The Lucas Gusher at Spindletop Hill, South of Beaumont, Texas, January 10, 1901 Oil was first discovered in Montana in 1892, at least if you go by the first claims. They were filed by prospectors in the Kintla Lake area of the Flathead Valley.
People in the area, especially Indians, knew that something was there for a long time, perhaps hundreds of years. The nearby Tobacco Plains always had a kerosene smell to it, something noted in early accounts of the area.
People in the area, especially Indians, knew that something was there for a long time, perhaps hundreds of years. The nearby Tobacco Plains always had a kerosene smell to it, something noted in early accounts of the area.
First well drilled at Kintla
Oil production moved up into the northern states during the Civil War, into New York and the Ohio River valley. The early businessmen to get into the growing oil industry were Charles Pratt with the Astral Oil Works, on the lamp oil side of things.
By 1867 Henry H. Rogers had come along and the two formed the Charles Pratt and Company, although Standard Oil bought them up by 1874.
By 1867 Henry H. Rogers had come along and the two formed the Charles Pratt and Company, although Standard Oil bought them up by 1874.
Mark Twain and H.H. Rogers in 1908
It doesn’t sound like too serious a setback, not when there’s oil under the ground, but back then there was so much of it and so little demand that the cost of making a new well just didn’t make sense. Another company had entertained notions of building a well nearby, but gave up in 1903 due to funding. So Kintla Lake remained quiet once again.
In 1902 the Montana Swiftcurrent Oil Company started up after miner Sam Somes found oil instead of the minerals he was hoping for, primarily gold. By 1906 the area had been staked out and stretched sixteen by fifteen miles, with wells on each acre. Oil drilling in Glacier had begun.
In 1902 the Montana Swiftcurrent Oil Company started up after miner Sam Somes found oil instead of the minerals he was hoping for, primarily gold. By 1906 the area had been staked out and stretched sixteen by fifteen miles, with wells on each acre. Oil drilling in Glacier had begun.
Oil production had begun in California in 1865 but remained localized until larger wells came in during the 1880s and 1890s. It wasn’t until 1921 with the Long Beach Oil Field that the state really got on the map as one of the largest oil producers in the country.
In Montana it was clear that if there was oil there was money. Butte Oil Co. got interested in the Kintla oil fields in 1900 and started construction on an eight-foot wide wagon road the next year. The company got its drilling equipment shipped in from Pennsylvania using that road. They were able to drill a 1,400-foot deep well right near the shore of Kintla Lake until disaster struck in the form of a fire over the winter of 1902-3.
In Montana it was clear that if there was oil there was money. Butte Oil Co. got interested in the Kintla oil fields in 1900 and started construction on an eight-foot wide wagon road the next year. The company got its drilling equipment shipped in from Pennsylvania using that road. They were able to drill a 1,400-foot deep well right near the shore of Kintla Lake until disaster struck in the form of a fire over the winter of 1902-3.
Edwin L. Drake and his well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, 1859 (touched up in c 1890s)
In 1912 a young college student named W.T. Thom, Jr. was working for the U.S. Geological Survey around eastern Montana and the Dakotas. He found coral there, a clear indication that a vast and mighty sea once covered the area. Knowing his geology, Thom figured that crude oil was probably there now.
Thom made that point clear nearly a decade later when he was now a professor at Princeton when he presented his findings in a Geological Society of America paper in 1923, using the term the Williston Basin for the first time.
If there was oil there’d be men to come and try their hand at getting it out, and several attempts were made during the 1920s, primarily around Baker and Glendive. Starting in 1924 the area around Williston, North Dakota first began to see drilling, primarily by Clarence Iverson on his farm south of Tioga.
A new chapter in the history of Montana had begun, and the state didn’t even know it yet.
Thom made that point clear nearly a decade later when he was now a professor at Princeton when he presented his findings in a Geological Society of America paper in 1923, using the term the Williston Basin for the first time.
If there was oil there’d be men to come and try their hand at getting it out, and several attempts were made during the 1920s, primarily around Baker and Glendive. Starting in 1924 the area around Williston, North Dakota first began to see drilling, primarily by Clarence Iverson on his farm south of Tioga.
A new chapter in the history of Montana had begun, and the state didn’t even know it yet.
The Appalachians prove the real winners, becoming the top oil-producing region of the country until 1904. Well before that Gulf Coast oil production was beginning to gain ground, with most wells beginning in the 1890s. Oklahoma became a destination for oilmen in 1897 and by 1905 the state took off. In 1901 the Spindletop oil field was first drilled in Texas, giving rise to Texaco and Gulf Oil. Still, by the time 1900 rolled around, Standard Oil had a virtual monopoly on production, an 85% control.
Kintla Lake
It wasn’t the only area of the state, either. Settlers coming over the Bozeman Trail sometime in the mid-1860s recorded collecting some kind of “crude scum” along the Big Horn River that they used to oil their wagon wheels. In the 1870s a rancher just north of the Musselshell River wrote that there were “petroleum indications all through here and some day Montana will produce oil.” (Daily Interlake)
The first oil rush to happen in America occurred in Pennsylvania in 1859, which is when the nation’s first well was drilled, the Drake well. Oil was marketed to consumers as kerosene lamp oil for their houses; to painters and cleaners as naptha and benzine; and of course to anyone that needed gasoline for a motor, of which there were still very few.
The first oil rush to happen in America occurred in Pennsylvania in 1859, which is when the nation’s first well was drilled, the Drake well. Oil was marketed to consumers as kerosene lamp oil for their houses; to painters and cleaners as naptha and benzine; and of course to anyone that needed gasoline for a motor, of which there were still very few.
Mining in the Swiftcurrent Valley, c 1870-80
Notes
“Explorers and Exploiters.” National Park Service. Web. Retrieved 22 October 2014. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/glac2/chap3a.htm
Malone, Michael Peter; Roeder, Richard B.; Lang, William L. Montana: A History of Two Centuries. The University of Washington Press: Seattle, 1976. p 314-28
Malone, Michael P. Montana Century: 100 Years in Pictures and Words. Falcon Publishing, Inc.: Helena, 1999. p 9-11.
“Montana’s first oil well was drilled at Kintla Lake in 1901.” Daily Interlake. 20 December 2011. Web. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_5d37faf6-2b84-11e1-975e-001871e3ce6c.html
“Explorers and Exploiters.” National Park Service. Web. Retrieved 22 October 2014. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/glac2/chap3a.htm
Malone, Michael Peter; Roeder, Richard B.; Lang, William L. Montana: A History of Two Centuries. The University of Washington Press: Seattle, 1976. p 314-28
Malone, Michael P. Montana Century: 100 Years in Pictures and Words. Falcon Publishing, Inc.: Helena, 1999. p 9-11.
“Montana’s first oil well was drilled at Kintla Lake in 1901.” Daily Interlake. 20 December 2011. Web. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_5d37faf6-2b84-11e1-975e-001871e3ce6c.html
