WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Spindletop? Spindletop was the first successful oil well in Texas located atop a minimal mound near Beaumont in the Gulf coastal area. Research and reference for this story is the comprehensive history of Texas written by Stephen Harrigan. ______________________________________________ I quote, “Oil was never discovered in Texas; it was just always there. It was the scum that the surviving members of the DeSoto and Moscoso expedition had found seeping up out of the Texas surf in 1543 and then used to seal gaps in their leaky handmade rafts…” Native Americans used it as a salve and a lubricant and to patch their canoes. Anglo settlers found petroleum blobs in ponds between the Brazos and Sabine Rivers and called them “sour lakes” because of the gaseous smell._____________ In 1859, the oil industry was founded in Pennsylvania. Crude oil was refined into kerosene and used mainly for lighting. Texas followed with an oil industry of energy prominence. However the