Spindletop
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Spindletop is a salt dome oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. Gulf Oil and Texaco, now part of Chevron Corporation, were formed to develop production at Spindletop. According to Daniel Yergin, it was the Spindletop discovery that led the United States into the oil age. Prior to Spindletop, oil was primarily used for lighting and as a lubricant. Because of the quantity of oil discovered, it suddenly became economically feasible to burn petroleum as a fuel for mass consumption.
The frenzy of oil exploration and the economic development it generated in the state became known as the Texas oil boom. The United States soon became the world's leading oil producer.
