The discoveries of Spindletop field near Beaumont, Texas, on January 10, 1901, and the East Texas field, located between the cities of Longview and Tyler, Texas, on October 5, 1930, are probably the two most important events in the exploration history of the American petroleum industry. Spindletop revolutionized both the American and world petroleum industry and created the need for petroleum geologists. The East Texas field had a profound and beneficial effect on depressed economic conditions of the time, and it brought to the attention of geologists the great productive possibilities of stratigraphic-type traps.

The East Texas field has two outstanding features: its tremendous size and the simplicity of its geologic trap. It has produced 4,651,000,000 bbl through January 1, 1980, and probably will produce another billion barrels. The trap occurs where the truncated edge of the productive Woodbine sand crosses regional nosing on the west flank of the Sabine uplift.

Although this discussion is based principally on a single 75 mi (120.7 km) long east-west dip electric-log cross section, conclusions were derived from studies that made use of several regional cross sections and maps.

These studies indicate that a major rise of the Sabine uplift occurred after Buda deposition and before Woodbine deposition. The Woodbine apparently was deposited on a Lower Cretaceous peneplane, which resulted from uplift and severe erosion of Lower Cretaceous strata. Woodbine sediments were deposited over the present crestal and flank areas of the Sabine uplift on this eroded surface. A later major rise of the Sabine uplift occurred during upper Woodbine and Eagle Ford deposition and the resulting erosion removed all Woodbine strata from the higher reaches of the Sabine uplift. These eroded Woodbine sediments were redeposited as reworked Woodbine beds in Texas, and they were probably, in part, a source of Eagle Ford sands in Texas and of Tuscaloosa sands in Louisiana.

At the end of Early Cretaceous deposition, the East Texas field region was structurally higher than the Texas-Louisiana border area now occupied by the Sabine uplift. Since that time, the rise of the Sabine uplift has changed that relationship so that the East Texas field area now lies downdip from and on the west flank of the Sabine uplift.