The exact date when this happened is January 10, 1901.
Nobody had seen a gusher so powerful and so plentiful before.
Soon a booming oil industry grew around Beaumont, and Americas oil production tripled overnight.
Oil production was insignificant, representing just one percent of the total national output.
However, the fact that there was a substantial reserve of oil somewhere beneath Texas was apparent.
People knew about oil in the area for hundreds of years.
In the mid-16th century, the Spanish used oil from seeps near Sabine Pass for caulking their ships.
Settlers near Nacogdoches used seeping oil as lubricants before 1800.
The first attempt at drilling was made just after the Civil War at a place called Sour Lake.
But people only ridiculed him.
Galey and Guffey agreed to help finance the drilling, but Lucas would get only one-eight of the share.
Higgins, on the other hand, would get nothing, unless Lucas split his own share.
The drillers fought their way through hundreds of feet of quicksand that had frustrated all previous efforts.
At first, mud began to bubble with great force from the well.
Then there was silence.
The historic Lucas oil well gusher at Spindletop, Beaumont, Texas, 1901.
Nobody had seen anything like this before, except perhaps in Baku, in Azerbaijan.
When news of the discovery flashed across the nation, there was a mad scramble for leases.
Land prices rose exponentially.
Land that sold for $10 an acre went for as much as $900,000.
Spindletop Oil Field in 1902.
Nearly one-third of these were living in tents on the hill.
According to one estimate, Beaumont drank half of all whiskey consumed in Texas in those early months.
Spindletops oil also ushered in the new era of fuel oil.
So it primarily went for heat, power and locomotion.
It depicts a lady wearing Grecian drapery reclining on a cloud bank and gazing at a gushing oil well.
The painting now hangs in the Tyrell Historical Library, in Beaumont.
But Spindletop itself couldnt keep up the momentum for long.
By 1906, Oklahoma was producing over half of the regions total production.
In the late 1920s, Spindletop experienced a second boom when another oil reserve was discovered at deeper depths.
In 1927, Spindletop produced its all-time annual high of 21 million barrels.
Within five years, 60 million barrels had been produced.
Spindletop continued to be profitable until about 1936.
From the 1950s to about 1975, Spindletop produced sulphur.
The actual site of the gusher is marked by a flagpole flying the Texas flag.
The replica Lucas gusher in Beaumont, Texas.
Photo:Mike Towber/Flickr
The gusher in action.
