But the great hurricane—call it Isaac’s Storm—had struck with abysmal bad timing. Just four months later, an event occurred nearby that changed the history of the nation, arguably the world. The ranchers of Beaumont, Texas, had long heard how gas and greasy water sometimes bubbled to the surface of a strange knoll in the prairie outside town. A few men hunted oil there and gave up, but others followed, drawn by the stories. On January 10, 1901, a crew working for an Italian immigrant named Antonio Francisco Lucich, self-named Tony Lucas, ran for their lives as thunder roared from their drill
...more
