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? The answers are all here—the challenge 
and frustration of the search, the excitement of the discovery, the 
euphoric chaos of the boom, and the genesis of the giant companies.

    In this scholarly work firmly rooted in the narrative tradition, and 
using material collected over decades, the authors bring to life the 
efforts of Pattillo Higgins, Anthony Lucas, Al and Curt Hamill, and 
Peck Byrd to master the Spindletop salt dome—efforts 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.

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Southeast Texas natives ELLEN WALKER RIENSTRA and 
JUDITH WALKER LINSLEY are sisters with undergraduate and 
graduate degrees from Lamar University. Rienstra is a violinist and 
historical consultant. Linsley is a researcher for the McFaddin-Ward 
House, a history instructor at Lamar, a newspaper columnist, and 
editor of The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record. This 
is their first collaboration with JO ANN STILES, retired associate 
professor of history at Lamar University.