THAR SHE BLOWS!: On this day in 1901, the Lucas gusher at the Spindletop Oil Field blew, thus beginning the Texas Oil Boom.

There had long been suspicions that Spindletop Hill in Beaumont, Texas had oil underneath it. But it took Anthony Francis Lucas (Anton Lučić), a Croatian-born, Austrian-educated engineer, to bring it forth. It wasn’t easy. At one point, he and his partner ran out of funds, and Lucas had to go scrounging for new investors. But, finally, at a depth of greater than 1000 feet, he found what he’d been looking for. The resulting oil geyser reached over 150 feet in the air and took nine days to be brought under control. Soon the well was producing almost 100,000 barrels a day—more than all the other oil wells in America combined.

During the 19^th century, oil had been used primarily in lamps and as a lubricant. Thanks in part to the massive quantities of oil produced at Spindletop, oil would go on to power the 20^th century. Despite “peak oil” predictions, it looks like it will be powering a good part of the 21^st century too.