Several prospectors saw promise in the salt dome named Spindletop, but it took nearly a decade before an exploratory well leased by Anthony Lucas blew a fountain of oil. Almost overnight Gladys City, full of wildcat oil explorers, sprang up. Soon wooden oil derricks crowded together like trees in a forest. This intriguing, open-air museum recreates part of the original boomtown.
A local photo studio in business at the time is to thank for much of the amazing documentation at the museum. Only one thing is missing – add 800,000 barrels of spilled oil and then you'd really know what it felt like back then.
