How one well at Spindletop launched the petroleum age
On January 10, 1901, a drill bit at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont punched into a pressurized oil reservoir and erupted with a force that shot crude 150 feet into the air. The Lucas Gusher produced 100,000 barrels a day — more than every other US oil well combined. It blew uncontrolled for nine days. That single well created Gulf Oil, Texaco, and Humble Oil (now ExxonMobil), transformed Texas from a cotton economy into an energy superpower, and made gasoline cheap enough to fuel the automobile revolution. The gentle dome of Spindletop Hill is barely visible from the air — hard to believe this spot changed the world.