Spindletop Gushes: Texas Oil Boom Begins
A column of oil shot 150 feet into the Texas sky and stayed there for nine days before anyone could cap it. The Spindletop gusher near Beaumont produced more oil in a single day than every other well in America combined, instantly making Texas the center of the global petroleum industry. Within months, the population of Beaumont tripled as wildcatters, speculators, and roughnecks flooded in. Companies like Texaco, Gulf Oil, and Humble Oil, the predecessor of ExxonMobil, were all founded in the Spindletop aftermath. The gusher also destroyed John D. Rockefeller's near-monopoly on American oil by flooding the market with crude from outside Standard Oil's network. Before Spindletop, oil was primarily used for kerosene lamps. After it, cheap abundant petroleum became the fuel that powered automobiles, ships, and eventually aircraft.
January 10, 1901
125 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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