 Spindletop | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
 | |
| Location: | Spindletop Hill, South of Beaumont, Texas, USA |
| Coordinates: | |
| Built/Founded: | 1900 |
| Designated as NHL: | November 13, 1966 |
| Added to NRHP: | November 13, 1966 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 66000818 |
  Spindletop Hill in Texas | |
Spindletop is a salt dome oil field located in south Beaumont, Texas (approx. Beaumont is a city in and the County seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont&ndash Port Arthur Metropolitan The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A National Historic Landmark (NHL is a Building, site, Structure, Object, or District, that is officially recognized by the Events 1002 - English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP is the United States government's official list of districts sites buildings structures and objects deemed worthy of Events 1002 - English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when a thick bed of Evaporite minerals (mainly salt or Halite) found at depth intrudes vertically into An oil field is a region with an abundance of Oil wells extracting Petroleum (crude oil from below ground Beaumont is a city in and the County seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont&ndash Port Arthur Metropolitan Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. 30. 02 -94. 07) in the United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindletop struck oil ("came in"), marking the birthdate of the modern petroleum industry. Events 49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war. Year 1901 ( MCMI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit At 100,000 barrels (16,000 m³) of oil a day, the gusher tripled U. S. oil production overnight. Some of the companies chartered to exploit the wealth of Spindletop, such as Gulf Oil and Texaco, are part of today's Chevron Corporation. Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron"
Contents |
History
There had long been suspicions that oil might be under "Spindletop Hill. " The area was known for its sulfur springs and bubbling gas seepages that would ignite if lit. Sulfur or sulphur (ˈsʌlfɚ see spelling below) is the Chemical element that has the Atomic number 16 A spring is a point where Groundwater flows out of the ground and is thus where the Aquifer surface meets the ground surface In August 1892, George W. O'Brien, George W. Carroll, Pattillo Higgins and others formed the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company to do exploratory drilling on Spindletop Hill. Pattillo Higgins (December 5 1863 - June 5 1955 was a businessman as well as a self-taught Geologist. The company drilled many dry holes and ran into trouble as investors began to balk at pouring more money into drilling with no oil to show for it.
Pattillo Higgins left the company and teamed with Captain Anthony F. Lucas, the leading expert in the U. Anthony Francis Lucas ( September 9, 1855 &ndash September 2 1921) was a Croatian mechanical engineer responsible for the first successful S. on salt dome formations. Lucas made a lease agreement in 1899 with the Gladys City Company and a later agreement with Higgins. Lucas drilled to 575 ft (175 m) before running out of money. He secured additional funding from John H. Galey and James M. Guffey of Pittsburgh, but the deal left Lucas with only a small share of the lease and Higgins with nothing.
Lucas continued drilling and on January 10, 1901, at a depth of 1,139 ft (347 m), what is known as the Lucas Gusher or the Lucas Geyser blew oil over 150 ft (46 m) in the air at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day (16,000 m³/d)(4,200,000 gallons). It took nine days before the well was brought under control. Spindletop was the largest gusher the world had seen and catapulted Beaumont into one of the United States' first oil-fueled boomtowns. A boomtown is a Community that experiences sudden and rapid population and Economic growth. Beaumont's population of 10,000 tripled in three months and eventually rose to 50,000. Speculation led land prices to increase rapidly. By the end of 1902 over 600 companies were formed and 285 active wells were in operation.
Production began to decline rapidly after 1902, and the wells produced only 10,000 barrels per day (1,600 m³/d) by 1904. On November 14, 1925, the Yount-Lee Oil Company brought in its McFaddin No. Events 1533 - Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca, Inca Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Yount-Lee Oil Company, founded in 1914 was the successor to the Yount-Rothwell Oil Company which had been formed earlier by Miles Franklin Yount and Talbot Frederick 2 at a depth of about 2,500 feet (760 m), sparking a second boom that completely eclipsed the first discovery. Over the next ten years, over 72 million more barrels of oil were produced, mostly from the newer areas of the field. Spindletop continued as a productive source of oil until about 1936. It was then mined for sulfur from the 1950s to about 1975.
References
- McKinley, Fred B. , and Greg Riley. Black Gold to Bluegrass: From the Oil Fields of Texas to Spindletop Farm of Kentucky, historical non-fiction, Austin: Eakin Press, 2005, ISBN 1-4241-7751-0
External links
- Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum (flash)
- Spindletop Oilfield from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Oil and Gas Industry from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Spindletop: The Original Salt Dome - World Energy Magazine Vol. 3 No. 2
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