The 1901 Spindletop gusher was near which Texas city?

The 1901 Spindletop gusher was near Beaumont, Texas.

Spindletop was an oil field on the southern edge of Beaumont, close to a mound later understood as the surface expression of an underground salt dome. On January 10, 1901, a well drilled by Captain Anthony F. Lucas struck oil at roughly 1,139 feet. The eruption reportedly sent crude more than 150 feet into the air and continued for nine days before workers brought it under control.

The strike transformed Beaumont almost overnight. The city’s population tripled within three months and eventually reached about 50,000. Oil speculation, rapid drilling, and new transportation and refining businesses helped launch the Texas oil boom. Companies that grew from the Gulf Coast oil industry included Gulf Oil and Texaco, now part of Chevron.

Houston is a frequent wrong answer because it later became the region’s dominant refining and petrochemical center. But Spindletop itself was beside Beaumont, roughly three miles south of the city. Corpus Christi and Dallas were also important Texas cities, but neither was the location of this landmark discovery.