[3] Born in the Austrian Empire city of Split, his family moved to Trieste, where his father served in the Austro-Hungarian navy.

In Lucas' words, "This led me to study the accumulation of oil around salt masses, and I formed additional plans for prospecting other localities.

Lucas noted, "This mound attracted my attention on account of the contour, which indicated possibilities for an incipient dome below, and because at the apex of it there were exudations of sulphuretted hydrogen gas.

[8]: 68–69 Short on money, Lucas sought funding from any source, including Henry Folger of Standard Oil, but to no avail.

Galey, with his partner James M. Guffey, put together financing with Andrew Mellon, allowing Lucas to drill three wells 1,200 feet (370 m) deep.

Yet, tiring of his loss of privacy, in May 1901, Lucas sold his stock in the Guffey Petroleum Company, and continued his scientific search for oil in the United States and Mexico.

The city of Houston become the national center of the oil industry, with the United States surpassing Russia as the world's leading producer.

In 1936, the American Institute for Geological and Metallurgical Investigations founded the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal[10] for development in the area of oil exploration.

[11] A museum with a granite obelisk was built to honor the explorer about which is inscribed: "On this spot on the tenth day of the twentieth century a new era in civilization began.