CROWN – Croatian World Network

SPINDLETOP CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION: CROATIANS MISS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY by Drucilla Badurina Dear Mr. Spahich: First, the distinction bestowed upon you in 2000 by the Republic of Croatia is most laudable. A few years ago, I had the honor of accepting, on behalf of Professor C. Michael McAdams, the Republic of Croatia’s State Honors presented to him at a ceremony at the Croatian Embassy. You, he and others have been rightfully recognized for your many years of tireless work in supporting and defending the Croatian nation’s right to self-determination as a free, independent democracy, often when it was not popular even in the United States. Your message of 6/18 which included various correspondence about Houston and Rijeka as future sister cities, a possible honorary consul generalship and other “news” items was very interesting. Hopefully, these “projects” will be the just the beginning of a continuing endeavor to enlighten present and future generations of Texans as well as Americans nationwide about Croatia and Croatians. Unfortunately, even though we’re entering the second decade of Croatia’s independence, there still is a notable lack of any proactive, continuous, effective education/promotion campaign or program about Croatia and Croatians on the American scene. What follows is an archival article by Badurina & Associates which you may not have read and might be of interest to you. It might be of some interest to Houston Croatians also. The best of luck with the sister city project. Sincerely, Drucilla Badurina President, Badurina & Associates e-mail: badurinapr@aol.com BADURINA & ASSOCIATES P. O. Box 5447 Falmouth, Virginia 22403 E-mail: USACroatia@aol.com January 20, 2001 SPINDLETOP CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION: CROATIANS MISS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY National Public Radio (NPR) recently featured a report on the January 10 celebration in Beaumont, Texas commemorating the centennial of Spindletop, the world’s most important oil strike. This famous oil field in Southeast Texas changed the course of history, inaugurated the huge Texas oil industry and the petroleum era and, according to the report, “helped to transform the United States into a superpower.” Spindletop is also known as the “Lucas gusher” named after mining engineer, Captain Anthony F. Lucas, who discovered the oil field. Spindletop was the ultimate confirmation of his belief that the area was a natural petroleum reservoir, despite ridicule and skepticism about his theory during the time of his exploration. Today there is a monument in his honor at Spindletop and, since 1936, fifteen years after his death, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering has awarded the Anthony F. Lucas Medal to notable individuals in the field of petroleum development. What NPR did not correctly report was that Anthony F. Lucas was a Croatian immigrant, born in Split, Croatia in 1855. He was the son of Franjo Lucic, a sea captain, from the Croatian island of Hvar. As was common among many immigrants, he changed his surname from Lucic to Lucas when he came to the United States. Yet, NPR’s broadcast reported that he was Austrian. While certain words on his Washington, DC tombstone inscription such as Spalato and Illyrian (referring to his birthplace, Split, and his Croatian ancestry) might baffle the average American, these should be comprehensible and unambiguous to anyone doing serious research about the subject. Nevertheless, most books and articles published in the United States about Spindletop say Lucas/Lucic was Austrian or German or Italian. A 1995 article entitled: Captain Anthony F. Lucas: An Austrian Pioneer by an associate professor of English and German at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas indicates the Texas Energy Museum in that same city has a life-sized, talking figure representing Captain Lucas that explains, in a German accent, that he was Austrian born. The writer says that his surname is an Americanized form of the Slavic “Luchich” {sic}. This particular article even appears on the Austrian Information web site. Austria seems quite happy to claim Lucas/Lucic as its own! Spindletop is indeed an important part of Texas history as well as Croatian and world history, well known to many of the 20 million plus people living in the state especially those educated in Texas elementary and secondary schools. Spindletop is also well known nationally and worldwide to millions of individuals associated with the petroleum industry and ancillary companies. In fact, Spindletop is such a significant part of Texas history that early in 1999 then Governor George W. Bush and the Texas Legislature created the Spindletop 2001 Commission to plan and implement the state’s official celebration of that 100th anniversary. Former US president and Texas oilman, George H. Bush, was the keynote speaker at the January 10, 2001 commemoration at Spindletop. He reminded his audience that what began at Spindletop, Lucas’ discovery, was “not a misguided adventure but rather a providential blessing to be used and shepherded wisely.” That event and others scheduled during the yearlong celebration would have been marvelous promotional and educational opportunities for Croatian American organizations and/or the Republic of Croatia’s representatives in the United States. However, none had the wisdom or sagacity to seize these opportunities to definitively reclaim Captain Anthony F. Lucas’ Croatian identity, begin to successfully reverse continuing historical error, and in the process, begin to effectively promote Croatia and Croatians among those millions of Texans and other Americans familiar with Lucas/Lucic and Spindletop but mistaken about or unaware of his true ethnic heritage. Undoubtedly, the Spindletop centennial was a ready made public relations dream served on a silver platter. But Croatian American organizations and Republic of Croatia representatives in the US were either uninterested, unconscious or on another planet. They seem to have missed or ignored the importance of this special opportunity to promote Croatia and Croatians among Americans in the second largest state in the US and home state of the new US president, George W. Bush. Their track record for constantly, effectively publicizing/promoting Croatia and Croatians among Americans in the US is negligible. Maybe they’ll get their act together in time for Spindletop’s bicentennial. In the meantime, almost ten years after the Republic of Croatia’s independence, the mechanical figure of Croatia’s Captain Anthony F. Lucas at the Texas Energy Museum continues to exclaim to thousands of tourists visiting Spindletop that he was Austrian born. Op-ed: from The Franklin Institute Online http://sln.fi.edu/fellows/fellow2/jan99/spindletop.html Drucilla Badurina and many others spoke about Spindletop for many years. Lets make a difference and organize acampaign to change label Austrian into Croatian. Someone needs to lead, where and whom to address, but a public exposure to the media (newspapers, TV etc) with couple of good articles published would be a GREAT start.We need 3 fine articles. Please supply. Nenad Bach Spindletop Spindletop is the name of a small knoll just south of Beaumont Texas. Anthony Lucas, an Austrian-born mining engineer, has been supervising the drilling of an oilwell since October 27, 1900.His crew must install a new drilling bit on the string of a drill pipe. The date is January 10, 1901. The drilling crew begins lowering the new bit to the bottom of the hole. They run about 700 feet (200 meters) of drill pipe into the 1,000-foot (300-meter) hole. Suddenly, the well starts spewing drilling mud. The mud, a liquid concoction that carries rock cuttings out of the hole, drenches the rig floor and shoots up into the derrick.The crew evacuates the rig and waits to see what will happen. The flow stops. The workers return to the rig and start cleaning up. Without warning, mud erupts again. Then a geyser of oil gushes 200 feet (60 meter) above the 60-foot-high (18 meter high) derrick.See the photo to the right.The spouting oil blows all the drill pipe out of the hole. The blowing well elates Lucas and his crew as they watch the display from a safe distance. They estimate that it is flowing over 3 million gallons (over 12,000 cubic meters) of oil per day. In oilfield terms, that’s over 80,000 barrels of oil per day.Before Spindletop, a big producer flowed 50 barrels (8 cubic meters )per day. The Lucas well produced 1,600 times that amount. It showed that buried layers of rock could contain tremendous amounts of oil. What is more, it proved that rotary drilling was an effective way to obtain it. Spindletop marked the beginning of the modern petroleum industry.