A replica of the wooden oil derricks that once dotted the landscape of Spindletop Hill in the early 1900s has been erected near the museum.

For special occasions and anniversaries, the museum staff “blows the gusher” with a plume of water and provides a historical narrative and sound effects to simulate the discovery of oil at Spindletop.

One theory about the origin of its name is that the heat waves, rising from the surrounding prairie, gave a grove of trees on the hill the appearance of a spinning top.

[1] In 1889, Pattillo Higgins, a young Beaumont man, became interested in the possibility that Spindletop Hill covered a vast pool of oil.

Higgins was a self-taught geologist and from his extensive studies and observation of surface indications, he concluded that an abundance of cheap fuel was available at Spindletop.

George Washington O’Brien had known of the possibility of producing oil from Spindletop Hill as early as 1865 and had acquired more than 1,000 acres of the John Allen Veatch survey in 1888.

In 1892, the men decided to pool their interests and formed the Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company.

Lucas went to the famous Pittsburgh[2][circular reference] wildcatting team of James Guffey and John Galey.

Al and Curt Hamill arrived in Beaumont and began drilling on the adjoining McFaddin-Weiss & Kyle tract of land in October 1900.

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on January 10, 1901, while the Hamill brothers were attempting to free their drill from the crevice, the famous Lucas Gusher blew in.

No longer was Patillo Higgins laughingly called the “Millionaire.” Practically overnight, thousands of sightseers, speculators, promoters, fortune seekers and “boomers” poured into Beaumont as news of the discovery spread.

The monument was originally placed at the site of the Lucas Gusher, approximately three-fourths of a mile south of the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum.

Country music artist Tracy Byrd, a Beaumont resident, wrote and performed an original song about the history of Spindletop for the event.