Boomers at the Southern Pacific Depot, c. 1901

Partial panorama of the Hogg-Swayne Tract, one of the most crowded tracts of land at Spindletop. (Click to view entire panorama.)

Boomers gathered outside the Crosby House, c. 1901

An amazed crowd of pros- pective investors watches a side gusher spray the hill. c. 1903

Within months, over 40,000 boomers had poured into Beaumont, with more to come. Beaumont, a small town, literally filled to overflowing. Men slept in shifts if they could find a bed or in the streets if they could not.


The Hill and the surrounding landscape was soon covered by wooden derricks almost touching one another. All-white shack towns like Guffey and Gladys City sprang up near the wells. The blacks had shanties nearby. The hottest spot was the Log Cabin Saloon, where, according to legend, every Saturday night someone was killed. Today, nothing is left; the hill has subsided and looks like a wasteland.

The gallery of the Crosby hotel was the most crowded spot in Beaumont as speculators and con-men tried to make connections. Within a year, 500 oil and land companies had been created. Most were devices designed to generate money - not with oil, but with watered stock.

Excursion companies ran tours of the Hill and opened synthetic gushers special for the occasion. Properly impressed suckers then, in turn, opened their wallets, dreaming dreams of quick wealth.

Not all the companies were disreputable; Texaco and Gulf (now Chevron) got their start in Southeast Texas, and Humble (now Exxon) at nearby Humble. Former governor James Stephen Hogg, Bet-A-Million Gates (who helped create Texaco), and other out-of-towners, especially easterners, got rich if their agents could buy leases fast enough. Local boys-made-good included Harry Wiess, Harry Phelan, Wes Kyle, H. A. Perlstein, and others who happened to own land with oil under it, and in the case of the McFaddin family, lots of land.

The first year Spindletop produced 3.59 million barrels, and the second year produced 17.4 million. The glut of oil destroyed John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil's world monopoly. Oil sold for 25 cents a barrel - on
good days.