Since early 1977, the Bureau of Economic Geology has been evaluating several salt-bearing basins within the State of Texas as part of the national nuclear waste repository program, The Bureau, a research unit of The University of Texas at Austin, is conducting a long-term program to gather and interpret all geologic and hydrologic information necessary to describe, delineate, and evaluate salt-bearing and related strata in the Pals Duro Basin and vicinity.

The top of mushroom-shaped Oakwood salt dome is approximately 210 m (700 ft) beneath the boundary of Freestone and Leon Counties near the southwestern end of the East Texas Basin, The dome is surrounded by Jurassic, Cretaceous, and lower Tertiary marine and nonrnarine strata. A salt pillow initially formed in Late Jurassic “Smackover” time, when faulting contributed to uneven sediment loading of the Louann Salt.

Lignite deeper than 200 ft (61 m) constitutes about 60 percent of the total lignite resources in Texas. Projections indicate that meeting future demand will require mining this deep-basin lignite. However, because the principal lignite host, the Eocene Wilcox Group, is also a major fresh-water aquifer, deep-basin lignite development by surface mining or underground gasification poses unanswered questions concerning hydrogeologic feasibility and environmental impacts.

The search for oil, its development, production, and marketing have, for the better part of a century, been a fundamental part of the Texas economy. The history of Texas oil finders, from the self-educated wildcatter to the highly trained explorationist, is a part of Texas lore.