Spindletop – the Boom Heard ‘Round the World

Discovery of oil on January 10, 1901 at Spindletop, a small hill south of Beaumont, Texas Marked the birth of the modern petroleum industry.

Before this, Pennsylvania had been the most oil productive state in the country. All that changed on January 10, 1901.

Native Americans used oil seeps to protect against mosquitoes and to seal leaks in their canoes. Spanish explorers used the black, sticky tar found washed up on the Texas beaches to waterproof their boots.

In the late 1800s an oil well was drilled near the east Texas town of Nacogdoches. This well was known as “Oil Springs”.

Corsicana was the first big producing oil field in east Texas. Local businessmen were drilling for water, but they found OIL instead!

By the end of the year 1900 more than 2 million barrels of oil had been produced in the Corsicana field.

Patillo Higgins was one of the few at the time who believed that, in the future, modern industry would switch from coal to oil. Patillo Higgins

But where to get all that oil? Patillo Higgins believed it lay beneath his feet at a salt dome known as Spindletop, south of Beaumont, Texas.

Higgins organized the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company in 1892.

Anthony Lucas, a trained engineer with experience as a salt miner in Louisiana, was put in charge of drilling.                      Anthony Lucas

The drilling began on October 27, 1900.

Oil wildcatters had to drill through several hundred feet of sand. This made the hole cave in.

To help solve this problem they came up with the solution of pumping mud down into the hole. The mud stuck to the sides and kept it from caving in.

They brought in a more experienced team from Corsicana and began using a a more efficient rotary type drill bit.

By Christmas, 1900, the drilling crew had reached a depth of 880 feet. During the first week of January, 1901 they had drilled down to a depth of 1,020 feet.

The day was January 10, 1901. After lowering the drill into the open hole to a depth of about 700 feet, mud started bubbling back up the hole. Seconds later, the drill pipe shot out of the ground with great force, and then . . . Nothing happened.

All of a sudden, a noise like a cannon shot came from the hole, and mud came shooting out of the ground like a rocket. Within seconds, natural gas, then oil followed.

The oil “gusher”, greenish- black in color, doubled the size of the drilling derrick, rising to a height of more than 150 feet! This was more oil than had ever been seen anywhere in the entire world.

Captain Lucas had been hopeful that this well might produce 5 barrels a day. In fact, this well, “Lucas 1” flowed at an initial rate of nearly 100,000 barrels per day, more than all of the other producing wells in the U.S. COMBINED!

Almost instantly, locations such as Pennsylvania and Russia lost their status as major oil producers, for the Spindletop wells could produce more oil in one day than the rest of the fields in the world combined.

In the weeks after the gusher, Beaumont became an oil-crazy Boomtown of 50,000 dealers, oil workers, investors, traders, & merchants.

By 1902 there were more than 500 Texas corporations doing business in Beaumont. Many of the major oil companies were born at Spindletop or grew to major corporate size as a result of their involvement at Spindletop.                 

The Texas Company (Texaco), Gulf Oil (Chevron), and Humble (Exxon-Mobil) were a few of the major companies. The Texas Company Texaco Corporate Office, Houston, Texas

Now people realized the true potential of oil. Before Spindletop, oil was used mainly for lamps and lubrication. After Spindletop, petroleum would be used as a major fuel for such new inventions as the airplane and automobile.

Ships and trains that had previously run on the power of coal, now began to switch to oil.

From this point on, nothing in the oil industry would ever be the same again. The “gusher” at Spindletop ushered in the modern age of petroleum.

Over the next 30 years, the U Over the next 30 years, the U.S witnessed a string of historic oil strikes in West Texas, Oklahoma, and the great East Texas Oil Field that transformed the Southwestern U.S.

Spindletop ushered in the great oil boom in Texas. Oil companies and wildcatters, or speculators willing to gamble and drill in places not known for oil, began drilling.

One such wildcatter was Columbus “Dad” Joiner. Dad Joiner went broke several times drilling for oil until... he struck gold in East Texas in 1930.

Joiner’s discovery became known as the East Texas Oil Field. In a little over 40 years, this field produced more than 4 billion barrels of oil. It accounted for 1/10 of the oil produced in the United States.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. By the end of 1931, the East Texas field had 3,600 wells. Only a couple of years later, the field had 26,000 wells. Sounds good, but...

The rapid growth in oil production reduced the price of oil from $1.10 a barrel to 10 cents a barrel in a matter of a few months.

The boom was followed by a bust. Regulation and discoveries in West Texas helped bring Texas out of this initial bust, but the boom/ bust cycle has continued through the years. Boom and Bust Today, petroleum is still key to the Texas economy.

However... we have had to diversify our economy and develop other industries so that we are not totally dependent on oil.

One such industry is the petrochemical industry. Petrochemicals are chemicals or products made from oil and natural gas.

What would Texas be like today if we did not have oil? What are the advantages and disadvantages of oil as a basis of our economy?

Spindletop started it all Spindletop started it all. Texas … and the world …would never be the same.