Giant Under the Hill: A History of the Spindletop Oil Discovery at Beaumont, Texas, in 1901

How did they do it? How did a profligate who killed a deputy sheriff before reforming, a mining engineer who went AWOL from the Austrian Navy; and three East Texas drillers join forces with other equally colorful characters to drill on Spindletop Hill? Giant Under the Hill is a scholarly work firmly rooted in the narrative tradition, a great story intriguingly told by three Beaumont historians: Jo Ann Stiles, Ellen Rienstra, and Judith Linsley. Using material collected over decades, much of it never before published, they bring to life the efforts of Pattillo Higgins, Anthony Lucas, Al and Curt Hamill, and Peck Byrd to master the Spindletop salt dome that culminated in the discovery of the great Lucas Gusher. Their find subsequently transformed not only the state of Texas but the entire oil industry; Giant Under the Hill is the definitive story of one of the most significant and colorful moments in Texas history. Read more