January 10, 1901 has gone down in petroleum history as the discovery of the great Spindletop gusher.
Widely regarded as the most famous date in Texas’ rich oil history, the day marked the first salt dome oil discovery.
Captain Anthony Lucas drilled the well to 1,139 ft. The geyser blew more than 150ft in the air. Thousands of barrels of oil poured from the well, which was found near Beaumont, before it could be tapped. It’s estimated that 100,000 barrels of oil spewed from the find for nine days before they were able to cull the flow. It triggered a nation wide obsession and kick-started the state’s successful exploration run.
The find later cemented Beaumont as an oil boom town. The quiet community saw its population triple to 30,000 in three months before eventually reaching 50,000.
Texas oil production increased from 836,039 barrels in 1900 to 4,393,658 in 1901.
In 1902, Spindletop alone produced 17,421,000 barrels, or 94 percent of the state’s production. The mass production saw prices drop to an all time low of three cents a barrel.
However, 1904 saw Spindletop’s production slow to 10,000 barrels of oil per day. Further drilling and investment lead to the site’s peak production in 1927, when it produced 21 million barrels of oil.
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