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On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindletop struck oil ("came in"). The Spindletop gusher blew for 9 days at a rate estimated at 100,000 barrels (16,000 m 3) of oil per day. [3] Gulf Oil and Texaco, now part of Chevron Corporation, were formed to develop production at Spindletop. [4] The Spindletop discovery led the United States into the oil age.
The boom at Spindletop was short lived. Overproduction depleted the oil and ruined many wells. By 1903, the field had begun to decline and within 10 years Spindletop Hill was virtually a ghost town. In 1926, Spindletop boomed again when new technology led to the discovery of oil on the flanks of the salt dome through deeper drilling.
Lucas and his colleagues struggled for two years to find oil at a location known as Spindletop Hill before making a strike in 1901. The new well produced approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day, an unprecedented level of production at the time. [33] The 1902 total annual production at Spindletop exceeded 17 million barrels.
The Lucas Gusher at Spindletop. January 10, 1901. In 1899, Lucas visited the Sour Spring Mound south of Beaumont, Texas, with Pattillo Higgins. This was the future site of Spindletop. Lucas noted, "This mound attracted my attention on account of the contour, which indicated possibilities for an incipient dome below, and because at the apex of ...
1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop (pictured) in Beaumont, Texas. 1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I. The United States entered the war in 1917.
Spindletop, the first major oil gusher. In 1900, Texas suffered the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history during the Galveston hurricane. [113] On January 10, 1901, the first major oil well in Texas, Spindletop, was found south of Beaumont. Other fields were later discovered nearby in East Texas, West Texas, and under the Gulf of Mexico.
Pattillo Higgins was born to Roberto James and Sarah (Raye) Higgins on December 5, 1863, in Sabine Pass, Texas.His family moved to Beaumont when he was six years old. He attended school until he reached the fourth grade, after which he apprenticed as a gunsmith under his father's direction.
Spindletop became the focus of frenzied drilling; oil production from the field peaked in 1902 at 17,400,000 barrels (2,770,000 m 3), but by 1905 production had declined 90% from the peak. [18] Spindletop Hill turned out to be the surface expression of an underground salt dome, around which the oil accumulated.