Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum

Spindletop Hill is where the Lucas gusher came in on January 10, 1901, at 1,139 feet, flowing an estimated 100,000 barrels a day until it was capped nine days later. This museum, on the Lamar University campus, is a re-creation of the boomtown rather than the town itself. Lamar's own history calls the boomtown setting recreated and says the 1941 Texas pink granite monument was moved here from near the Lucas gusher site. The oilfield itself is the original ground.

The town is named for Gladys Bingham, a girl in Pattillo Higgins's Sunday school class. Higgins helped found the Gladys City company in August 1892, and he imagined an industrial utopia. He had left the company by 1895, and the boomtown grew in ways he had not planned. Beaumont rose from about 10,000 people to 50,000 in the boom, and companies that became Texaco, Gulf, Sun, Magnolia and Humble were born at Spindletop or grew because of it.

Plan on the grounds and the exhibits. The museum is at 5550 Jimmy Simmons Boulevard and is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m., with last admission at 4:00. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and $2 for children 6 to 12. A re-enactment of the 1901 gusher costs an extra $50 per group and is not always available on weekends. Much of the complex is wheelchair accessible.