January 10:

1901 : Gusher signals start of U.S. oil industry

On this day in 1901, a drilling derrick at Spindletop
Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produces an enormous gusher
of crude oil, coating the landscape for hundreds of
feet and signaling the advent of the American oil
industry. The geyser was discovered at a depth of over
1,000 feet, flowed at an initial rate of approximately
100,000 barrels a day and took nine days to cap.
Following the discovery, petroleum, which until that
time had been used in the U.S. primarily as a
lubricant and in kerosene for lamps, would become the
main fuel source for new inventions such as cars and
airplanes; coal-powered forms of transportation
including ships and trains would also convert to the
liquid fuel.

Crude oil, which became the world's first
trillion-dollar industry, is a natural mix of hundreds
of different hydrocarbon compounds trapped in
underground rock. The hydrocarbons were formed
millions of years ago when tiny aquatic plants and
animals died and settled on the bottoms of ancient
waterways, creating a thick layer of organic material.
Sediment later covered this material, putting heat and
pressure on it and transforming it into the petroleum
that comes out of the ground today.

In the early 1890s, Texas businessman and amateur
geologist Patillo Higgins became convinced there was a
large pool of oil under a salt-dome formation south of
Beaumont. He and several partners established the
Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company and
made several unsuccessful drilling attempts before
Higgins left the company. In 1899, Higgins leased a
tract of land at Spindletop to mining engineer Anthony
Lucas. The Lucas gusher blew on January 10, 1901, and
ushered in the liquid fuel age. Unfortunately for
Higgins, he'd lost his ownership stake by that point.

Beaumont became a "black gold" boomtown, its
population tripling in three months. The town filled
up with oil workers, investors, merchants and con men
(leading some people to dub it "Swindletop"). Within a
year, there were more than 285 actives wells at
Spindletop and an estimated 500 oil and land companies
operating in the area, including some that are major
players today: Humble (now Exxon), the Texas Company
(Texaco) and Magnolia Petroleum Company (Mobil).

Spindletop experienced a second boom starting in the
mid-1920s when more oil was discovered at deeper
depths. In the 1950s, Spindletop was mined for
sulphur. Today, only a few oil wells still operate in
the area.

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