Millions of years ago, billons of tiny plants and animals died and settled on the bottoms of ancient oceans, creating a thick layer of organic material. Sediment later covered this material, putting heat and pressure on it and transforming it into oil and gas. And there it stayed, for a very long time … until January 10 (today), 1910, when a drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produced an enormous gusher of crude oil, signaling the start of the American oil industry. Within a year, there were more than 285 active wells at Spindletop and an estimated...
