Jack of Harts

The Texas economy was fundamentally changed in 1901 when they found oil. It could be used to make fuel for the growing numbers of personal vehicles spreading throughout America, but so could crops. All major vehicles of the time could burn alcohol made by farmers, or oil-based gasoline bought at a town general store. Gas stations were coming into being in the big cities, but they had zero market penetration into the vast rural areas of the nation. Prohibition made it illegal to make alcohol, even for purposes of fuel, and drove the Texas oil industry to unheard of levels of profit and market dominance in the years that followed. And once Prohibition was finally repealed, the oil industry had generated a lock on the market, through a widespread network of gas stations, and “black gold” had become the fuel of the future that would make the United States of America the pre-eminent world power of the time.