fifty years ago apparently was unduly pessimistic, it is nonetheless true that the waste of natural gas which occurred here between 1900 and 1930, has deprived present day Louisiana and the nation of part of what should have been our legacy.

NOTES
1. Report of the Louisiana Conservation Commission of 1910 (n.d., n.p.), 16; Shreveport Evening Journal, July 25, 1900; Colfax Chronicle, July 24, 1915; Clark Coke Rister, Oil! Titan of the Southwest (Norman, 1949), 3-4, 9, 98.
2. John Samuel Ezell, The South Since 1865 (2nd ed., New York, 1975), 150-51; J. Stanley Clark, The Oil Century: From the Drake Well to the Conservation Era (Norman, 1958), 104-23; Rister, Oil!, 9-10.
3. C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge, 1951), 302.
4. New Orleans Daily Picayune, January 16, 24, 1901; Abbeville Meridional, April 6, 1901; Woodward, Origins of the New South, 302-303; Fred B. Kniffen, Louisiana: Its Land and People (Baton Rouge, 1968), 166.
5. Report of the Louisiana Conservation Commission of 1910, p. 16; Rister, Oil!, 96-97; Donald L. Kemmerer and C. Clyde Jones, American Economic History (New York, 1959), 10-11; Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago, 1974), XII, 858.
6, Rister, Oil!, 89, 93-94, 97-98.
7. Shreveport Weekly Caucasian, February 11, 1909; Gerald Forbes, "A History of Caddo Oil and Gas Field," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXIX (January, 1946), 62-64; New International Year Book: A Compendium of the World's Progress for the Year 1909 (New York, 1909), 443; Report of the Conservation Commission of Louisiana, 1912 to 1914 (n.p., n.d.), 29. See also, Winnsboro Rising Star, May 23, 1913.
8. Report of the Louisiana Conservation Commission of 1910, p. 18; Encyclopedia Britannica (New York, 1910), XVII, 54.
9. New International Yearbook: A Compendium of the World's Progress for the Year 1910 (New York, 1911), 434; Forbes, Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXIX, 68-69; Rister, Oil!, 99-100.
10. Rister, Oil!, 100-102.
11. Huey P. Long to George S. Long, November 29, 1919, in Huey P. Long Papers, Department of Archives, Louisiana State University.
12. Rister, Oil! 102; Homer Guardian-Journal, December 10,1919.
13. Seventh Biennial Report of the Department of Conservation of the State of Louisiana, 1924-26 (New Orleans, n.d.), 19; Rister, Oil!, 102 n. 17, 215-18.
14. Lake Providence Sentry, May 16, 1901; Rister, Oil!, 101; M. L. Alexander to John M. Parker, February 20, 1922, in Governor's Correspondence, Department of Archives, Louisiana State University; Rayville Richland Beacon-News, February 4, 1928.
15. H. Flood Madison to John M. Parker, March 1, 1922, in Governor's Correspondence; "Carbon Black from Natural Gas in 1921" (mimeographed report of U. S. Geological Survey, April 17, 1922), copy in Governor's Correspondence; "Report of Attorney General A. V. Coco to Governor John M. Parker," April 10, 1924, in Governor's Correspondence; Ralph A. Graves, "Louisiana, Land of Perpetual Romance," National Geographic, LVII (April, 1930), 447.
16. "Report of A. V. Coco," in Governor's Correspondence.
17. Seventh Biennial Report, Department of Conservation, 20-23; Rister, Oil!, 102; Graves, National Geographic, LVII, 447-48.
18. Graves, National Geographic, LVII, 448-49.

William Ivy Hair was Callaway Professor of Southern History at Georgia College, Milledgeville, GA. He presented this article at the 1977 spring luncheon of the NLHA. It was originally printed in the Fall 1977 Journal.