Port Arthur was a boom town, born in the weeks after oil was struck at Spindletop Hill, in nearby Beaumont on Jan. 10, 1901. The Lucas Gusher shot oil 150 feet in the air, 100,000 barrels a day, for nine days, totaling over 4.2 million gallons, about half the amount spilled in 1989 by the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. A year later, a lit cigar ignited a fire at Spindletop that destroyed drilling rigs and storage tanks; a dozen men died. The epoch of oil was thus ushered in by ecological and human catastrophe. More

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» Port Arthur and the Sublime | Stephen F. Eisenman | Peace | https://www.pea.cx/2021/12/06/port-arthur-and-the-sublime/ | 2026-11-12T06:34:32+00:00