It was a turning point in the Texas oil industry as the new source far exceeded all previous ones.
US-based Croatian entrepreneur Antun Lucic opened his first oil well on January 10, 1901. It was a well on Spindletop Hill, Texas, about 40 kilometers off the Gulf Coast. Spindletop is located approximately 120 miles east of the Houston metropolitan area of Houston.
Anthony Lucic in the US used the name Anthony Francis Lucas, so his well was named Lucas gusher (the worm’s Lucas oil source). It was a turning point in the Texas oil industry as the new source far exceeded all previous ones. In a relatively short period of time, the so-called Texas oil boom, and the United States has become the world’s leading oil producer.
By the way, Antun Lucic was born in Split in 1855 and moved to the USA in the 1920s. He lived until 1921, and died in the American capital, Washington, at the age of 66.
