During the first decade of the 20th century, mining engineers discovered sufficient quantities of sulphur deposits at Bryan Mound to lead to the organization of the Texas Freeport Sulphur Co. in 1912. Commercial production of sulphur at Bryan Mound was largely responsible for the development of the Freeport townsite. Use of a liquid extraction procedure to mine the sulphur, known as the Frasch process, marked one of the earliest uses of this method in Texas. The Bryan Mound operation closed in 1935 after producing 5 million tons of sulphur.