Delta Drilling Company
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In response to the East Texas oil boom, Delta Drilling Company was founded in 1931 by Bob Stacy, Sam Dorfman, and Joseph Zeppa. Originally housed in an apartment at this site, the firm moved to Tyler in 1937. Delta drilled many of the oil wells that brought wealth to this part of the state and soon expanded over much of the western hemisphere and into parts of Africa and Europe. The enterprise now includes gas processing plants, exploration and production divisions, and has become a technological leader in land-based drilling operations.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Delta Drilling Company was born in 1931 amid the frenzy of the East Texas oil boom—the largest field then known in the world—founded by Bob Stacy, Sam Dorfman, and Joseph Zeppa in an apartment on this very site. From those cramped beginnings it drilled many of the wells that flooded the region with wealth before moving to Tyler and expanding across the hemisphere and beyond. The firm grew into a technological leader in land-based drilling.
Why it matters
Delta's rise from an apartment office to a global driller captures the wildcatting spirit of the East Texas boom that reshaped the American oil industry.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Bob Stacy
- · Sam Dorfman
- · Joseph Zeppa
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Courthouses of Gregg County
Longview, TX
Since its formation in 1873, Gregg County has housed its government in a succession of buildings, from cramped rented rooms above a hardware store to a French Second Empire courthouse with a mansard roof and clock tower. Structural failures forced repeated rebuilding, and a Romanesque Revival courthouse of 1897 gave way in 1932 to a modern Art Deco building when the East Texas oil boom overwhelmed county business. That Depression-era courthouse, much enlarged, still serves today.
Everett Building
Longview, TX
Raised in 1910 to house the Citizens National Bank, the Everett Building brought classical revival dignity — a rounded bay and recessed entrance — to Longview's commercial core, the town's only example of the style. It was designed by architect and educator Samuel J. Blocker and built by area businessman Lafayette Johnson Everett. Across the decades it sheltered a succession of banks and professional offices, anchoring the city's business district.
Noted Texas Leader, Developer, Conservationist, Carl L. Estes
Longview, TX
Carl L. Estes (1896-1967) rose from newsboy to one of American journalism's giants, founding papers across Texas before buying Longview's dailies and building his headquarters here in 1935. Publishing hefty special editions and wielding a showman's flair, he became the most powerful voice in East Texas just as the world's largest oil field roared to life beneath it. He fought the 'hot oil' runners who threatened the field's future and championed roads, schools, hospitals, and conservation.
Site of James S. Hogg Newspaper
Longview, TX
Here in 1871, at just twenty years old, James Stephen Hogg founded his first newspaper, the Longview News. In its pages he pressed for better schools and government while campaigning against radical Reconstruction policies, railroad subsidies, and frontier lawlessness. The three-year venture sharpened the leadership that carried him to become, in 1891, the first native-born governor of Texas.