Texas Oil Project
By Aidan Shepherd, Justin Graham, and Adi Sadam
The History Of Spindeltop and the boom that followed
The modern oil industry was born on a hill in southeastern Texas. A giant underground dome of salt formed this hill as it moved slowly towards the surface. As it crept, it pushed the earth that was in its path higher and higher. This dome was known by several names, but the one that stuck was "Spindle top". Through the latter half of the 19th century, Pennsylvania had been the most oil-productive state in the country. All that changed on January 10, 1901. One man, Pattillo Higgins, dreamed of "striking it rich" in Texas oil. One day he noticed an unusual hill in his hometown of Beaumont Texas. He then purchased this hill believing there was oil under the hill. After several failed attempts at drilling oil he resigned from the company. Yet, he still believed there was oil under the hill so he started placing ads in the papers to find geologists and engineers. One of his ads caught the attention of a mining engineer named Anthony Lucas. On January 10 1901 Lucas struck oil that gushed a hundred feet in the air for 9 days. People started migrating from all over to spindle top to get their hands on the new Texas gold.
3 Economical Effects that oil had on Texas
1. One economical effect that oil had on Texas was that it started many popular oil companies now known today like Exxon mobile, Texaco, and Gulf.
2. Another economical effect that oil had on Texas was that it created jobs and towns that popped up over night called boom towns.
3. The final effect that oil had on Texas was that it helped the transportation industry. It gave that industry a new and efficient resource for gas that the trains would run on.
Pic of a boom town
Pic of spindeltop oil derricks
Picture of spindeltop drillers
Overview detailing the modern day oil industry in Texas
Our Graphs
Citation Sites
http://www.bing.com/search?q=pics+of+a+modern+day+oil+derrick&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&conversationid= pic of modern oil derrick
.http:// href="http://www.history.com/topics/oil-industry">www.history.com/topics/oil-industry
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pics+of+spindeltop&FORM=HDRSC2 pics used for smore
hhttp://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/spindletop/spindletop