The Oil Heritage
The American oil industry began with Indians of the five civilized tribes (now of Oklahoma) bathing in oil springs, believing it cured arthritis and other ills. 64 years before Jamestown was established, oil was discovered by Spaniards near Sabine Pass on the Gulf Coast of Texas. There on the waters of a creek was a dark scum they called "cope".
By 1846 oil was becoming an industry in Pennsylvania, following the Drake
discovery, mostly because of "its wonderful curative powers". In the
summer of 1859 oil was discovered in Oklahoma by Lewis Ross, a Cherokee. He was salt
mining at the Grand Saline on the Grand River and decided to sink a deep well for greater
production. The well, struck a vein of oil which produced about ten barrels per day
for nearly a year.
In 1866 Lynis T. Barrett drilled the first producing oil well in Texas on the
Skillern tract near Melrose.
In 1878 Martin (Meichinger) Meinsinger dug a well by hand in Brown County Texas which
brought in five gallons of 38-gravity, dark green oil a day. As a lubricant,
"Brownwood Oil" sold at fifty cents a gallon. But when called a medicine,
it brought twenty five cents for a four ounce bottle.
By 1889 federal statistics had classified Texas as a gas and oil producing state. The first oil well in Oklahoma was drilled in 1896 at Bartlesville and came "in" on April 15th 1897. The well produced from fifty to seventy five barrels per day, but there was no way of shipping it, and the well was capped for several years, until the railroad came through. By 1908 Glenn Pool (near Tulsa) was yielding 117,000 barrels of oil per day and became the greatest oil field ever known.
Financial belief in Oklahoma oil fields poured immigrants into the area. Well sites were chosen and drilled by guess, by luck, and even by dream. Fortunes were made over and over again. Tulsa became the oil capital of the world.
| In 1943 Farmer J W Young convinced wild-catter, Ace Gutowski, that oil lay beneath West Edmond, Oklahoma by demonstration with a goatskin-covered bottle hung from a watch chain which invariably swung from north to south when over oil. Click HERE for more information. |
The oil industry has been winding down for several decades now. Everywhere you look, non-working wells are looking like rusted dinosaurs.
The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board was created by independent Oklahoma oilmen. This privatized state agency is funded by a voluntary assessment on all gas and oil sold in the state.
The dual purpose of the OERB is to environmentally restore abandoned or orphaned oil wells, and to educate Oklahomans about the oil industry.
Oil and Gas Consultants International: OGCI companies specialize in petroleum training, technical publishing, and organizational learning and knowledge management consulting for the oil and gas industry worldwide.
John C. McCornack's OIL page carries words and pictures in a slow loading site you will want to hang around long enough to view.
Have you read these books?
The Oklahoma
Petroleum Industry |