RODESSA OILFIELD. The Rodessa oilfield extends from western Louisiana across the southeastern corner of Cass County and into the northeastern corner of Marion County. Drilling on the Texas side of the field began on December 24, 1936, with the completion of the R. W. Norton No. 1, Haywood well in Cass County and was extended into Marion County in 1937. Peak production was 12,626,000 barrels in 1937; after that time it declined steadily, and in 1947 the field produced only 960,000 barrels. In recent years new extraction methods have raised production, and oil pumped from the Rodessa field made up a significant portion of the 1.5 million barrel total produced in Cass and Marion counties in 1991.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carl Coke Rister, Oil! Titan of the Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949). Charles Albert Warner, Texas Oil and Gas Since 1543 (Houston: Gulf, 1939).
