If you’re listening to this while driving, that’s due in large part to the oil boom—which happened over a hundred years ago.

At that time, Pennsylvania was the biggest oil producer, and automobiles were scarce. Then, Pattillo Higgins, a self-taught geologist from Texas, had an idea.

A low, flat hill outside his hometown was known for black tar that oozed from it. He thought the mound was a salt dome—a rising column of salt—and that oil must have migrated from deeper formations, up its sides.

Formally trained geologists chuckled, but Higgins raised enough money to start drilling. After a few dry holes, he was tapped out.

Undeterred, he brought in more investors, eventually shrinking his own share to zero—but he kept drilling.

In January 1901, his Spindletop well finally struck oil—and did it ever! The reservoir was under such pressure that it shot a geyser of oil 150 ft into the air.

For 9 days, workers struggled under a rain of a million barrels of oil, till they were finally able to cap it.

The first six Spindletop wells produced more oil than the rest of the world’s wells combined to that point in time. The Texas oil boom had begun. Supply soared and price plummeted.

Gasoline became cheap and readily available, helping launch the automobile age and personal mobility like the world had never known—that all of us in our cars still benefit from today.