Telegram from the Taft Chamber of Commerce, April 10, 1928

This telegram concerns a fire in the giant Rachal gas well of the Saxtet Oil Company in White Point, San Patricio County. The fire was so bright that it illuminated the countryside for many miles. The San Antonio Express-News quoted San Patricio county commissioner W.L. Hilliard as saying that he could sit out at night on his front porch in Taft, six miles away from the fire, and read a newspaper by the light. By the time the Taft Chamber of Commerce lost patience and sent this telegram to the Railroad Commission, the fire had been burning for three months, wasting millions of cubic feet of gas every day.

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Telegram from the Taft Chamber of Commerce, April 10, 1928. Correspondence and Reports, Oil and Gas Division, Railroad Commision. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.