{"nrhp_refnum":"66000818","name":"Lucas Gusher, Spindletop Oil Field","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"3 mi. S of Beaumont on Spindletop Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Beaumont","county":"Jefferson County","state":"TX","lat":30.02045919950004,"lon":-94.07538426651398,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-11-13","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1966-11-13","areas_of_significance":["Industry","Science"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1,130-acre oil field site about three miles south of Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas, centered on the Spindletop salt dome where the Lucas Gusher came in on January 10, 1901.","why_significant":"The Lucas Gusher was the first great oil gusher and opened the Texas Gulf coastal plain and Louisiana to oil development, launching the modern American petroleum industry. The 1925 Yount-Lee flank discovery at the same field proved the value of off-side production on salt domes. The boundary covers both the 1901 and 1925 strikes.","narrative":"Spindletop is an oil field on a salt dome about three miles south of Beaumont, Texas. On January 10, 1901, the Lucas Gusher came in there from a well 1,020 feet deep, sending oil more than 100 feet above the derrick at over 100,000 barrels a day. Patillo Higgins had long argued oil lay beneath the low mound, and Captain Anthony Lucas, working with the drillers Jim and Al Hammil, brought in the well. The discovery opened Gulf coast oil deposits to development, encouraged new uses for oil as fuel, and led to the formation of companies including Gulf, Humble and Sun Oil. The field declined by 1908, but in 1925 the Yount-Lee Oil Company struck oil on the dome's flank, demonstrating the value of off-side production on salt domes. The nominated area covers both strikes. Today the ground has subsided into marshy land with a few wells, and the Lucas monument stands at the field's northeast edge on Spindletop Avenue.","period_of_significance":"1901-1925","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Land has subsided from sulphur mining and oil and gas removal, leaving a low, marshy field with a few wells, surrounded by tank farms and highways. The Lucas Gusher monument was moved to the northeast edge of the field on Spindletop Avenue, and a museum was planned there.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.31774-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/48/9709/40970948/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/66000818_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000818/5070b49b3e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000818/5070b49b3e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"i_am_jim","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Spindletop-Gladys_City_Boomtown_Museum.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">i_am_jim</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Spindletop-Gladys_City_Boomtown_Museum.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40970948","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindletop","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2602814"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/jefferson-county/lucas-gusher-spindletop-oil-field-66000818/"}