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Spindletop Boom Days. By Paul N. Spellman. Clayton Wheat Williams Texas Life Series, No. 9. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001. Pp. xii, 266. $29.95, ISBN 0-89096-946-9.)
On January 10, 1901, Captain Anthony F. Lucas brought in a gigantic gusher and discovered the fabulous Spindletop oil field at Beaumont, Texas. Many Beaumonters claim great significance for the event. Some explain that Spindletop led directly to the development of the Texas oil industry, enriching and transforming the Lone Star State. Others point to Spindletop as the beginning of the modern petroleum industry, which changed the nation and the world. A monument in Beaumont even suggests that Spindletop created "a new era in civilization."
Paul N. Spellman, author of Spindletop Boom Days, points...