# Beverly Hillbillies story: is it possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2002, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814 "2002-09-03T15:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mikan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mikan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/1 "2002-09-03T15:26:04Z")
Specifically, the part about Jed out shootin’ up some food, and from the ground came a-bubblin’ crude. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Well the first thing you know ol’ Jed’s a millionaire, the kinfolk said … oops, sorry, got carried away there. What I mean is, have large deposits of oil ever actually existed (somewhere) close enough beneath the surface of the ground that they could be discovered by some hillbilly with a rifle? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/2 "2002-09-03T15:59:12Z")
There are oil seeps, where oil makes it up to the surface on its own. By the time oil makes it to the surface it’s likely going to be more like tar than a-bubblin’ crude. At a typical 20% royalty, it would take ~250,000 bbl. of oil to make Jed a millionaire, and it wouldn’t happen very quickly. It’s unlikely that much production would be found withing rifle range of the surface - I know of no such instance. ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/3 "2002-09-03T16:09:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ringo \* > …At a typical 20% royalty, it would take ~250,000 bbl. of oil to make Jed a millionaire, and it wouldn’t happen very quickly… True, but if he sold the rights he would get there a lot quicker. Still, American sitcoms are not generally known as a fount for accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/4 "2002-09-03T16:11:15Z")
Seems I recall reading that when the American oil industry got its start in Pennsylvania, oil was indeed bubbling at or near the surface there. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/5 "2002-09-03T17:42:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Seems I recall reading that when the American oil industry got its start in Pennsylvania, oil was indeed bubbling at or near the surface there. Titusville. I grew up there. There is a creek there called Oil Creek, which was so called because there were oil seeps under it, and oil sometimes floated on the surface of it. It had a lot to do with Drake’s choice of drilling location. Incidently, after the great oil boom, the seeps dried up, logically enough. Drake’s well was very shallow. As noted, you usually get tar associated with surface seeps. You can indeed find blobs of the stuff in the woods in that part of the country. Actually, PA crude is parrifin based, and you tend to get this smelly oily wax around oil seeps. We have them in the Santa Cruz Mts in CA, too. I go hiking at a place called “Tarwater” outside Portola State Park. Tarwater Creek is aptly named - in fact, at the point you cross it at, it can be downright disgusting. But it’s actually natural. The major creek running through Portola Park (a lovely park, BTW) also sometimes gets a noticeable oil sheen on it from seeps, and they reccomend that you stay out of it. The oil industry actually tried wells in that area (around Purisima, specifically), partly on the strength of there being a lot of seeps about. Eventually, oil drilling in CA moved south to Lompoc. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/6 "2002-09-03T18:02:44Z")
As noted, an oil seep was a guiding light in Drake’s choice of initial drilling location; that’s not to say anything was a-bubblin’. Suffice to say it is very unlikely that you would find any previously unknown near surface oil accumulation that had the right viscosity and sufficient driving pressure to come a-bubblin’ out of a hole the depth of what a rifle shot might produce. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/7 "2002-09-03T19:04:21Z")
[From here](http://www.humble-inc.com/humblehistory.htm) > [@](#): > > Bubbles of oil were first observed seeping from ground near the San Jacinto river in 1887. [This article](http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/OO/doogz.html) from the Handbook of Texas Online also mentions oil seepages in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/8 "2002-09-03T20:16:08Z")
I think a-bubblin’ is becoming a sort of distraction here. I think it unlikely you’re going to discover any previously unknown (i.e., no prior surface seepage) commercial accumulation of oil that will net you, the mineral owner, a million dollars, with your hunting rifle. Feel free to disagree; get your rifle and head on out. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/9 "2002-09-03T20:55:49Z")
Funny, my dad and I were watching the E! True Hollywood Story on the _Beverly Hillbillies_ yesterday, and I asked him if it was possible to strike oil merely by shooting at the ground… ---
**Author:** ![CaptainGeordie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@CaptainGeordie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptainGeordie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/10 "2002-09-04T20:22:20Z")
Afraid this may also be a bit off topic, but in the ‘Zorro’ comic strips, mention is often made of the Tar Pits at La Brea. Are they really in a 'prehistoric, primitive landscape? Do they exist? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Frink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Mr.Frink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Frink)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/11 "2002-09-05T06:51:14Z")
Yes Virginia…there is a tar pit. Check out [www.tarpits.org](http://www.tarpits.org) > [@](#): > > \*\*…this spot is in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, eloquent testimony to urban sprawl, but the pools and deposits of asphalt still remain. For these are the La Brea tar pits, containing one of the richest, best preserved, and best studied assemblages of Pleistocene vertebrates, including at least 59 species of mammal and over 135 species of bird. The tar pit fossils bear eloquent witness to life in southern California from 40,000 to 8,000 years ago; aside from vertebrates, they include plants, mollusks, and insects – over 660 species of organisms in all. \*\* _\_ ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/12 "2002-09-05T07:43:03Z")
The Bass Strait oil and gas fields (Australia’s most important oil and gas fields) were originally discovered because big lumps of petroleum wax kept washing up on the beaches of Victoria and Tasmania and people started to wonder where they were coming from. Turned out they were coming form seeps on the ocean floor. ---
**Author:** ![mikan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mikan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/13 "2002-09-05T11:18:01Z")
So, a hillbilly walking on the ocean floor off the coast of Australia with a speargun…? Just why is it, **Ringo** , that oil at or near the surface is going to be more like tar than a-bubblin’ crude? What happens to it on the way up? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/14 "2002-09-05T14:49:48Z")
It’s not what happens to it on the way up, but on the surface. The volatile fractions evaporate. It’s called a “seep” because the oil escapes slowly. If it’s underwater, the lighter fractions separate to form a sheen on the surface of the water, the heavier stuff washes up places in blobs. You will note similar separation behavior from tanker spills. The non-volatile stuff left behind can vary in composition from tar to wax, as has been suggested. PA, and apparently, Tasmania, have paraffin based crude oil, and seeps there tend to leave wax lying about. Incidently, that’s part of the reason PA oil is particularly good for lubrication applications. On the other hand, the “Tarwater Creek” in CA I mentioned above is aptly named. Where the hiking trail crosses the creek at a shallow spot there’s these big accumulations of tarry glop. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beverly-hillbillies-story-is-it-possible/126814/15 "2002-09-05T21:27:21Z")
What **yabob** said; after the lighter components have evaporated, the heavier stuff remaining is oxidized and munched on by bacteria to become even heavier, sticky, black [asphaltum](http://seeps.wr.usgs.gov/seeps/native_uses.html).