Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum facts for kids
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| Location | 5550 Jimmy Simmons Drive, Beaumont, TX 77705 |
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| Type | History Museum |
| Owner | Lamar University |
| Public transit access | (BMT) Route 7 -Virginia and Rolfe Christopher |
| Nearest parking | Free parking at site |
The Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum is in Beaumont, Texas. It helps us remember when oil was found at Spindletop Hill on January 10, 1901. This discovery started a huge oil boom in Texas that is still going on today.
The museum has a gift shop. It also features actors who show what life was like back then. A copy of the tall wooden oil towers, called derricks, stands near the museum. These towers once covered Spindletop Hill in the early 1900s. For special events, the museum staff "blows the gusher." This means they make a big spray of water. They also tell the story of the oil discovery with sound effects.
Lamar University owns and runs the museum. It is located right on the university campus.
Contents
The Spindletop Oil Story
The name "Spindletop" was used even before the Civil War. It referred to a small hill south of Beaumont, Texas. Some people think it got its name because heat waves made the trees on the hill look like a spinning top.
Many ghost stories were told about Spindletop Hill. People often saw St. Elmo's fire there at night. This is actually static electricity. The oil at Spindletop was found in a salt dome. This is a big underground dome made of salt.
The Search for Oil
In 1889, Pattillo Higgins, a young man from Beaumont, became interested in Spindletop Hill. He thought there might be a lot of oil hidden there. Higgins studied rocks and the earth on his own. He believed that plenty of cheap fuel was available at Spindletop.
Captain George Washington O’Brien also thought oil could be found there. He had known about it since 1865. In 1888, he bought over 1,000 acres of land. Higgins convinced his friend George W. Carroll to buy another large part of the land.
In 1892, Higgins and Carroll joined their land. They started the Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company. This was one of the first oil companies in Texas. Their plan was to find oil. Then they wanted to build a perfect industrial city called Gladys City. Higgins named the town and company after his Sunday school student, Gladys Bingham.
The Gladys City Company tried to drill for oil on Spindletop Hill in 1893. They failed. They tried again in 1895 and 1896, but they still had no luck. They did not have the right equipment. Higgins left the company in 1895. His partners started to lose hope. People even joked and called Higgins the "Millionaire."
The Lucas Gusher
Captain Anthony F. Lucas was an engineer from Austria. He heard about Spindletop Hill while working in Louisiana. He visited Beaumont and became sure there was oil at Spindletop. In 1899, he leased land from the Gladys City Company. His first try failed. Lucas was ready to give up. But his wife told him to find more money and try again.
Lucas went to James Guffey and John Galey. They were famous oil drillers from Pittsburgh. They liked Lucas's idea. They asked Andrew Mellon for money to keep drilling.
Guffey and Galey hired the Hamill brothers, Al and Curt. They were the best drillers available. They started drilling in October 1900. They faced many problems. But by Christmas, they had drilled 1,000 feet deep. After the holidays, they hit solid rock. Their drill got stuck at 1,060 feet.
At about 10:30 a.m. on January 10, 1901, the Hamill brothers were trying to free their drill. Suddenly, the famous Lucas Gusher exploded! Oil shot more than 100 feet into the air. It sprayed for nine days until the well was finally capped.
It was the biggest oil well ever seen. Lucas thought it was flowing 6,000 barrels of oil per day. But it was actually flowing 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day! No one called Pattillo Higgins the "Millionaire" as a joke anymore.
The Boomtown Years
News of the oil discovery spread quickly. Thousands of people rushed to Beaumont. These included sightseers, people hoping to get rich, and "boomers." Gladys City was just one of many groups of buildings that appeared on Spindletop Hill. Businesses and homes also sprang up in other areas.
By 1902, there were 285 active oil wells on Spindletop Hill. More than 600 oil companies were started. Most of them disappeared quickly. But some became huge companies. These include Texas Company (now Texaco), J.M. Guffey Petroleum Company (now Gulf), Magnolia Petroleum Company (now Mobil), and Sun Oil Company.
The Spindletop boom did not last long. Too much oil was produced. This used up the oil and ruined many wells. By 1903, the oil field started to produce less. Within 10 years, Spindletop Hill was almost a ghost town.
In 1926, Spindletop boomed again. New technology allowed deeper drilling. This led to finding oil on the sides of the salt dome. Better ways to save oil helped Spindletop's second life last longer. The small Gladys City community stayed active. But the area was cleared in the 1950s for sulfur mining. The Gladys City Oil Company still exists today.
The Lucas Gusher started a new age for the world: the Petroleum Age. Oil had been found before in Pennsylvania and Russia. But the huge amounts of oil at Spindletop made oil cheap and easy to use. This helped power the world into the 20th Century.
History of the Museum
The idea to rebuild Gladys City came from the Lucas Gusher Monument Commission. Lamar University opened the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum on January 10, 1976. This was the 75th anniversary of the Lucas Gusher. Gladys City was given to the State of Texas and Lamar University. They would take care of it and use it for education.
The buildings in Gladys City are copies of the buildings that were there during the oil boom. Many of the items inside the exhibits are real things from that time.
The Lucas Gusher Monument
The Lucas Gusher Monument remembers the oil discovery at Spindletop Hill. It is a 58-foot tall pink granite monument. It was built by the Lucas Gusher Monument Association. It was first placed at the actual site of the Lucas Gusher. This was about three-quarters of a mile south of the museum.
In 1978, the monument was moved to the Gladys City site. This was because the ground was sinking. Also, it was easier to visit at the museum. The monument and the entire Spindletop oil field are now a National Historic Landmark. This means they are very important to the history of the United States.
On January 10, 2001, former president George H.W. Bush visited the museum. About 20,000 people came from all over the country. They celebrated 100 years since the Lucas Gusher. Country music singer Tracy Byrd, who lives in Beaumont, wrote a song about Spindletop for the event.
Lamar University reopened the museum after it was badly damaged by Hurricane Rita in 2005.
See also
- List of petroleum museums
- Texas Energy Museum Beaumont, Texas
- McFaddin-Ward House History
- McFaddin-Ward House
