The individual who focused attention back on the United States was Columbus Marion (“Dad”) Joiner. Joiner became convinced that some flatlands in an East Texas basinlike structure contained oil. He obtained a lease near Tyler, Texas, and on October 5, 1930, after having drilled two dry holes, struck perhaps the largest oil pool ever found in America. It lay beneath 140,000 acres and contained 5 billion barrels. H. L. Hunt, an oil entrepreneur, bought Joiner’s leases and later sold them to oil companies at a profit of $100 million, thereby adding to his already substantial fortune.
In a sense the Joiner strike came at an inopportune time; it was the onset of the Great Depression. The price of oil plummeted to ten cents a barrel in 1931, creating chaos in the industry. But some New Deal measures restored a modicum of prosperity, and then World War II stimulated the oil business enormously.