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The Humble Oil Field in Anahuac: The Gulf Coast Boom and the Homes That Still Hold the Memories
- Cully Mulryan
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
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If you’ve ever driven around Anahuac and felt like the land has more stories than it lets on—you’re right. Long before Mont Belvieu became synonymous with storage and pipelines, Chambers County had another major chapter unfolding: the discovery and development of the Anahuac Oil & Gas Field, led by Humble Oil & Refining Company.
This isn’t West Texas oil. This is Gulf Coast oil—built around marshland, rice country, and small towns that suddenly found themselves connected to something much bigger.
The moment everything changed: March 3, 1935
Although Chambers County had oil production of value going back to 1916, the Anahuac field became the county’s most prolific story when it was discovered on March 3, 1935.
That discovery is tied to one well:
Humble Oil & Refining Company’s A.D. Middleton No. 1, located about 1.8 miles southeast of Anahuac.
When that well was completed, it proved the presence of a major producing structure—and the area quickly shifted from quiet rural land into a working oil province.
Humble didn’t just drill wells—they built a community
One detail that matters when telling this story: Humble didn’t operate the field from a distance. The company established a camp adjacent to the discovery area, housing the crews who developed the field.
That “camp” wasn’t a footnote—it was the start of an industrial rhythm that shaped local life. The workers weren’t just passing through. They lived near the field, raised families, and became part of the community’s identity.
And in local memory, this left something tangible: many families still talk about oilfield camp houses being moved into town, with some of those homes still visible around Anahuac today.
(That house story is a whole documentary by itself—but even as a side note, it shows how deep this history runs.)
What kind of field was Anahuac?
The Anahuac field wasn’t small. By description, it encompassed about 14,000 acres of prime rice and grazing land. It produced from 21 zones in a highly faulted domal structure—meaning the geology was complex, stacked, and broken by faults.
Producing depths ranged from about 6,600 feet to 8,600 feet.
In plain terms: this wasn’t one easy “hit.” It was a multi-layer system that kept producing over time.
The discovery well: from modest to major
The A.D. Middleton No. 1 well itself tells a classic Gulf Coast story of persistence and improvement.
Original potential: 144 barrels/day from a depth of 7,050 feet
Deepened to 7,088 feet
Recompleted on March 14, 1935
New potential: 518 barrels/day
By 1966, the well had produced more than 390,000 barrels of oil—a major contribution from a single well that started the whole field’s legacy.
World War II: the field hits its peak
The Anahuac field reached peak production during World War II.
In 1944, the annual total hit:
11,916,137 barrels in a single year.
That’s the kind of number that tells you this wasn’t just a local operation. This was part of the energy backbone that powered a wartime economy.
A field with staying power
Total production figures for the Anahuac field are massive:
Over 177 million barrels of oil
268 billion cubic feet of gas
At one point in its documented life, the field had 408 wells, and expectations were that production would continue into the 21st century.
This is what people mean when they say a field “built a region.” It wasn’t a quick boom-and-bust. It was decades of output, jobs, and industrial growth.
Monroe City: the support town born from the boom
The field didn’t just change the land—it shaped communities around it. One of the best examples is Monroe City, located at the junction of FM 1724 and State Highway 124.
Monroe City was established in the wake of the Anahuac oilfield discovery in 1935, and it became a support community for the industrial surge.
Key details from its early growth:
Major interests in the field included Humble, followed by Sun Oil and Gulf Oil
By the end of 1935, a store was established at the oilfield camp
In 1936, the Monroe City post office opened
Some sources place the population around 300 by 1939
By 1940, the town had multiple stores, worker housing, and even a Brown & Root company camp
Then, as the boom cooled, the population declined—another familiar Gulf Coast pattern: big growth driven by industry, followed by a slower, steadier small-town life.
Why this story still matters in Anahuac
The Anahuac field is more than a historical marker entry. It’s one of those industrial stories where you can still trace the impact:
in how the region developed,
in the family histories tied to the work,
and in the physical remnants—like old sites, roads, and yes, even houses.
Humble Oil & Refining Company didn’t just pull product out of the ground. It helped shape the identity of this part of Chambers County—and that legacy still sits right alongside the everyday life of Anahuac.
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