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Life and Labor in the Oil Patch
Texas A&M University Press
September 2010
On Sale: August 24, 2010
320 pages
ISBN: 1603442057
EAN: 9781603442053
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
When the first gusher blew in at Spindletop, near Beaumont,
Texas, in 1901, petroleum began to supplant cotton and
cattle as the economic engine of the state and region. Very
soon, much of the workforce migrated from the cotton field
to the oilfield, following the lure of the wealth being
created by black gold. The early decades of the twentieth century witnessed the
development of an oilfield culture, as these workers defined
and solidified their position within the region’s social
fabric. Over time, the work force grew more
professionalized, and technological change attracted a
different type of laborer. Bobby D. Weaver grew up and worked in the oil patch. Now,
drawing on oral histories supplemented and confirmed by
other research, he tells the colorful stories of the workers
who actually brought oil wealth to Texas. Drillers,
shooters, toolies, pipeliners, teamsters, roustabouts, tank
builders, roughnecks . . . each of them played a role in the
frenzied, hard-driving lifestyle of the boomtowns that
sprouted overnight in association with each major oil discovery. Weaver tracks the differences between company workers and
contract workers. He details the work itself and the ethos
that surrounds it. He highlights the similarities and
differences from one field to another and traces changing
aspects of the work over time. Above all, Oilfield Trash
captures the unique voices of the laboring people who worked
long, hard hours, often risking life and limb to keep the
drilling rigs “turning to the right.”
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