by Bruce Wells | May 17, 2017 | Petroleum History Almanac
Chickaloon Oil Company sought to be part of Alaska petroleum history, which includes milestones beginning with the territory’s first oil well in 1902, an important oilfield discovery in July 1957, and completion of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 2007. Many small, independent exploration companies tried to become part of state’s oil producing history, and many failed, including Chickaloon Oil.
Seeking investors, Chickaloon Oil’s first advertisement appeared in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner of January 31, 1953. The new company proclaimed it had chosen an area near Chickaloon, about 75 miles northeast of Anchorage, “as one of the most promising drill sites” for petroleum exploration.
“Not only do our studies show a favorable structure in this area, but United States government geologists have marked this area as a probable oil producing land,” added the company, which claimed to have obtained leases for four sections of land, “where we can drill more than 300 wells if oil is found.”
Chickaloon was a coal-mining ghost town in the Alaska Territory. It had mostly perished in the 1920s after the U.S. Navy converted to oil-fired boilers for its ships (see Petroleum and Sea Power). The remains of Chickaloon were on federal property and later became part of Roosevelt’s New Deal community farming experiment, the “Matanuska Valley Colony.”
Around 1930, the U. S. Navy drilled an exploratory oil well in the Matanuska Valley. It was a “dry hole” and capped, but the U.S. Geological Survey cited reports on several other efforts. “A well drilled near Chickaloon in the Matanuska Valley is reported to have struck gas in association with coal,” the USGS noted. In 1929, the Peterson Oil Association had also drilled, but failed to find any oil.
Almost 25 years later, Chickaloon Oil and other exploration companies, returned to the Matanuska-Nelchina area in search of Alaska’s first major oilfield. To find investors for its highly speculative wildcat drilling, Chickaloon Oil advertised as far away as Oregon, offering $250,000 in stock to fund operations. In its ads, the company advised investors that the “veteran oilman from Texas,” Frank Dillard, would supervise the drilling of a 5,000-foot-deep test well in the summer of 1953.
In June 1953, a competitor, Alaska Oil & Gas Development Company, spudded a well just 50 miles down the Matanuska Valley near the Eureka Roadhouse. That well and several later ones would not strike oil.
However, Chickaloon Oil Company could find sufficient funds to actually launch drilling operations. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has no record of the company and it would be another four-years before Richfield Oil Corporation (today’s ARCO) completed its Swanson River Unit No. 1 well, which produced 900 barrels of oil per day and changed Alaska’s future.
Chickaloon Oil Company, Alaska Oil & Gas Development Company, and many other small exploration ventures ultimately became small footnotes in Alaskan petroleum history.
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The stories of exploration and production companies trying to join petroleum booms (and avoid busts) can be found updated in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything? The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please support this AOGHS.ORG energy education website. For membership information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2018 Bruce A. Wells.
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by Bruce Wells | Nov 10, 2016 | Petroleum History Almanac
It was big news in North Texas when a wildcat well discovered an oilfield on S.L. Fowler’s farm on July 29, 1918. A drilling boom along the Red River would soon make Burkburnett world famous. Over The Top Oil Oil Company wanted in on the action.
‘‘Land values in and near town took a jump at once and all available land in and near that townsite has been either leased or offers have been made upon same,” reported the Burkburnett Star.
Over The Top Oil Oil was one of dozens of speculative ventures that quickly followed up the discovery. About 60 drilling rigs were at work within three weeks of the strike.
By June 1919, Burkburnett, Texas, had more than 850 producing wells in “the world’s wonder oilfield.” Twenty trains ran daily between the town and nearby Wichita Falls.
Six months later, Burkburnett’s population had grown from 1,000 to 8,000. A line of derricks two-miles long greeted visitors.
With few skilled petroleum engineers, the rush to tap into oil wealth ignored reservoir management and conservation techniques. The Over The Top Oil Company was among those in a rush.
The company, with J.B. Thomas president and J.E. Lake secretary, issued $40,000 in par value $1 stock. International Petroleum Register noted the company’s holdings to be one lot encompassing only three-fourths of one acre, “out of block No. 21 on the Outer Block subdivision to the town of Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas.”
The company began drilling its first well on its small lease.Then came the Spanish Flu. Amidst the boom town crowds and many hazards of drilling, the Wichita Daily Times of October 16, 1918, reported Burkburnett to be, “at a standstill on account of the epidemic.”
It was the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919, which would kill an estimated 675,000 in the United States alone. In Burkburnett, “Despite the millions of dollars that awaited to be tapped, the only economic activity that occurred was the sale of “bottled drinks….at soft-drink stands.”
Nonetheless, Over The Top Oil Company brought in a small producer in March 1919 – the No. 1 McKinney at 300 barrels. It was before overproduction, reduced reservoir pressures, and shrinking margins took their toll on Burkburnett.
By 1920, Oil and Gas in the Mid-Continent Fields reported how the town had experienced “that history which all oil fields go through, particularly those controlled by the small operator, namely, the location of far too many wells to the acres.”
Noting that “every little building lot has a rig upon it” and “every back door yard has a well all its own,” the author continued that “from a distance, the stranger would swear that the legs of the derricks were ‘crossed.’
A popular 1940 MGM movie was based on the 1918 Burkburnett oilfield discovery.
“The fact is, many derricks are set up 20 feet apart. One derrick is squeezed in between two little houses, so that the legs are within a foot of a house on either side.”
Although Over The Top Oil Company remained in the American Oil Directory of 1922 at the same Wichita Falls address, no further drilling was apparently made and references fade from records. The Texas Railroad Commission maintains an archive of oil well records and may be able to assist with deeper drilling into the history of Over The Top Oil Company.
Learn more in North Texas oil history in Boom Town Burkburnett and Texas Production Company.
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The stories of exploration and production companies trying to join petroleum booms (and avoid busts) can be found updated in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything? The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please support this AOGHS.ORG energy education website. For membership information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2018 Bruce A. Wells.
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by Bruce Wells | Jul 20, 2015 | Petroleum History Almanac
In Memoriam: Charles W. Cookson, founder of the American Oil & Gas Reporter, who died July 17, 2015, in Wichita, Kansas.
A true leader in petroleum industry journalism, “Cookie” Cookson, founder and publisher emeritus of The American Oil & Gas Reporter, died July 17, 2015, in Wichita, Kansas. He was 92.
Together with his wife Joyce, he founded the award-winning industry trade magazine in 1958. He was inducted into the Butler County History Center and Kansas Oil Museum’s Legacy Gallery in 2010. Deepest condolences to the Charles W. Cookson family from all of us who had the privilege of reporting on the oil patch for him.
Among those who have served on the editorial staff at The American Oil & Gas Reporter with founder Charles W. “Cookie” Cookson (center) are, from left, Bruce Wells, Alex Mills, Bill Campbell and A.D. Koen. Cookson is holding the artist’s proof of a limited edition print, “Donkey in a Kansas Field,” by California artist JoAnn Cowans. It was presented to him by the American Oil & Gas Historical Society, which honored Cookson with its first Oil History Journalism Award in April 2006.
Wells founded AOGHS in 2003 and continues to serve as its executive director. Mills is president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers; Campbell remains with The American Oil & Gas Reporter as managing editor; and Koen is an independent energy writer and communications consultant in Houston. Photo courtesy of The American Oil & Gas Reporter.
by Bruce Wells | Dec 1, 2014 | Petroleum History Almanac
In 2015, the American Oil & Gas Historical Society printed a petroleum history calendar. Today in American Petroleum History included dates with descriptions of petroleum history milestones, technologies, inventions, oilfield discoveries, pioneers, etc.
The historical society’s 2015 calendar offers industry milestone dates with 12 historic oil patch photographs from the Library of Congress.
The special energy education calendar, printed thanks to the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, offered an energy education chronology for workshop programs, association members, teachers, students and employees. Each month included historical facts along with one of 12 Library of Congress oil and natural gas industry photos from the 1930s.
The industry’s milestone dates can be used for future editions customized for companies, museums and other industry organizations. Depending on the number ordered, the price per 11 inch by 17 inch calendar was as low as $5 each. Contact Bruce Wells at bawells@aoghs.org.
AOGHS promoted is now collectible Today in American Petroleum History 2015 calendar with this news release.
