Featured in newsreels, an Oklahoma City 1930 gusher needed “clever equipment” to be brought under control.
As the worst of the Great Depression approached, an 11-day geyser of Oklahoma “black gold” was irresistible to newspaper editors and newsreel producers in 1930. Crews from NBC Radio rushed to cover the dramatic struggle to control “Wild Mary Sudik,” a blowout in the Oklahoma City oilfield. Repeated attempts to contain the well made headlines.
The Mary Sudik No. 1 well erupted after striking a high-pressure formation about 6,500 feet beneath the farm of Vincent and Mary Sudik near the intersection of Bryant Street and present-day I-240 in southwest Oklahoma City. The Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company’s well flowed a “volcano of crude oil and natural gas” for 11 days before being brought under control.
“Wild Mary Sudik” erupted on March 26, 1930, and the battle to contain the well was regularly featured in newspapers, theater newsreels, and on NBC Radio. Photo courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.
Every day, the highly-pressurized well produced an astounding 20,000 barrels of oil and 200 million cubic feet of natural gas — far too much for the production technologies.
Attempts to control the “Wild Mary” became a public sensation with updates in newspapers, newsreel clips and radio broadcasts, according to Oklahoma Journeys, a 2005 audio program at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
“At about 6:30 the morning of March 26, 1930, the crew of roughnecks drilling a well on the property of Vincent Sudik paused in their work,” the program begins about the famous well drilled on the Sudik farm. “The tired drillers had been waiting for daylight to continue their work.”
The Mary Sudik No. 1 well, “defiled all efforts to shut off her volcano of crude oil and natural gas,” declared the Daily Oklahoman. Crews hastily constructed pits to recover 200,000 barrels of oil.
The crew was unfamiliar with the formation’s hazards, explains narrator Michael Dean, who says that after drilling to 6,471 feet, they overlooked signs of a dangerous pressure increase in the well. “The exhausted crew failed to fill the hole with mud.”
“They didn’t know the Wilcox Sand formation was permeated with natural gas under high pressure, and within minutes that sand under so much pressure found a release,” the narrator adds.
A circa 1940s map of the Oklahoma City oilfield shows the site of Mary Sudik No. 1 well in the Wilcox sands formation.
The drilling crew was caught off guard when oil and natural gas suddenly “came roaring out of the hole,” Dean explains. “Pipe stems were thrown hundreds of feet into the air like so many toothpicks. First, there was gas then the flow turned green gold and then black. Oil shot hundreds of feet into the air, and for the next eleven days, the Mary Sudik ran wild.”
Years earlier, as mid-continent oil and natural gas wells reached deeper depths by the early 1900s, highly pressurized formations in Kansas and the Indian Territory had challenged the petroleum industry’s well-control technologies.
In 1906, when lightning hit a natural gas well at Caney, Kansas, an uncontrollable flame could be seen for 35 miles (learn more in Kansas Gas Well Fire).
“Wild Mary Sudik” Daily Updates
Floyd Gibbons of NBC Radio — who regularly broadcasted about the Oklahoma City well — on April 6, 1930, reported that after two unsuccessful attempts, the roaring well finally was closed with a two-ton “overshot” cap.
Experts control the well with “a clever ball-shaped contrivance” that lowers a two-ton “overshot” cap.
An Associated Press article described the “clever equipment” required to control the well without sparking a fire — a “double die was screwed into four inches of casing threads…a clever ball-shaped contrivance, called a fantail, was used to affix the double die to the casing.”
The fantail was placed over the well, “and the ‘Wild Mary’s’ pressure, playing through jets in the contrivance, aided in lowering the cap through the blast,” the article explained.
“With the petroleum geyser halted, operators in the field drew sighs of relief,” it concluded. “A stray spark from two clanking pieces of steel and the territory might have become a raging inferno.”
With the well brought under control and the danger of fire eliminated, drilling continued at a frantic pace elsewhere in Oklahoma City (see Oklahoma’s King of the Wildcatters). The extremely high-pressure of Wilcox sand formations continued to challenge drillers and exploration companies.
The Southwest Missourian newspaper reported, “Oklahoma City, April 7, 1930 — A gas well, estimated to be producing at a rate of 75,000,000 cubic feet a day, blew in at the edge of the city today, creating a new fire threat less than 24 hours after the wild No. 1 Mary Sudik gusher, several miles to the south, had been brought under control.”
Recognizing the risks of drilling into the Wilcox sand, Oklahoma City passed additional ordinances for safety and well spacing in the city.
Blowout Preventer
James Abercrombie, a Texan who had personal experience with uncontrollable blowouts, had an idea for a “ram-type” blowout preventer using hydrostatic pistons to close on the drill stem and seal against the well pressure. In 1920, he met a skilled machinist, Harry Cameron. They would make oilfields much safer.
Cameron manufactured the earliest ram-type blowout preventer (POB) patented by Abercrombie in 1926. High-pressure wells would still need better technologies to tame; preventing them from erupting was ideal. By 1933, Abercrombie patented an improved BOP — setting a new standard for safe drilling in the Oklahoma City oilfield.
The Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City includes the Devon Energy Oil and Gas Park. Photo by Bruce Wells.
In Oklahoma City, visitors can view the Mary Sudik well’s technology — the actual valve that split in half — and watch a newsreel — all in the natural resources exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center. Adjacent to the center on 23rd Street east of the state capitol building, the Devon Energy Oil and Gas Park includes displays of petroleum drilling and production equipment.
Learn about other important oilfield safety advancements in Oilfield Firefighting Technologies.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2025 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “World-Famous Wild Mary Sudik.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/world-famous-wild-mary-sudik. Last Updated: March 19, 2025. Original Published Date: March 24, 2013.
