Spindletop Gusher

January 10, 1901:

The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas. Spindletop is a salt dome oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindletop struck oil ("came in"). What is known as the Lucas Gusher or the Lucas Geyser blew oil over 150 feet (50 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.  The new oil field soon produced more than 100,000 barrels (16,000 m³) of oil per day.  Gulf Oil and Texaco, now part of Chevron Corporation, were formed to develop production at Spindletop.
The strike at Spindletop represented a turning point for Texas and the nation. No previously discovered oil field in the world had ever been so productive. The frenzy of oil exploration and the economic development it generated in the state became known as the Texas Oil Boom. The United States soon became the leading oil producer in the world.

Production at Spindletop 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. 2 at a depth of about 2,500 feet (800 m), sparking a second boom, which culminated in the field's peak production year of 1927, during which 21,000,000 barrels (3.3 GL) were produced.  Over the ten years following the McFaddin discovery, over 72,000,000 barrels (11.4 GL) 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.

Oil production in Texas and the U.S. peaked in 1971.