by Bruce Wells | Jul 17, 2024 | Energy Education Resources
Petroleum industry women hosted their first convention in 1952 at Shamrock Hotel in Houston.
Since its founding a few years after World War II, a national association of women in the petroleum business has “ebbed and flowed with the tides of the energy and allied industries.”
The trade group began when a secretary at Humble Oil & Refining Company organized a 1949 meeting in New Orleans. Three years later, representatives from other cities gathered there to establish the Association of Desk and Derrick Clubs (ADDC) of North America.
The first Desk and Derrick club was founded in New Orleans in 1949.
Articles of association were signed on July 23, 1951, by the president of the New Orleans club and the presidents of clubs founded in Jackson, Mississippi, Los Angeles, California, and Houston, Texas. The newly organized group of businesswomen began promoting energy education in the United States and Canada.
“Greater Knowledge — Greater Service” became the ADDC motto of women working primarily as secretaries in the oil and natural industry. Many began organizing clubs in dozens of other oil-producing states.
ADDC got its start thanks to the Humble Oil secretary who established the first club in New Orleans, according to the Permian Basin Petroleum Association magazine PB Oil & Gas.
“Inez Awty (later Schaeffer) was tired of writing reports about things she knew little about and believed women working for oil companies wanted to see and know more about a derrick and other aspects of the industry,” noted the 2012 article.
Awty’s Humble Oil & Refining Company was founded in 1911, thanks to a giant oilfield discovery at Humble, Texas, four years after the famous 1901 Spindletop gusher. Production from the Humble field exceeded the total for Spindletop by 1946.
By 1951, there were 1,500 Desk and Derrick members in the United States and Canada. Photo courtesy Permian Basin Petroleum Association.
“Miss Awty thought if men in the oil industry could be organized and know other men outside their own company, then the women could do likewise,” the Midland Reporter-Telegram reported in 1951.
The charter clubs dedicated themselves to “the education and professional development of individuals employed in or affiliated with the petroleum, energy and allied industries and to educate the general public about these industries.”
The PB Oil & Gas article added that in April 1957, a guest speaker was a young Midlander named George H.W. Bush, who reviewed offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Bit of Fun”
According to the ADDC website, educating youth about earth science and how the petroleum industry works is part of the Desk and Derrick mission. Since 2004, the group has published (in English and Spanish) “Bit of Fun with PetroMolly and PetroMack,” an energy activity book designed for third and fourth graders.
In 1957, the organization’s members adopted a motto, “Greater Knowledge — Greater Service.”
In 1982, ADDC established The Desk and Derrick Educational Trust, “for the purpose of awarding scholarships to students pursuing a degree in a major field of study related to the petroleum, energy, or allied industries, with the objective of obtaining full-time employment in the industry.”
A foundation was established in 1987 to assist members in developing educational projects and programs.
In 2018, about 1,200 women and men employed in or affiliated with the energy and allied industries comprised 48 clubs in seven regions. Membership numbers fluctuate in close relation to the state of the oil and gas industry — and oil prices.
ADDC has since continued to promote its energy education mission using a variety of programs, including seminars, field trips, and individual clubs hosting the annual national convention.
“Thousands of hours of education have been provided for members through monthly programs on the many facets of this industry and given by speakers ranging from company CEOs to oil-well-fire fighters.”
ADDC Milestones
1949 – The first club is founded in New Orleans by Inez Awty Schaeffer.
July 23, 1951 – Articles of association are signed by presidents of the clubs founded earlier in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Houston and Jackson, Mississippi.
December 1-2, 1951 – First Board of Directors meet in New Orleans.
ADDC published its first “Bit of Fun” Energy Activity Book in 2004.
1952 – A newsletter is published (today’s The Desk and Derrick Journal) after Josephine Nolen of Odessa, Texas, wins a contest for its name: The Oil and Gal Journal.
1952 – The first convention is held at the Shamrock Hotel in Houston led by the first association president, Lee Wilson Hoover. Forty member clubs are represented by almost 1,000 registrants. The Shamrock Hotel was the largest in the United States at the time. Independent producer Glenn H. “Diamond Glenn” McCarthy spent $21 million to build it.
1957 – “Greater Knowledge — Greater Service” is adopted as a motto.
1977 – “of North America” is deleted from the association’s name and the acronym ADDC becomes common usage.
1987 – The ADDC Foundation is established and the first issue of The Desk and Derrick Journal published, replacing the Oil and Gal Journal.
1988 – Delegates at the annual convention approve equitable membership in the association, opening membership to men.
1996 – The first association website goes online in September.
2001 – Celebration of the association’s 50th anniversary year.
2004 – ADDC publishes its first “Bit of Fun” energy activity book.
2010 – Website is revamped; updated and improved.
2024 Regions & Clubs
The 72nd annual ADDC Convention and Education Conference, is planned for September 24 to 28 at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton in Dallas. The 2023 gathering took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and included three field trips.
Map of Association of Desk & Derrick Clubs courtesy ADDC.org.
Central Region Clubs: Butler County, Graham, Great Bend, Liberal, Lone Star Club of Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita, and Wichita Falls.
Northeast Region Clubs: Penn-York Oil & Gas Affiliates, Three Rivers, Tri-State, and Tuscarawas Valley.
Southeast Region Clubs: Baton Rouge, El Dorado, Lafayette, Morgan City, New Orleans, Red River, San Antonio, Victoria, and Westbank.
West Region Clubs: Abilene, Amarillo, Artesia, Farmington, Grande, Prairie, Midland, Pampa, and Roswell.
Oil Patch Field Trips
The association’s conventions often have included field trips to onshore and offshore drilling platforms, refineries, drill-bit manufacturing plants, pipeline facilities, and other petroleum industry locations.
During the 62nd convention in 2013 at Charleston, West Virginia, coordinator Melinda Johnson managed a theme of “Autumn in Appalachia.” The local club included 95 oil and natural gas companies. The convention program offered seminars — and the choice of five day-long field trips.
Among the 62nd convention seminars were Five Traits of Professionalism; Intro to Petroleum Engineering; Hot Oil and Gas Plays in the Appalachian Basin; Formulas and More — Excel Training; and Leadership and Effective Communication.
On one of the field trips, service company representatives from Nabors Services provided a seminar and demonstration on fracturing treatments in the Marcellus Shale. Convention attendees learned the steps in performing a hydraulic fracturing treatment and the difference between how a conventional reservoir and an unconventional reservoir is fractured.
Another field trip visited a Halliburton oilfield service yard for education on coil tubing — with a “snubbing” unit demonstration. Another trip was to a Baker Hughes center in Clarksburg where visitors learned about directional drilling and viewed downhole motors, rotary steerable subs, and different kinds of drill bits.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2024 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Desk and Derrick Educators.” Author: AOGHS.ORG Editors. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/energy-education-resources/desk-derrick-educators. Last Updated: July 23, 2024. Original Published Date: July 21, 2014.
by Bruce Wells | Jul 15, 2024 | Energy Education Resources
Visiting America’s many petroleum museums is easy.
Summertime brings new visitors to community oil and gas museums, including teachers and student anticipating the return of field trips and K-12 programs as the school year approaches. The American Oil & Gas Historical Society — an advocate of museums and energy education exhibits — maintains state-by-state links and contact information on the AOGHS website.
Whether visited on vacation or during the school year, museums in Texas , Oklahoma, California, and Pennsylvania offer many science and petroleum-related exhibits.
Visitors to all of America’s oil and gas museums often are met by volunteer docents — retired petroleum geologists, engineers, or other oilfield professionals, including services company executives.
Petroleum exhibits educate visitors to the Texas Energy Museum in Beaumont, where a 1901 oil discovery at Spindletop Hill launched the modern petroleum industry. Photo by Bruce Wells.
In Texas, the Petroleum Museum in Midland includes many summer energy education programs for kids, as does the Ocean Star, an offshore rig museum in Galveston. Many community museums also are part of annual “derrick festivals,” which take place in Taft, California (West Kern Oil Museum), and other states with oil and gas production.
Alabama has a small county museum in Gilbertown with an “old Hunt oil rig” similar to the one that discovered the first oilfield in Alabama in 1944.
Further, many oil patch communities celebrate their petroleum heritage every summer with parades, special events, and museum tours.
Visitors to the Drake Well Museum at Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania, can tour a replica of Edwin L. Drake’s cable-tool derrick and steam engine house among other outdoor exhibits. Photo by Bruce Wells.
For those interested in the industry’s exploration and production history and traveling this summer, check out these exhibits chronicling the nation’s discoveries.
Western New York boasts a museum in Bolivar with some of the nation’s earliest petroleum artifacts. While dairying and livestock have become the cash crops, the region still produces a small amount of very high-quality oil and natural gas, says Director Kelly Lounsberry. This museum tells the story of oil and natural gas production in the region.
Exhibits at a museum in Bolivar, N.Y., include oilfield engines, maps, documents, pictures, models and tools. Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum once owned a petroleum products company there – and sold oil cans. Photo by Bruce Wells.
The first U.S. well specifically intended to obtain natural gas was dug near Fredonia by William Hart, who had noticed gas bubbles on the surface of a creek. In 1821, he dug a 27-foot well and built a “log pipe” to bring gas to nearby houses for lighting.
Hart’s work led to the formation of the Fredonia Gas Light and Water Works Company – the first U.S. natural gas company, according to the American Gas Association, Washington, D.C., which was founded in 1918.
Further, thanks to the region’s oilfield production, L. Frank Baum opened a petroleum products business in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1883. The future author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz once sold buggy wheel axle grease — and oil cans (learn more in Oil in the Land of Oz).
Just to the south of Bolivar, there are many museums and historic attractions in the state where the modern industry began: Pennsylvania.
East of I-79 in northwestern Pennsylvania, the Drake Well Museum in Titusville exhibits “Colonel” Edwin Drake’s famous August 27, 1859, discovery well – today recognized as the first U.S. oil producer.
The Drake Well Museum’s outdoor exhibits include a recreation of the original cable-tool derrick Drake used. Among the most popular summer attractions for young students is the “Nitro” well-fracturing reenactment demonstrating the use of “go-devils” for fracturing a well.
Visitors also can stop by the museum gift shop to find a reprint of The Early Days of Oil, by Dr. Paul Giddens, considered to be the “Bible” of information about the birth of the U.S. petroleum industry. Many images in the book are from originals made by photographer John A. Mather and preserved at the museum.
Located on 270 Seneca Street in Oil City – in a Beaux Arts building listed in the National Register of Historic Places – the Venango Museum of Art, Science & Industry preserves the oil region’s industrial heritage. Its exhibits include a 1928 Wurlitzer Theater Organ.
Once a world-famous Pennsylvania boom town, visitors today can walk the grassy paths of Pithole’s former streets. Photo by Bruce Wells.
Another must-see oil history spot is the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Pithole Visitors Center — the site of a vanished 1865 oil boom town now managed by Drake Well Museum. The once infamous boom town is in Oil Creek State Park.
A dedicated group of railroad enthusiasts maintains the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad, a nonprofit group that offers trips through the historic oil region. Near the railroad is the refurbished home of “Coal Oil” Johnny. Read his fascinating tale in the Legend of “Coal Oil Johnny.”
The Penn-Brad Oil Museum — and Historical Oil Well Park — is located three miles south of Bradford, Pennsylvania, on Route 219, near Custer City. Photo by Bruce Wells.
At nearby Oil City is a center dedicated to the study of the oil heritage region at Clarion University, Venango Campus. The Barbara Morgan Harvey Center for the Study of Oil Heritage contains hundreds of rare books of the region, newspaper clippings from the early 1900s, and even minutes from the meetings of early companies, maps, and photographs.
First Billion Dollar Oilfield
About 70 miles to the east of Titusville, the Penn-Brad Oil Museum (and historical oil well park) at Bradford takes visitors back to the early boom times of “The First Billion Dollar Oil Field.” Guided tours are conducted by retired geologists or petroleum engineers who volunteer their time to relate exciting first-hand experiences.
The museum in Custer City is three miles south of Bradford, along Rt. 219. Nearby is a refinery built in 1881 and still operated by the American Refining Group. The facility is considered the oldest continuously operating refinery in America.
The museum maintains stationary internal combustion engines for education and enjoyment. Photo by Bruce Wells.
Before leaving Pennsylvania, visit one of the world’s largest collections of oilfield engines. Century old “hit and miss” gas engines, vintage oilfield equipment, and early electric generators are among the permanent exhibits at a unique “power museum” in Coolspring.
With perhaps the largest 19th-century engine collection in the world, the museum is housed in 13 buildings with about 250 engines – many of them operational.
The Coolspring Power Museum is located east of Pittsburgh just off Route 36 midway between Punxsutawney to the south and Brookville to the north. According to longtime Director Paul E. Harvey, the collection presents an illuminating history of the evolution of internal combustion technology that put an end to the steam-powered era.
Twice a year engine collectors from around the country gather on the extensive grounds – and the “barking” of hundreds of antique engines lasts several days.
Community oil and gas museums are linked to the AOGHS website. Museum events and K-12 education efforts are featured alongside stories of America’s petroleum heritage.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2024 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Summer Travels to Oil Museums” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/energy-education-resources/pennsylvania-petroleum-vacation. Last Updated: July 10, 2024. Original Published Date: May 7, 2013.
by Bruce Wells | Jun 27, 2024 | Energy Education Resources
Discoveries in the 1920s led to a giant oilfield in 1957.
A 1961 Clare County historical marker explains Michigan petroleum history began in 1886, but that Michigan State Geologist Alexander Winchell had reported that oil and natural gas deposits lay under Michigan’s surface as early as 1860.
“First commercial oil production was at Port Huron, where 22 wells were drilled, beginning in 1886,” the marker notes. “Total output was small. Michigan’s first oil boom was at Saginaw, where production began about 1925. About three hundred wells were drilled here by 1927, when Muskegon’s ‘Discovery Well’ drew oil men from all over the country to that field.”
“Michigan Oil & Gas History,” a 2005 Clarke Historical Library exhibit at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant. Photo by Kristin L. Wells.
The Clare County historical marker notes that the Mt. Pleasant field, discovered in 1928, “helped make Michigan one of the leading oil producers of the eastern United States. Mount Pleasant became known as the “Oil Capital of Michigan.”
Central Michigan University Oil Exhibit
In the summer of 2005, a special petroleum exhibit opened at Central Michigan University’s (CMU) Clarke Historical Library, Mount Pleasant.
“They work hard, take risks, prosper, and by and large benefit everybody,” noted Frank Boles, director of the Clarke Historical Library, about oil and natural gas producers. “What I didn’t understand about the industry is that these people all know each other.”
Frank Boles (top), director of the Clarke Historical Library, designed an exhibit creatively combining documents and photographs to capture the attention of students. Photos by Kristin L. Wells.
The library told their story with an “Oil and Natural Gas in Michigan” exhibit.
The state’s abundant oil production comes as a surprise to many, said Boles, who put the exhibit together with the cooperation of the Michigan Oil & Gas Association and the Michigan Oil & Gas Producers Educational Foundation.
Jack Westbrook, retired managing editor of Michigan Oil & Gas News magazine, marshaled the resources and worked tirelessly to ensure success, Boles said. “In a very real sense, there would be no exhibit if it were not for Jack.”
The exhibit was designed to designed to pique a visitor’s curiosity – and be transportable. The region’s students learned that Mount Pleasant, home to CMU, had its own oil boom in 1928 and today is known as the historical center of Michigan’s oil industry.
Exhibit visitors learned that more than 57,000 oil and gas wells had been drilled in their state since 1925 — and that Michigan ranks 17th in nationwide oil production and 11th in natural gas. More surprises awaited those students who looked more closely, Boles said.
“We’re about usage,” he explained. “Our profit is people coming in, using our resources, and hopefully learning something. We want our exhibits to prompt them to dig deeper.”
Golden Gulch of Oil
Clarke Historical Library visitors learned about late 1920s oil discoveries and that after decades of dry holes or small oil finds, a January 7, 1957, Houseknecht No. 1 well revealed Michigan’s largest oilfield, 29-miles-long. Ferne Houseknecht had convinced her uncle, Clifford Perry, to take time between his other farm projects to drill the historic well.
Learn more in Michigan’s Golden Gulch of Oil.
For the Clarke Historical Library exhibit, Boles used six walls and eleven cabinets to tell this and other stories, so careful planning was essential. He said that from the project’s outset, pursuit of community support, resources, and partners was essential.
Showing off his homemade cable tool rig in 1932, Earl “Red” Perry Jr., 12, was the nephew of Cliff Perry — who would discover Michigan’s largest oilfield in 1957. Photo courtesy Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.
The exhibit began with storyboarding and the interactive process of writing and rewriting proposed text. Large photo formats with understandable text dominated the walls, while display cases featured unique artifacts and documents.
Visitors discovered a rich oil history and learned of the complex environmental issues Michigan has successfully addressed.
The 1970s “Pigeon River State Forest” ecological controversy was presented — along with its innovative solution. In 1976, Michigan became the first state in the nation to earmark state revenue generated through mineral, including oil and gas, activity for acquisition and improvement of environmentally sensitive or public recreation lands.
According to Jack Westbrook, all 83 Michigan counties have benefited from the fund’s $635 million collected from oil and gas revenues — and other states followed Michigan’s example. His book, Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund 1976-2011: A 35 year Michigan investment heritage in Michigan’s public recreation future, can be found on Amazon Books (link below).
Visit the Clarke Historical Library.
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Recommended Reading: American Oil And Gas History Book: Michigan’s Golden Gulch Of Oil: The Great Depression (2021); At Home in Earlier Mt. Pleasant Michigan: A visit with our neighbors of the past (2021); Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund 1976-2011: A 35-year Michigan Oil and Gas Industry Investment Heritage in Michigan’s Public Recreation Future
(2011); Handbook of Petroleum Refining Processes
(2016).
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Become an annual AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2024 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Michigan Petroleum History.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/energy-education-resources/exhibiting-michigan-petroleum-history. Last Updated: November 12, 2024. Original Published Date: June 19, 2014.
by Bruce Wells | Jun 23, 2024 | Energy Education Resources
Volunteers are key to Oblong museum’s Illinois Basin exhibits and events.
Building a community oil museum is not for the faint of heart. “Money and volunteers, volunteers and money,” are the biggest challenges, according to John Larrabee, board president for the Illinois Oil Field Museum and Resource Center on the outskirts of his hometown of Oblong, Illinois.
The Illinois Oil Field Museum is located in Oblong, Illinois, on Highway 33, southeast of Effingham. First opened in 1961, the museum moved into a new building in 2001. Photos by Kristin L. Wells.
“The first thing you have to have is a goal and the determination to keep at it, no matter what. Don’t give up, whatever happens,” Larrabee explained in a 2004 interview with Kris Wells, American Oil & Gas Historical Society volunteer researcher and contributing editor. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | May 8, 2024 | Energy Education Resources
Kansas museum preserves history of 1920s natural gas field — and world’s greatest source of helium.
A small museum in southwestern Kansas preserves the history of one of the largest natural gas fields in the world. The Stevens County Gas & Historical Museum in Hugoton opened in 1961 near an historic and still producing gas well drilled in 1945.
Hugoton’s museum, founded by a group of dedicated volunteers led by Gladys Renfro, serves as a Kansas energy education center. Its exhibits are “a memento of the Hugoton gas field and the progressive development of Stevens County.”
(more…)
by Bruce Wells | May 6, 2024 | Energy Education Resources
Preserving Louisiana petroleum history at Caddo Lake.
A 1905 oil discovery at Caddo-Pines brought America’s rapidly growing petroleum industry to northwestern Louisiana. A state museum in appropriately named Oil City tells the story.
Originally the Caddo-Pine Island Oil and Historical Museum, in May 2004 the Louisiana State Oil and Gas Museum was dedicated as a state museum under the Louisiana Secretary of State.
Gulf Refining Company in 1911 built drilling platforms to reach the oil beneath Caddo Lake, Louisiana. The early “offshore” technologies worked, and production continues today.
Located about 20 miles north of Shreveport, the first public museum in Louisiana dedicated to the petroleum industry maintains an extensive local history library and collected photographic archives. Exterior exhibits include the former depot of the Kansas City Southern Railroad. (more…)
