Milestones

Spindletop Gusher

Also Known As Lucas Gusher

1901

Citation Formats

General Reference

Energy Atlas. "Spindletop Gusher." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://energy.interactiveatlas.org/milestones/spindletop-gusher-1901.

APA Style

Energy Atlas. (n.d.). Spindletop Gusher. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://energy.interactiveatlas.org/milestones/spindletop-gusher-1901

BibTeX

@misc{energyatlas-spindletop-gusher,
  author = {Energy Atlas},
  title = {Spindletop Gusher},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://energy.interactiveatlas.org/milestones/spindletop-gusher-1901},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

On 10 January 1901 the Lucas well on the Spindletop salt dome south of Beaumont, Texas blew in, throwing oil more than a hundred feet high for nine days at an estimated hundred thousand barrels a day before it was capped. Nothing like that flow had been seen anywhere, and the Handbook of Texas marks the strike as the birth of the modern petroleum industry; the Drake well of 1859 had begun the oil business, Spindletop made it an industry of scale.

Facts

Milestone Year

1901 1

Milestone Date

1901-01-10 1

Location

Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas, United States 1

Cross-Tradition Connections