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- One man, Pattillo Higgins, dreamed of “striking it rich” in Texas oil.  Higgins owned a brick-making company and needed a new fuel source.  Higgins believed there was oil beneath the salt domes of East Texas.
- He noticed an unusual hill in his hometown of Beaumont, TX.  Higgins purchased Spindletop Hill and created a company to develop and begin drilling around the area. 
- After several failed attempts to locate oil, Higgins resigned from the company.  He still believed there was oil under Spindletop Hill, so he places ads in newspapers, magazines, and journals to find geologists and engineers who could carry out his exploration.
- One of Higgins’s ads caught the attention of a mining engineer named Anthony Lucas.   Lucas was the country’s leading expert on salt domes and was convinced of Higgins theory. Anthony Lucas bought Spindletop and began drilling in October 1900.
- On January 10, 1901, oil was discovered in Beaumont. The drill dug into the ground, and mud started coming up the hole.  There was a brief silence.  Then, mud, gas and oil started shooting into the air, as high as 100 ft. The gusher at Spindletop sets off the Texas oil boom.
-  The well flowed for 9 days nonstop.  It is estimated that 100,000 barrels of oil flowed each day before the well could be capped.  There had been nothing ever to compare with the Spindletop gusher. 
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