Yearlong activities a tribute to oil gusher that changed the world

BEAUMONT, Texas -- The world forever changed 99 years ago when a geyser of oil erupted on a low hill near Beaumont called Spindletop.

Far more than one of the state's biggest oil booms was started by the 150-foot plume of green-black crude that flowed untamed for nine days. The petroleum age was born and Texas was transformed from an agricultural state to a petroleum and manufacturing powerhouse. A yearlong celebration of that great event kicked off in early January as members of the state's Spindletop 2001 Commission unveiled plans for dozens of events ranging from a country music concert to a recreation of the 1901 gusher.

Texas had oil production long before the first Spindletop gusher. There had been wells drilled near Lufkin and Nacogdoches, and Corsicana had experienced an oil boom, but nobody in the United States had ever seen anything like the original Spindletop well.

"You get one gusher and everyone thinks it's a freak," said JoAnn Stiles, associate professor of history at Lamar University in Beaumont. "Then you get five more gushers all in a row, and we had that many by April. And so much oil was being produced that it outdid the rest of the world. Hell, you have to figure out what to do with all of this oil."

The main market for petroleum in 1901 was as lube oil and kerosene for lanterns. But the Spindletop oil wasn't all that good for illumination, Stiles said. What it was good for was fuel.

Soon railroads, the main transports of the day, were converting from coal to oil. When the fledgling auto industry began to turn into a giant there was a great demand for gasoline -- which was first an unwanted by-product that was dumped in the Gulf of Mexico or burned to get rid of it.

When word of the gusher got out, special trains began heading to Beaumont from Houston, Dallas and New Orleans. Speculators would make multimillion-dollar deals on the sidewalks, and boomers would take turns sleeping on pool tables.

More than 500 companies were formed in Beaumont within a year. Most are long forgotten, but some evolved into giants like Texaco, Gulf, Mobil, Sun Oil and Exxon. Many of those companies would make their headquarters in Houston as other oil discoveries followed up and down the Gulf Coast and throughout the state.

The prestigious Oil and Gas Journal started as a way for Eastern investors to keep tabs on what was happening in Texas.

"Although it was not apparent at the time, petroleum was destined to provide the energy throughout the 20th century -- a century where economics, politics and wars have been shaped by oil," said D. Ryan Smith, executive director of the Texas Energy Museum in Beaumont and a Spindletop 2001 commissioner. "Spindletop was the catalyst that ushered in this new world based on oil."

Former Beaumont Mayor Evelyn Lord is chairman of the statewide commission. "How remarkable that all this took place in our backyard," she said.

That first well was financed by Eastern money. On March 31, Beaumont's home-grown country singer Tracy Byrd will head a concert on the grounds of Gladys City, a recreation of the boom town that grew up around the oil field. Byrd promises to debut an original song commemorating Spindletop.

Byrd also will preside over a bass fishing tournament and a golf tournament.

Beaumont's annual July 4 celebration will take on a Spindletop theme when the Symphony of Southeast Texas performs "Spindletop Fanfare," composed by former symphony conductor Joseph Carlucci.

In October veterans of the Melody Maids, a Beaumont-based music troupe that performed all over the country in the 1940s and `50s will present an updated version of the "Song Saga" that they performed in honor of the 50th anniversary of Spindletop.

A world catfish cookoff championship and a parade will be sponsored by area labor groups in September.

Beaumont will recreate its Boom Days celebration in November, with arts and crafts, food and period costumes at Gladys City.

"We were wondering what to call the big day," Lord said of Jan. 10, 2001, "so finally we just decided to call it The Big Day."

By that day, she said, there will be a road to the original Spindletop well site -- providing of course that historians, geologists and land experts can decide exactly where it was. Long lost to history due to the enormous amount of drilling that went on in the area, nobody knows exactly where the first gusher was. Most locals just say, "it was somewhere over there."

Plans call for a parking area, an overview of what now is a low marshy area, and a permanent marker at the site, Lord said.

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