West Texas - 2025

Most historians consider the Spindletop strike of 1901, at the time the world’s most productive petroleum well ever was found, to be the outset of oil related growth in Texas. This single discovery began a rapid pattern of change in Texas and brought worldwide attention to the state.

The find was unprecedented in its size (worldwide) and ushered in an age of rapid regional development and industrialization that has few parallels in U.S. history. The oil boom was haphazard and chaotic as rural farmland was transformed by the rapid emergence of 

localised boom towns. This frenzied era

became known as The Gusher Age. One

can only image the sort of characters

that would frequent the saloons in these

towns.

Old photographs of this era gave me

some material to work from when we

built our own oil boom town in remote

ranch land in west Texas. We knew, for

instance, that the oil derricks were often

extremely close to each other and indeed

the boomtown would be built right next

to them. There was no commute to work.

It was also clear that in the towns in the

1920s horses and cars balanced each

other out; it was too early for the car to

dominate and a cowboy on a horse was

quicker.

The story I wanted to tell here was that it

would be a cowboy on a horse that could

and would react quickest to a gusher.

It is difficult to conceive of how intense

and pressurised the moments after a

big strike would be, but I sense speed of

reaction was key. It’s nice, therefore, that

all four of the horse’s feet are airborne.