Bryan Mound

During the first decade of the twentieth century a young mining engineer by the name of Bernard Baruch discovered a salt dome with a sulfur-bearing caprock some twenty feet above the flat shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico in Brazoria County (at 28°55' N, 95°23' W). He tried unsuccessfully to encourage J. P. Morgan to go into partnership to develop the sulfur mine, but Morgan thought the venture too much of a gamble. Later other investors became interested and began a mining process, using the Frasch method for the first time in Texas. In 1912 the first sulfur was mined, and thus began the development of Freeport, Texas, which took its name from that of the Freeport Sulphur Company. Later, oil and gas were also found in the dome. The original operation closed in 1935 after having produced five million tons of sulfur.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.