Spindletop Center

spindletop center is a community mental health and intellectual and developmental disabilities center located in southeast texas. it provides a variety of behavioral health care services to people with mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities and chemical dependency. spindletop center was formed september 1, 2000 when beaumont state center and life resource joined forces. the center provides services in jefferson, orange, hardin and chambers counties and serves approximately 8,000 consumers a year. the center employs more than 400 full-time staff and is governed by a nine-member board of trustees appointed by the county commissioners courts in the four-county area. the center is named after the spindletop oil gusher that changed the world. in 1901 a 100-foot drilling derrick named spindletop produced a roaring gusher of black crude oil, coating the surrounding landscape with a black, sticky, goo. the first major oil discovery in the united states, the spindletop gu