Long pier was first step into Gulf
The beginning of the offshore oil industry is commonly dated to the completion of a Kerr-McGee well south of Morgan City in November 1947, but drillers brought in the first well in the Gulf almost a decade before that, in the middle of March 1938.
Humble Oil drilled that well at the end of a pier stretching a mile into the water from McFadden Beach, south of Port Arthur. A railroad spur ran down the middle of the pier and was used to bring men and supplies to the drilling rig at its end.