The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes

by Bryan Burrough

For the first time he incorporated his own company, Hunt Oil, and gathered around him a half-dozen seasoned oil scouts, sending them nosing around southern Arkansas and especially several new fields opening in northern Louisiana. Hunt’s men, led by the ever-present Old Man Bailey, proved top notch. Time and again they identified the best spots to drill. Hunt struck oil in the Tullos-Urania Field outside Monroe, Louisiana, then at several places near Shreveport. By 1929 he had opened offices in El Dorado and Shreveport and was operating more than one hundred wells, though with oil selling at barely $1.25 a barrel he was forced to plow most of his profits back into the search for still more acreage. He had emerged as one of the region’s largest independent operators, a wealthy man by Arkansas standards, but still far from serious riches.