The second Big Thicket themed book that I will review is Spindletop Boom Days by Paul N. Spellman. Similarly to the first book I reviewed, Giant Under the Hill, the book focuses on the the discovery of oil in Beaumont, Texas in 1901, now memorialized in the museum Spindletop Gladys City Boomtown at Lamar University. It is a great companion to Giant Under the Hill for people who enjoyed the first book and want a slightly different perspective. The reader should be prepared for multiple changes to voice and theme, as ever chapter covers different material with little transition. The book briefly dabbles in Frontier Theory before leaping around on the timeline. My pet peeve about Spellman's writing style are the random exclamation points that would sometimes appear at the end of sentences without a clear sense of purpose.
This book was published in 2000 and contains a few stories about poor and/or non-white characters that are played off as jokes, which a book published in 2021 likely would have phrased differently. Then again, the majority of photographs used in the book are from Texas Energy Museum, with a few from Tyrrell Historical Library and Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, which I mentioned previously as having a specific and divisive viewpoint of American history and the economy, and which Spellman appeared to support at the time of publication.
Politics aside, this book is a mostly fun way to learn about oil workers, southeast Texas legends, and the beginning of the American oil industry. It reads a little too disparate to be a book club read or classroom read, but it's a good choice for armchair historians who like to learn at their own pace, have a good time, and not get bogged down with dense text. Like in Giant Under the Hill, some content might not be appropriate for younger readers.
Abby Epplett Rating System: 7/10
Special Note: You can by the hardcover version of the book here. I'll get a little bonus from Amazon if you do.