News & Events

The Claiborne Parish Oil Boom (New Exhibit)

The early years of the 20th century brought profound social and economic change to Claiborne Parish.  The catalyst for this change was the discovery of oil in the region. The discovery well of the Homer Field, drilled on the Shaw lease by Consolidated Progressive Oil Company, came in on January 12, 1919, pumping 2,500 barrels of oil and water from the Nacatoch sand at a depth of 1,409 feet.  Standard Oil Company's Guy Oakes No. 1, a "gusher," was completed on October 10, 1920, producing 20,000 barrels from the Oakes sand at 2,090 feet.  Rapid development followed, with the Homer Field becoming the most prolific and profitable of the northern Louisiana oil fields to that time.

In the early part of 1921, speculators began drilling in the Haynesville district.  Shreveporter J.E. Smitherman and his associates brought in the Taylor No. 2 on March 30, 1921 and almost overnight, Haynesville mushroomed from a town of 1,000 inhabitants to a boomtown of 10,000.  By November 1921, seldom a week passed without there being at least a dozen completions in the Haynesville Field.  It became customary to let the wells "blow over the top,' and a well that did not "paint the derrick" was almost considered a failure.

Oil was discovered in Lisbon on December 18, 1936.  The discovery well of the Old Lisbon Field, located on the H. W. Patton place, was brought in by Reb Oakes and J. D. Caruthers, Sr. at a depth of 5,1000 feet.   
The discovery of "black gold" changed the lives of Claiborne Parish resident forever.  We owe a lot to the men, mules, and mud that made it happen.

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WORK IN PROGRESS

Up Date for the F. C. Haley Education Room

Education has always been important to the citizens of Claiborne Parish. John Murrell, the first permanent resident of Claiborne Parish, hired the first school teacher to teach his children in 1822 for $15.00 a month.  Before beginning consolidation in 1945, there were approximately 70 schools located in the various communities of Claiborne Parish.  The majority of these schools were for black children.  In the process of redoing one of the walls of Mr. Haley's Education Room in the Museum, the Ford Museum is gathering as much history, photographs, and artifacts concerning these early schools as possible.

Anyone with information concerning any of the following schools is asked to please call the Museum at 318-927-9190.  Black schools were Sexton, Relief, Ward's Chapel, New Home, Good Springs, Gordon, Colquitt, Haynesville, St. James, Bethel, Spring Grove, Fellowship, Pleasant Grove, Cherokee, St. Paul, Mt. Sinai, Mt. Calm, Oak Grove, Pine Hill, Mt. Obie, Mt. Olive, Shady Grove, Wafer Chapel, Mt. Tabor, Blackburn, Rising Star, Friendship, Beach Hill, White Oak Grove, Chatham, Forest Grove, Mt. Pisgah, St. Rest, Buck Bottom, Salem, Gum Grove, Homer, Liberty Hill, Mt. Pleasant, Providence, Rocky Mountain, Oil Field, Rogers, Bamaville, Rogers Mill, St. Mark, Moreland, Bennett Grove, St. John, Point Pleasant, Cedar Grove, Kimble, Mt. Superior, Richland, Walthall, Athens, St. Luke, Good Hope, Pleasant Valley, Calhoun, Frazier, Hurricane, and Antioch.  White Schools were Haynesville, Harris, Athens, Homer, Cross Roads, Hurricane, Lisbon, and Summerfield.