The Lucas Gusher

Lucas spudded the well on October 27, 1900, with a rotary-type bit meant to get through the sands that had stopped earlier drilling on Spindletop Hill. Al and Curt Hamill, an experienced team from Corsicana, did the drilling for backers Galey and Guffey. On January 10, 1901, mud bubbled up and about six tons of drill pipe shot out of the hole, then oil rose more than 100 feet and ran for nine days before the crew capped it. The Handbook of Texas puts the oil at 1,139 feet. Beaumont grew from about 10,000 people to 50,000.

What the plaque says

The Lucas Gusher Erected by the State of Texas to Commemorate The Lucas Gusher. Discovery well of the Spindletop Oil Field and the first important well on the Gulf Coast. It blew in on Jan. 10, 1901, flowing 100,000 barrels of oil a day from a depth of 1020 feet. The oil production which resulted made Beaumont a city and the Sabine District a major oil refining and exporting center of the world. The Lucas Gusher was drilled by the Hamill Brothers, contractors, under the direct supervision of Captain Anthony F. Lucas for Guffey and Galey of Pittsburgh, on the McFaddin, Weiss and Kyle lease. 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — steps away
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 4.3 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 14 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Village Creek State Park — 16 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.

More markers nearby

• South Park High School — 0.8 mi
• Site of Santa Anna — 2.3 mi
• Harry James' Childhood Homesite — 2.7 mi
• Jean Baptiste Chaison — 3.0 mi