Before the white man came to the area, North Caddo was the rich forest land of the Kadohadacho or Caddo Indians. Folklore tells that in 1811, the great New Madrid Missouri Earthquake formed the now present Caddo Lake. Earliest settlers were traders, trappers, and farmers. The buffalo moved farther west as civilization penetrated the once wilderness country. In 1903, a "pick and shovel man" camp was built to house crews who built and maintained the railroads.

Steamboats plied the lake and Red River, transporting distinguished passengers, laborers, freight and cotton.

The first oil well in North Louisiana was started in 1904 by the Savage Brothers and Morrical. The pace of life quickened, and by 1910 almost twenty-five thousand people were picking up their mail from the post office.

The Oil City area went from the peace and serenity of Indian hunting grounds to hysteria due to the "Oil Rush." The city became the first "wildcat town" in the Ark-La-Tex. Reno Hill, a ten acre red light district, as well as the many rough "characters" in the town gave Oil City a "notorious" reputation.

Major oil companies and private individuals quickly leased the oil saturated land, although land had gone from 50 cents to $500 an acre in one year.The land was in the hands of a very few. This factor along with the city's bad reputation hindered its growth for a number of years. It became primarily an oil field town with other industry very limited.

In 1910 most of the land around Caddo Lake had been leased, although there was approximately eight thousand acres of the lake bed which had not been purchased. Because of the large amount of production around the lake, most oil men believed that the lake bottom would yield large amounts of oil, but also that it would require a large amount of capital to drill.

The Gulf Refining Company of Louisiana decided to drill in the lake bed. Henry Melat, Gulf Refining Company's drilling superintendent, planned to build permanent drilling platforms every six hundred feet on each ten acre site in the lake bed. In May, 1911, the Ferry No. 1, the world's first offshore well was completed.

Today Oil City has been marked as one of Louisiana's historical sites. The Caddo-Pine Island Oil and Historical Society sponsors the town museum which is now under the control of the Louisiana Department of State.

The Louisiana State Oil and Gas Museum is housed in a brand new 12,000 square foot, state of the art facilaty containing some of the newest exhibits in the state. The museum takes you through the progression of Oil City starting with the Caddo Indian exhibit showing thier culture. Then onto a hands on archeologist exhibit and frightening sounds from the loud boom of a log jam. Visitors will be captivated by the lifestyle of the oilers from photographs and full size replicas of early Oil City homes. They will also learn from reading about and seeing scaled down, functional oil and gas retrieval equipment as it would operate in the field.

In addition to three historic boom town buildings and numerous outdoor exhibits on display, Texaco has donated an oil derrick which now stands beside the museum, along with other early oilfield equipment and the first home of the museum, the old railroad depot, donated by Kansas City Southern Railroad.

The museum is open from 9 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday. There is no admission.

For additional information, please call (318) 995-6845 or visit The Caddo-Pine Island Oil and Historical Society at http://members.aol.com/CaddoPine.