Fun Fact January 10, 2022.
There she blows! According to History dot com it was on January 10, 1901, an oil drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill, near Beaumont, Texas, produced an enormous gusher of crude oil, coating the landscape for hundreds of feet and signaling the beginning of the American oil industry. The geyser was discovered at a depth of over 1,000 feet, flowed at an initial rate of approximately 100,000 barrels a day and took nine days to cap. Following the discovery, petroleum, which until that time had been used in the U.S. primarily as a lubricant and in kerosene for lamps, would become the main fuel source for new inventions such as cars and airplanes; coal-powered forms of transportation would also convert to the liquid fuel. Beaumont became a “black gold” boomtown, its population tripling in three months. Within a year, there were more than 285 active wells at Spindletop and an estimated 500 oil and land companies operating in the area, including some that are major players today: Humble, now Exxon, the Texas Company, Texaco and Magnolia Petroleum Company known today as Mobil. Listen to the podcast here; https://theriver953.com/lonnies-fun-fact/
