Spindletop: The True Story of the Oil Discovery that Changed the World, Centennial Edition

At 10:30 in the morning of January 10, 1901, the first gusher "roared in like a shot from a heavy cannon and spouted oil a hundred feet over the top of the derrick out on the hummock that the world would soon know as Spindletop," wrote Michel T. Halbouty and his lifetime friend, James A. Clark, setting in motion the world's first oil boom, a mighty reverberation heard round the world that began the American oil industry and gave impetus to the Industrial Age. "There and then, America was blessed with the supply of energy and the incentive to move up from a secondary position in world affairs to that of undisputed leadership.

"Before Spindletop, oil was used for lamps and lubrication. The famous Lucas gusher changed that. It started the liquid fuel age, which brought forth the automobile, the airplane, the network of highways, improved railroad and marine transportation, the era of mass production and untold comforts and conveniences."

In this way, Halbouty and Clark, men who worked in the field and knew it all their lives, begin their account of one of the most important events of the century, an event that reshaped the world and gave rise to the creation of most of the world's major oil companies, including Texaco, Gulf (Chevron), Humble (Exxon), and Amoco, and set off the stampede of geologists to the corners of the earth in search of oil in quantities comparable to those of Spindletop.

Now re-released in a centennial edition, the story of Spindletop is as fascinating today as it was in 1952, when Gulf Publishing Company first released it. It weaves the incidents leading up to the discovery with insight into the men who made it happen, and provides an account of the boom days that followed, tripling the population of nearby Beaumont, Texas and leading to the establishment of Houston as the oil capital of the world.

It all began with a visionary named Pattillo Higgins, a one-armed mechanic and self-taught geologist who knew in all his heart the oil was there, but had tremendous difficulty convincing others to invest in his dream. For years, he sought to convince investors of Spindletop's prospectivity without success. He bought sizable acreage at Spindletop, but had to relinquish most of his holdings due to financial difficulties.

Captain Anthony F. Lucas, also believed in Spindletop. An experienced mining engineer, he, too, had difficulty convincing others of the prospect, but, in late 1900, he secured the services of the Hamill brothers, contract drillers from Corsicana, Texas, and the drilling commenced. On January 10, 1901, the Lucas Gusher came in, blasting a column of oil a hundred feet over the derrick at the rate of 100,000 b/d—more than the production of all the rest of the wells in the United States combined.

Halbouty and Clark's book describes the boom and bedlam that followed, the speculators and charlatans who preyed on the prospectors, and the financial, geological, and technological challenges that had to be overcome. The book tells the who story of the discovery and the people responsible for it. The authors knew Patillo Higgins and Captain Lucas, and were personal witnesses to the drama. They grew up in Beaumont and worked in the field during the second boom of 1925. Before his death in 1977, Clark was considered the dean of oil writers, and Halbouty, still one of the world's eminent petroleum geologists and a celebrated petroleum engineers, at 91, continues to be active in the industry as a successful independent oil and gas producer, and lectures passionately as an advocate of total conservation in petroleum.

Their book, Spindletop, is highly recommended. It belongs in every person's library who has an interest in the petroleum industry.

Spindletop: The True Story of the Oil Discovery that Changed the World was re-published January, 2000 by Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas.
Authors: Michel T. Halbouty and James A. Clark.
Price: $26/95 – Available from the publisher or from Oil and Gas Online's Info-Store.