The history of Con Edison includes stories of work crews from New York City’s many competing gas companies digging up lines of rivals — and literally battling for customers, giving rise to the term “gas house gangs.” (more…)
During World War I, the Winona Oil Corporation set up operations in Casper, Wyoming, with holdings of 1,200 acres of “selected land in the heart of Powder River.” The small, newly established exploration company reported having one drilling rig and another ready to be “rigged up” at another site.
A Winona Oil Company station sold gasoline and and Ivaline Motor Oil, circa 1919. After months of difficult drilling, the company’s first exploratory well reached a depth of 700 feet without finding oil.
As the Powder River Basin attracted exploration companies, a 1918 discovery at a depth of about 2,600 feet by the Ohio Oil Company (later Marathon) would grow into the largest in the Rocky Mountains. Ohio Oil could afford drilling more productive wells a thousand feet deeper.
Along with earlier discoveries at Salt Creek (1908) and Big Muddy (1916), the Lance Creek field “brought an immediate boom and derricks sprang up everywhere,” according to the Niobrara Historical Society. The Basin’s abundant shale deposits also played a role.
With capitalization of $200,000, Winona Oil was considered a “poor boy” drilling venture dependent upon investors to fund continued drilling despite the risks. The company offered stock at 5 cents a share. Advertisements in the Ogden Standard enticed investors with “Winona Is Here to make Money, Money, Money.”
In February 1918, C. Kirchner, secretary of the Winona Oil, conducted a promotional demonstration of the reduction of shale oil to gas for about 50 onlookers. “This gas was lighted and burned during the entire experiment to such an extent that a couple of engineers in the party made the remark that the gas itself would furnish 90 percent of the fuel necessary for the original reduction,” it was later proclaimed.
This Winona Oil interest in shale oil did not develop, although other contemporary ventures did pursue it (see Ute Oil Company).
Winona Oil by 1919 had only been able to drill 700 feet in its first drilling effort somewhere “on the north side of the railroad.”
“Hocus Pocus-or-Common Sense?” Ivaline Motor Oil sales did not help the Winona Oil Company to survive its drilling ventures in the highly competitive oilfields of the Powder River Basin.
In March 1919, a trade magazine noted that “the Powder River Syndicate has undertaken to finish the well commenced by the Winona Oil Corporation at Powder River, Natrona Co., according to reports current in Casper.”
Another article in the Oil & Gas News added, “In the Powder River field, the Winona Oil Corporation has announced the purchase of a drilling machine which will be used to complete the company’s first well, which has been underway for months. The Winona claims to have solved all its difficulties and expects to go with its work without further delay.”
By the end of May, Winona Oil Company reportedly survived its financial difficulties and had reentered the field. Plans were by then underway to drill a second well.
Good news came the following month when the first well was described as “gassing heavily, and Casper people interested in the enterprise are very optimistic over the prospects,” the trade publication proclaimed, adding. “Should the well prove a good one, a large tract north of Powder River station would be added to the territory considered proven.”
However, by August the good news had gone bad; the gasser well had to be abandoned, “as the hole was started with a casing too small to see it thoroughly.”
A second well was spudded by the Powder River Syndicate with Winona Oil a fifty-fifty partner. “The Winona Powder River Syndicate well No. 2, which was begun when the first hole pinched-out, is making 100 feet a day, according to reports from the field, and is down about 500 feet. This well is located north of Powder River, on Winona holdings,” noted the Oil & Gas News on September 4.
The publication reported bad news on January 29, 1920. “The Winona well at Powder River is also shut down, but it is claimed that drilling will resume in the spring,” the News noted. “This is the second well, the first having been lost on account of a bit wedged in the hole.”
Drilling did not resume in the spring or anytime thereafter. Despite the efforts of Winona Oil and the hopes of its investors, the independent exploration company did not survive. Cities Service Company bought Winona Oil and moved the Winona division to St. Paul, Minnesota.
More articles about small exploration and production companies attempting to join petroleum booms (and avoid busts) can be found in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything?
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Recommended Reading: Black Gold, Patterns in the Development of Wyoming’s Oil Industry (1997); Trek of the Oil Finders: A History of Exploration for Petroleum (1975). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an annual AOGHS supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Winona Corporation.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/old-oil-stocks/winona-oil-corporation. Last Updated: October 18, 2025. Original Published Date: March 23, 2016.
In October 1917, Wyoming Peerless Oil Company stock promotions first appeared in the pages of the Cheyenne State Leader, Laramie Republican, and Wyoming Tribune newspapers.
Peerless Oil and other newly formed exploration companies promoted themselves with often exaggerated newspaper ads in the Milwaukee Journal, June 2, 1918.
Within a year the new exploration company’s advertisements appeared in newspapers as far away as Milwaukee, Wisconsin: “Action Not Promises Our Motto,” noted one from 1918 placed in the Milwaukee Journal.
Many U.S. newspapers at the time included similar promotions as oilfield discoveries proliferated from California to Kansas. Just a few years earlier, Col. William F. Cody had searched for Wyoming black gold (see Buffalo Bill Shoshone Oil Company).
Another example of a Peerless Oil Company promotion of its Wyoming Big Muddy exploration effort.
Meanwhile, demand for gasoline had been growing since the first U.S. auto show in 1900. The Model T Fords and World War I, which the United States would soon join, resulted in a rapid proliferation of petroleum exploration companies.
Some of the startups used questionable claims to keep investors unaware of how risky and expensive the business of finding and producing oil truly was. Nine out of 10 exploratory well attempts proved to be dry holes — and petroleum exploration was expensive in such remote areas.
The Wyoming Peerless Oil Company set its sights on drilling a well six miles from the nearest producer in the Big Muddy oilfield east of Casper.
Peerless Oil stock was initially offered at three cents per share. “Don’t wait for our first well to come in. You might not be able to get this stock then for less than 25-cents or 50-cents per share.”
Many companies tried but failed to find petroleum wealth in the Big Muddy field.
The Big Muddy oilfield, located about four miles west of Glenrock in Converse County, was discovered in 1916, a discovery that touched off widespread drilling and brought about one of Wyoming’s famous oil booms. Today, a marker on the south side of Hwy. 230 at the junction with County Road 33 describes the historic field:
Big Muddy oil field is a typical Wyoming oil producing structure. The field, discovered in 1916, has produced over 30 million barrels of high quality oil.
Strata here were arched upward at the time the Rocky Mountains originated over 60 million years ago, to form anticline, or dome. Because oil is lighter than water, it rose to the crest of the dome where it was trapped in pore spaces between sand grains. The Wall Creek sand lies at a depth of near 3,000 feet and the Dakota sand at about 4,000 feet. The first oil well in Wyoming was drilled in 1884. There are now about 100 oil fields in the state.
The Big Muddy field in Converse County launched a drilling boom, notes a University of Wyoming’s 2019 article, Wyoming Energy History. “Claim jumpers entered the area, some only drilling at night and pretending to be construction workers on the site during the day,” the article reports, adding that 13 steam boilers were stolen — and cable-tools “lost” down holes (see Fishing in Petroleum Wells).
Seeking more investors, advertisements reported Wyoming Peerless Oil’s drilling progress on its Big Muddy exploratory well: Down 1,475 feet by June of 1918; down 1,675 feet by July and down to 3,315 feet by August of 1919.
Although rumors of a dry hole began to circulate, the company continued to solicit more investors to fund deeper drilling. But after reaching 4,050 feet without finding oil, company officer Charles Straub announced the well would be abandoned. If more funds could be secured, Wyoming Peerless Oil would drill a second well, Straub added.
“Efforts have been made to extend the limits of the (Big Muddy) field in every direction, but these efforts have all been failures, and the area of the field is plainly marked,” reported the Oil and Gas News (this would change in 1950 with a discovery to the east of the field).
By February 1920, stockholders from Denver had petitioned a court to put the Wyoming Peerless Oil Company into receivership, alleging mismanagement by Straub and other company officers. Straub responded with a $50,000 libel suit, reported by the Casper Daily Tribune on March 5, 1920. Wyoming Peerless Oil never drilled a second well, and the company disappeared from newspaper accounts.
The first record of oil in Wyoming came in 1832. An expedition led by Captain B.L.E. Bonneville took the first wagons through South Pass. Fifty years later, prospector Mike Murphy bought an oil lease on the site of Capt. Bonneville’s “great tar spring” southeast of Lander.
Learn more in First Wyoming Oil Wells.
The stories of exploration and production companies joining petroleum booms (and avoiding busts) can be found updated in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything?
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Recommended Reading: William F. Cody’s Wyoming Empire: The Buffalo Bill Nobody Knows (2007); The Salt Creek Oil Field: Natrona County, Wyo., 1912
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please support this website, subscribe to the monthly email newsletter, and help expand our historical research. Contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2026 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Wyoming Peerless Oil Company.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/buffalo-bill-oil-company. Last Updated: October 1, 2025. Original Published Date: July 29, 2013.
“Oil Excitement at Rocky Ford Field Near Sundance,” proclaimed a front page of the Moorcroft (Wyoming) Democrat on September 14, 1917, describing a “big drill” of the Wyoming-Dakota Company.
“Rocky Ford, the seat of the oil activities in Crook County is about the busiest place around,” the newspaper continued. “Cars come and go, people congregate, and the steady churning of the two big rigs continues perpetually.”
Not finished with its enthusiastic reporting, the Moorcroft Democrat noted: “Excitement has reached the zenith of tension, and with each gush of the precious fluid, oil stock climbs another notch. The big drill of the Wyoming-Dakota Co. has been pulled from their deep hole until spring. The drill reached 600 feet and was in oil.”
North Texas oilfield discoveries had made national headlines, adding to the excitement in Wyoming, where the giant Salt Creek-Midwest field was revealed in 1908. Even showman Col. William F. Cody would catch oil fever (see Buffalo Bill Shoshone Oil Company).
The Rapid City, South Dakota, petroleum exploration company Wyoming-Dakota Oil — reportedly having one producing well and three more drilling — was capitalized at $500,000 with a par value of 25 cents per share. All of its leases were in Crook County, including 3,200 acres in Lime Butte field, 10,000 acres in Rocky Ford field, and 4,000 acres in Poison Creek field.
Since Wyoming would not pass its first “Blue Sky” law to prevent fraudulent promotions until 1919, Wyoming-Dakota Oil’s newspaper ads often rivaled patent medicine exaggerations. Potential investors were enticed with “Geologists claim this showing indicates alone 500,000 barrels to the acre” and “Your Chance Has Come if you want to make money in Oil.”
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Sells Investment Company offered Wyoming-Dakota Oil Company stock reportedly after “a careful selection of conservative issues from among the thousand prospects, offering same to you before higher prices prevail or its present substantial position has been discounted by professional traders. A good clean cut speculation of this character may mean a fortune. Watch this company for sensational developments.”
The United States had entered World War I in April 1917; by November newspapers reported Francis Peabody, chairman of the Coal Committee of the Council of National Defense, was telling the U.S. Senate Public Lands Committee that the country was not producing enough oil to win the war.
“He said if nothing were done to develop new wells the reserve supply would be exhausted in twelve months and production would be 50,000,000 barrels less than requirements,” one newspaper noted. Wyoming-Dakota Oil Company executives took advantage of the opportunity while more Texas discoveries like “Roaring Ranger” made headlines.
“The (war) situation outlined leads us to suggest that you investigate Wyoming-Dakota Oil. ‘We are doing our bit’ by drilling night and day. Ours is an investment worth while. The allotment of Treasury stock at 25 cents is almost sold out and the Directors will advance the price of stock to 50 cents a share (100 per cent on your present investment) on December 15th, 1917.”
The Wyoming-Dakota Oil promotion continued: “By that time our newspaper announcement in the Eastern cities, pointing out the enormous acreage, present production and negotiations for additional valuable holdings will be made known to millions of seasoned investors in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Pittsburgh. We feel confident this will result in a demand for this stock that will send the present market price skyward. We trust you will see the wisdom of prompt action before all available stock at 25 cents per share has been purchased by other investors.”
In early 1918, Wyoming-Dakota Oil Company had drilled wells in the Upton-Thornton oilfield and was “holding out high hope of bringing in a gusher in a few days.” In July, the Laramie Daily Boomerang reported the company had “two rigs going steadily in Crook County’s Rocky Ford field” — but no oil gushers.
Growing investor pessimism was reflected in Wyoming-Dakota Oil Company’s stock prices, which fell in over-the-counter markets from 75 cents bid in June 1919 to 50 cents bid at the end of September. By March 1920, brokers offered 5,000 shares or any part thereof at 5 cents a share.
A final blow to the company was reported in the Laramie Republican of July 25, 1921: “Wyoming-Dakota…has completed pulling the casing from the well which it has been drilling north of town, after having struck a formation said to be granite, at a depth of 715 feet.”
The Laramie newspaper remained optimistic. “While this has a tendency to retard the activities of other interests, it is by no means stopping them entirely and it is to be hoped that another well will be started this summer.”
That did not happen. Reports on Wyoming-Dakota Oil Company disappeared for the next 24 years, until a court summons was published in the January 25, 1945, Sundance (Wyoming) Times.
The summons said Wyoming-Dakota Oil — address or place of residence to plaintiff unknown — was being sued in the Sixth District Court of Wyoming. The exploration company then faded into history; its stock certificates valued only by scripophily collectors.
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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. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information: Article Title – “Wyoming-Dakota Company” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL https://aoghs.org/old-oil-stocks/wyoming-dakota-oil-company. Last Updated: March 31, 2025. Original Published Date: January 14, 2016.
Although attempts to extract commercial amounts of oil from Utah’s abundant shale formations failed, the effort of Ute Oil Company in the Uinta Basin was far ahead of its time.
A survey party in 1861 described the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah as “one vast contiguity of waste and measurably valueless, except for nomadic purposes, hunting grounds for Indians, and to hold the world together.”
After reading the survey report, Brigham Young, who had founded Salt Lake City in 1847, scrapped his plans to send a group of Mormon settlers to the area.
Gilsonite is a coal-like natural asphalt found in the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah.
Young thought the arid region better suited for a Ute Indian reservation, according to the Utah Humanities Council, and President Abraham Lincoln created the Uintah Reservation by executive order for what is today the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
However, by the time Utah became the 45th state in 1896, the sparsely populated region bordering Colorado had begun revealing its mineral wealth, including gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, and a soft coal-like substance.
Coal and a coal-like hydrocarbon — Gilsonite — brought mineral exploration companies to eastern Utah soon after the turn of the century. Gilsonite, also known as North American Asphaltum, was unique to the region known for its thick shale deposits.
In the 1920s, companies extracted oil shale and Gilsonite from narrow mines.
By the early 20th century, aspiring entrepreneurs had arrived to exploit these new petroleum resources. Several new ventures would be among the earliest anywhere seeking to make money by squeezing oil from shale. The Uinta Basin has since become one of the largest coalbed methane areas in the United States.
By 2015, petroleum engineers estimated the vast desert plateau in Utah and Colorado contained between eight trillion cubic feet and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.
“The first attempt at oil shale exploitation took place in 1917 by the Ute Oil Company,” noted the Bureau of Land Management in a 2007 technical report about oil shale and tar sands areas in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
Established in 1916, Ute Oil Company was created to refine petroleum from a dense shale mined north of Watson, Utah. Oil shales had proven abundant there. So had the Gilsonite found in deep vertical veins. The coal-like natural asphalt had many industrial uses.
Although Ute Oil Company found Gilsonite and oil shales abundant in northeastern Utah, processing the hard shale proved too expensive as other conventional U.S. discoveries brought far lower oil prices. Color map courtesy Utah Geological Society.
Gilsonite had been vigorously promoted since 1886 by Samuel H. Gilson, its principal investigator, marketer, and namesake. He formed a company to mine and market Gilsonite on a commercial scale.
Gilson, a former rider for the Pony Express between California and Missouri, believed his Gilsonite (or Uintahite) practical for use in everything from a waterproof coating for wooden pilings, an insulation for wire cable, and as paint or a varnish. He even promoted the natural, resinous hydrocarbon as an additive for chewing gum.
Utah’s Gilsonite was selling for more than $12 a ton when, in 1888, despite Bureau of Indian Affairs protests, Congress opened a 7,040-acre oil shale and Gilsonite-laden strip on the Uintah Ouray Reservation for placer mine claims.
An October 1918 article in “Petroleum Age” magazine described a planned shale oil plant at Watson, Utah, that would be the largest in United States. The author is the plant’s designer, St. Louis engineer George W. Wallace, who will become superintendent of Ute Oil Company.
Placer claims could be filed for mining a fixed amount of acreage by a person or group. These claims on Indian Reservations often led to lengthy litigation. The law required production of resources in order for the claimant to be granted a legitimate right to the land. Learn more about the Placer Act in First Wyoming Oil Well.
Ute Oil Company’s interest was in oil shale’s kerogen (naturally occurring organic matter) content. Oil shales like Gilsonite can yield petroleum when sufficiently “cooked.” The distillates boil off and are captured as in other refining operations.
In eastern Utah, Ute Oil Company made a 100-acre placer claim near Watson alongside the White River, about 100 feet up a hillside where promising oil shale deposits could be cheaply mined and then refined. Other companies had the same idea.
The boom towns of Watson, Dragon Junction, and Rainbow were spawned amidst new Gilsonite mines. A narrow-gauge (and short-lived) Uintah Railroad was built specifically to link them to the Rio Grande Western Railway 63 miles away.
Oil shale production mining technologies of the 1920s were dangerous and expensive. Above is Ute Oil Company’s processing plant under construction.
By 1911, what was called the “crookedest railroad in the West” had overcome steep mountain grades and crossed 40 bridges to reach Watson and the Rainbow Gilsonite mine, above the White River. Crane Shale Oil, Utah Shale & Oil, and the Western Shale Oil Company all planned oil and gasoline reduction plants near Watson.
As the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began tracking these early efforts to make money by extracting oil from shale, Ute Oil led the way as a petroleum industry pioneer for the oil shale boom that began in the mid-2000s.
Although the company would never complete its ambitious construction of a retorting plant for processing shale, it explored new technologies to maximize production. A 2007 BLM report explained how the company planned to build its plant at Watson, today a Uintah County ghost town.
“Construction began on a tramway and processing plant ,” the report noted. “Processing was supposed to extract 90 percent of the oil contained in the pulverized oil shale to produce an average of 54 gallons of oil per ton of shale.”
It was difficult and dangerous to get the shale out of the isolated region.
By November 1919, construction of Ute Oil’s new refinery was nearing completion near the old White River stagecoach station. The company predicted yields of 51.5 gallons of oil and 3.6 gallons of gasoline per ton of processed oil shale when the 18 retorts went onstream. The new plant had a projected capacity of 400 tons daily.
Even using modern technology, the U.S. Geological Survey has reported typical shale yields are between 15 gallons and 25 gallons of oil per ton.
In 1920, industry trade publications continued to praise oil shale developments in Utah and Colorado but noted that high processing costs for limited production were proving hard to overcome with the day’s technology (see Central Oil Shale Refining Company, a Chicago venture that sought to profit from shale during World War I).
The economic possibilities of shale oil intrigued investors; the “American Gas Engineering Journal” of January 3, 1920, crowed, “Twenty-Two Billion Barrels of Oil a Possibility of the Process – Estimates of Production Cost Show Possibility of Shale Oil Competing with Gasoline at Its Lowest Previous Level.”
A Geological Survey investigator proclaimed oil shales offered “more than eight times all of the oil available from the oilfields of the United States!”
Petroleum industry trade publications recognized that Gilsonite and products made from other oil shales like Asphaltite might supplement production from U.S. oilfields, but the business model was risky. Much hinged on a small margin — limited by extraction technologies and the price of crude oil.
“A few crumbling buildings” are all that reman of Watson, Utah, where the Ute Oil Company was the first company to attempt to profit from oil shale. Quote and 1998 photo courtesy Jeremy Carter, Ghosttowns.com.
“Crude shale oil, obtained by retorting oil shale, cannot find a general market until the price of well oil is above the cost of producing shale oil,” reported the October 1921 Mining and Oil Bulletin.
“This cost has been conservatively estimated at $1.85 a barrel for mining and retorting,” the trade publication added. “When the price of well petroleum approaches or better — exceeds this figure — the production of crude shale oil will take on renewed activity.”
Ute Oil Company had optimistically projected its cost at only $1.02 per barrel. In 1918, the year after the company formed, oil sold for about $1.98 per barrel, but in 1920, it dropped to $1.73. It would get much worse. By 1931, oil prices had dropped to only about 65 cents per barrel.
Ute Oil’s profit margin depended on a high price for oil, but surging oil supplies from traditional oil wells in Texas and other states drove down the price.
By the 1920s, many industry publications were following attempts to develop oil shales in Utah and Colorado. In addition to the “Oil and Gas News” prediction above, the “American Gas Engineering Journal” envisioned production of 22 billion barrels of oil from shale.
In addition to the financial and technological risks that Ute Oil faced, regulatory issues added to its misery. In 1920, Congress passed the Mineral Leasing Act, updating the archaic 1872 law and requiring for the first time that the federal government receive royalty payments from successful placer claims.
An ominous 1921 “Petroleum Times” article noted work had been delayed “by a controversy with the Government over title to the land.”
The litigation among private, state, federal, and Indian tribal interests would last decades. The controversy came from renewed congressional interest in rectifying injustices that had historically deprived the Uinta Basin Indians since the reservation had been formed in 1861.
Ute Oil Company failed in 1923 before it could complete its uniquely designed retort for processing oil shale.
Although legal battles would continue, Ute Oil’s fate was sealed. Trade publications reported that the company undertook reorganization in 1923 but did not survive. The BLM would later note that “interest in oil shale production rebounded when oil prices peaked in the 1970s.”
In 1909, Earl Douglass, a paleontologist for the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, discovered dinosaur bones in the Utah desert. The site was soon designated the Dinosaur National Monument, and Douglass later became an eloquent spokesman for Utah’s petroleum industry.
J.L. “Mike” Dougan made the state’s first major oil discovery in 1948 after drilling unsuccessfully in Utah for more than 25 years (see First Utah Oil Wells).
In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress declared U.S. oil shale and tar sands strategically important domestic energy resources that should be developed to reduce dependence on imported oil. Five years later, Utah produced more than 8.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas valued at more than $1.7 billion.
Depending on the quality and location of the resource, the U.S. market price of Gilsonite in the early 2020s ranged from $600 to $1,000 a ton — compared to $10 to $12 per ton in the late 1800s.
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Recommended Reading: Utah Oil Shale: Science, Technology, and Policy Perspectives
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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 website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Ute Oil Company — Oil Shale Pioneer.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/stocks/oil-shale-pioneer. Last Updated: September 12, 2025. Original Published Date: April 6, 2016.
Found an old oil company stock certificate and hoping for a petroleum financial gusher?
The American Oil & Gas Historical Society’s research and accompanying forum depend upon your individual financial support. The historical society is an independent, energy education organization — unaffiliated with upstream or downstream petroleum companies, state or federal government, or industry advocacy groups.
A petroleum company’s old oil stock certificate vignette sometimes has value for collectors of scripophily – the buying and selling of certificates after they have no redeemable value as a security.
Although use of fossil fuels today is highly controversial, the history of U.S. petroleum exploration, production, and transportation provides context for modern energy debates.
From 19th-century kerosene for lamps, 20th-century gasoline for cars, and modern plastic polymers for everyday products, the petroleum industry’s huge social, economic and technological heritage should be preserved.
Do you have an old oil stock certificate found in an attic? You can research the certificate and its company history yourself — or pay for a professional financial researcher. Am you now rich? Probably not. Since first commercial U.S. oil well in 1859, the petroleum industry’s boom and bust cycles have left many casualties.
Collectors have found a surprising number of examples where quickly formed exploration companies picked the exact same oilfield scene for stock certificates.
In the rush to print stock certificates during oil booms, new companies often chose to print certificates using a vignette of derricks. Many ended up using the exact same scene of derricks in an oilfield.
It might have saved time and money by choosing a common vignette today found on shares of Centralized Oil & Gas Company; Double Standard Oil & Gas Company; Evangeline Oil Company; Texas Production Company; Tulsa Producing and Refining Company; Hecla-Wyoming Oil Company; Oil Prospectors Inc.; Craven Oil & Refining; Buck Run Oil and Refining; Home Oil & Gas; Hog Creek Carruth Company; Buffalo-Texas Oil Company; and the Champion Oil Company (see links to them below).
The vast majority of old oil stock certificates — especially petroleum exploration companies formed prior to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — simply become family mementos. As a financial adviser can explain, documents from old company mergers rarely bring wealth today. For one that led to extended court battles, see Not a Millionaire from Old Oil Stock.
America’s first oil company — the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York, organized in 1855, and was reorganized by 1859 to drill the first U.S. oil well as the Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut.
Unfortunately, this small historical society cannot grant requests for free research regarding individual company histories and the potential value of stock certificates. As you may have discovered, financial research is difficult and time consuming. If you are fortunate, a visitor to this website or a society volunteer may have posted helpful information.
If your certificate is not listed here, and to share further research experiences, you are invited to submit your query in the current Stock Certificate Q&A Forum.
Below is research submitted by a leading volunteer of the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. The company histories presented often tell fascinating stories – and are exclusive of the Stock Certificate Q&A forum posts also on this website. Check back here for more of these rare histories.
Acme Oil & Gas Company*
Alabama Central Oil & Gas Company*
Admiral Oil Company
Aetna Petroleum Corporation
Ajax Oil Company
Alaska Dakota Development Company
Alaska Oil & Gas Development Company
Aladin Oil & Refining Company
Albany-Decatur Oil & Gas Company
Allied Oil Corporation
Alto Gasoline & Oil Company*
Amalgamated Oil Company*
American-Asiatic Oil Corporation
American Controlled Oilfields
American Indian Oil & Gas Company
American Leduc Petroleum
American Oil Refinery
American Oil & Refining Company*
American Producing & Refining Company
American Industrial Oil Company
American Workers Oil Field Company*
Anglo-Philippine Oil & Mineral Corporation*
Anna May Oil Company*
Anchorage Gas & Oil Development
Anglo-American Oil Company
Apex Oil Company
Arizona Development Company*
Arkadelphia Oil Company*
Arkansas Oil Ventures
Associated Oil & Gas Company*
Atlantic Petroleum Company*
* Research in Progress
Badger Oil & Gas Company*
Bailey Gaunce Oil & Refining Corporation*
Barrington Oil Company
Beaumont Confederated Oil & Pipe Line Company
Big Indian Oil & Development Company
Big Six Oil Company*
Black Gold Petroleum Company*
Black Hills Petroleum Company
Block Oil & Gas Syndicate*
Blue Ridge Natural Gas & Oil Corporation*
Bluebird Oil & Gas Association*
Boulder Petroleum Company
Buck Run Oil and Refining Company
Buffalo Oil Company
Buffalo-Texas Oil Company
Bug Drilling Company*
Burkburnett-Center Oil Company*
Burkburnett-Claiborne Oil Company*
Burk Imperial Oil Company*
Burk-Tex Production Company*
Busseyville Oil & Gas*
Butler Perryman Interests*
* Research in Progress
Cahege Oil & Gas Company
California-Alaska Petroleum Company*
California Commercial Refining Company*
California Oil & Gas Company
California-Ventura Oil Company
Capital Oil and Gas Company*
Capital Oil & Natural Gas Company Limited*
Capitol Petroleum Company
Capitol Petroleum Transportation Company*
Cauble Oil Company
Centennial Petroleum, Inc.*
Central Oil Shale Refining Company
Central Oils Inc.
Central Oklahoma Oil Corporation*
Central Pennsylvania Oil Company
Centralized Oil & Gas Company
Cherokee Oil and Gas Company
Chester County Oil Company*
Cheyenne Oil Company*
Chickaloon Oil Company
Chieftain Royalties
Champion Oil Company
Choate Oil Corporation*
Choctaw Oil & Refining Company*
Cities Service Company
Clark Producing & Refining Company
Clayton Oil Company*
Clinton Natural Gas & Oil Company*
Columbian Refining Company*
Conejo Hills Oil Company
Congressional Oil Corporation
Consolidated Oil & Gas Company*
Consolidated Oil Company of Texas*
Consolidated Petroleum Company
Consolidated Texas Production Company*
Constant Oil Company*
Continental Oil and Refining Company
Continental Petroleum Company
Common Oil & Development Company*
Corpus-Burk Oil Company
Cow Creek Oil Company*
Craven Oil & Refining Company
Crystal Oil Company*
Crystal Petroleum Products Corporation
Cueba Oil & Gas Company*
Curry Pool Oil Company*
Cushing-Webb Oil Company
* Research in Progress
D.M. Simon Oil & Gas Company*
Dallas Oil Company of Texas*
Delaware Union Oil Company*
Delhi Oil Company
Denton-Eastland Oil Company*
Desoto Oil Company*
DeSoto Oil Company*
Detroit Oil & Refining Company*
Dominion Oil Company*
Double Standard Oil & Gas Company
Doughboy Oil Company
Dysart Oil Company
* Research in Progress
Eagle Oil & Gas Company*
E.A. Johnston Oil Company*
E. Brown Oil Development Company
Economy Oil Company*
Elbukan Oil Company
Elk Basin United Oil Company
Empire Explorations Inc.*
Engineer’s Petroleum Company
Escondido Oil Company*
Eureka Oil Company*
Evangeline Oil Company
* Research in Progress
Fairchild Petroleum*
Farmers Oil & Gas Company*
Federal Consolidated Oil Company*
Federal Oil and Gas Company
Fifty-Seven Oil Company*
Fort Stockton Oil Company*
Foster Farm Oil Company
Franklin Oil & Refining Company*
* Research in Progress
Garfield Oil & Refining Company*
Gate City-Wyoming Oil & Gas Company*
Gatex Oil Company*
Galloway Oil Corporation
Gas, Oil and Developing Company (The)
General Oil Company*
General Resources Corporation*
Gin Site Oil Company*
Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company
Gladys Oil Company
Glenn McCarthy, Inc.
Globe Natural Gas Company*
Gold Medal Oil Company*
Golden Gate Oil Company
Golden Goose Oil and Refining Company
Golden Valley Oil & Gas Company
Good Luck Oil Company*
Goshen Oil & Gas Company*
Grand County Oil & Refining Company*
Great Basin Oil Company*
Great Oil Basin Securities*
Great Southern Oil & Refining Association*
Great Southwestern Petroleum Company*
Great Sweet Grass Oils*
Great Western Oil & Gas Company
Greater Great Falls Oil Company*
Green River Oil & Uranium Company*
Gypsy-Burke Oil Company*
* Research in Progress
Hamilton Oil & Gas Company*
Hale Petroleum Company*
Harris-Fisher Oil Company*
Havana Oil Company
Hayden-Burk Petroleum Company*
Hecla-Wyoming Oil Company*
Hesperian Petroleum Company*
Higgins Wonder Oil Company
Hiram Wilson Oil Company*
Hoffman Oil & Refining Corporation
Hog Creek Carruth Oil Company
Holiday Oil & Gas Company*
Holly Oil Company
Homa Oil & Gas Company*
Home Oil & Development Company
Home Oil Company*
Homestead Oil Company
Horse Shoe Four Leaf Mining & Oil Company*
Horseshoe-Western Oil Company
Humble Oil Ridge Company*
Huntsville Consolidated Gas Company*
* Research in Progress
Imperial Drilling Company*
Indian Oil & Gas Company*
Industrial Oil & Refining Company*
Intercontinent Petroleum*
International Oil & Gas Corporation
Interstate Oil Company*
Iowa and California Oil & Gas Company*
Iowa-Beaumont Oil Company
* Research in Progress
John P. Mills Company
Johnson Oil Company*
Joe B. Turman Oil Syndicate
Julian Petroleum Corporation
Justheim Petroleum Company*
* Research in Progress
Kantexo Oil & Gas Company*
Keck Oil Company*
Ken-Saw Petroleum Corporation*
King George Oil Company*
Kokernot Oil Company
Kutz Canon Oil & Gas Company*
* Research in Progress
La Lomita Oil Syndicate*
Lewis Oil Corporation
Lewiston-Clarkston Oil & Gas Company*
Lexa Oil Company*
Lincoln-Idaho Oil Company
Lincoln Oil Producing Company*
Liquid Gold Oil Company*
Louisiana Consolidated Petroleum Company*
Love Petroleum Company*
Loy Oil Company*
Lucky Jim Oil Company
Lucky Long Oil Company*
* Research in Progress
How does a 1950s best-selling sci-fi book relate to unwary investors and the men behind an shady exploration company? See Oil Prospectors Inc.
Mahala Oil & Gas Company*
Mary Owens Oil Company*
McKeesport Gas Company
McTon Oil Company*
Meridian Petroleum Company
Mexican Oil & Coal Company*
Mid-Central Oil & Minerals Company*
Middle States Oil Corporation
Midfields Oil Company
Mid-Texas Petroleum Company*
Minnesota-Western Oil Company
Minnesota Victoria Oil Company*
Milwaukee Electra Oil Development Company*
Mississippi Oil Company*
Monarch Vacuum Petroleum Company*
Monroe Prospect Company*
Montana Belle Oil & Gas Company
Montana-Canadian Oil Company*
Montrose Gas, Oil and Coal Company
Morris-Van Keuren Oil and Gas Syndicate
Motex Oil Company*
Mountain States Resources Corporation
Multiple Dome Oil Company*
Murdock Oil & Gas Company
Muskogee Oil & Gas Company*
Mutual Consolidated Petroleum Corporation*
Mutual Oil & Development Company*
Mutual Oil Union Company*
* Research in Progress
Nanticoke Oil Company*
National Consolidated Oil Company*
National Energy Corporation*
National Oil Company*
National Oil Company of New Jersey
National Oil Refining and Manufacturing Company*
National Petroleum Company*
National Petroleum Lease Corporation*
National Union Oil & Gas Company
New Mexico Oil Properties Association
Neilan Oil & Refining Company
New England Petroleum Company*
New England-Texas Oil Refining Syndicate
Newfield Gas & Oil Company*
Nordon Corporation*
North Coast Oil & Refining Company*
North Counties Oil Company
Northern Oil Company*
Northwest Petroleum*
Northwestern Oils Inc.
Nova Petroleum Corporation
* Research in Progress
Occident Oil Company*
October Oil Company*
Ohio Oil Company (Marathon)
Ohio-Kansas Oil & Gas Company
Oil Exploration International*
Oil Prospectors Inc.
Oil Lease Development Company*
Okla-Queen Oil Company*
Oklahoma-Gulf Royalty Corporation*
Oklahoma-Texas Producing & Refining Company
Okmulgee Producing & Refining Company*
Old Colony Oil Company
Omaha Oil & Refining Company
Omaha-Lusk Oil Company*
Orange County Petroleum Company*
Oregon and Wyoming Oil & Gas Company*
Otter Creek Oil & Gas Company
Overland Oil Inc.*
Over the Top Oil Company
Owl Petroleum Company*
Ozena Oil Company*
* Research in Progress
Pacific Land and Oil*
Pacific States Oil Company*
Pacific States Petroleum Company*
Palmer Union Oil Company
Paramount Petroleum Company
Pawnee Bill Oil Company
Pelican Petroleum Company
Peoples Oil and Production Company*
Petroleum Maatschappij Salt Creek Company
Petroleum Producers’ Association
Penn Bayless Oil & Gas Company*
Penn Royal Oil Company*
Pennsylvania Oil & Development Company
Petroleum Consolidation Company*
Petroleum Production Company of America*
Phenix Oil and Gas Company*
Philippine Oil Development Company*
Phoenix Oil Company*
Pilgrim Oil Company
Pine Valley Oil Company*
Pioneer Oil & Gas Company*
Pittsburgh-Youngstown Oil & Gas Company*
Plateau Oil & Gas Company*
Plateau Petroleums Limited*
Pongratz Petroleum Company*
Postal Employees Oil & Gas Company*
Power Petroleum Trust Estate*
Powers Manufacturing Company*
Prescott-Peoria Oil Company*
Price River Petroleum Company
Producers and Refiners Corporation
Provident Oil & Refining Company*
Prudential Oil and Refining Company
Puente Crude Oil Company
Puente Oil Company
* Research in Progress
Railroad Employees Oil Company*
Railroaders’ Oil Company*
Ramsey Oil Company*
Ranger and Burkburnett Oil Company*
Ranger Extension Oil & Gas Company
Ranger-Rock Island Oil and Refining Company
Ranger Petroleum Company
Ranger-Vindicator Oil & Development Company*
Red Rock Oil & Gas Company*
Revere Oil Company
Richey Oil Company*
Richfield Oil Corporation
Richfield-Union Petroleum Company
Robert F. Harrison
Rockefeller Oil Company*
Rosson Oil Company*
Ruby Hill Oil & Gas Company*
Ryan Petroleum Corporation
* Research in Progress
Sable Oil & Gas Company*
St. Elco Oil & Gas Company*
St. Martins Oil & Gas Company*
Sammies Oil Corporation (Choate Oil)
San Jacinto River Oil Company*
San Mateo Oil and Refining Company*
Sanger Oil & Refining Company
Santa Fe Dome Oil Company
Santa Fe Western Gas & Uranium Corporation*
Savannah Oil, Coal, and Gas Company
Sawyer Petroleum Company
Sawyer-Adecor International
Scofield, Shurmer & Teagle*
Seaboard Oil & Gas Company
Seattle Toledo Oil Company*
Security Oil Company*
Security Oil Syndicate No. 2*
Sen-Burk Oil Company*
Seven States Oil Company*
Sherman Gasoline Company*
Shoe & Leather Petroleum Company
Shoshone Oil Company
Signal Oil and Gas Company*
Solar Oil Corporation*
Sound Cities Gas & Oil Company
Sour Lake Texas Oil Company*
Southeastern Limited Oil Company*
Southern Montana Oil Company*
Southern Rose Oil & Gas Company
Southern States Drilling Company*
Southern States Oil Company*
Corporation Southwest Oil Corporation*
Southwestern Oil Development Company
Southwestern Petroleum & Pipe Line Company*
Spear Oil Company
Square Deal Oil Company*
Standard Consolidated Oil & Land Company*
Standard Exploration Company*
Star Oil Company
Staveless Barrel & Tank Company
Steelman Realty Gas & Oil Company
Sterling Oil Company of Oklahoma*
Studebaker Oil & Refining Company*
Sulphur Oil Company*
Sunset Pacific Oil Company
Sunshine State Oil & Refining Company
Sure Oil Company*
Syndicate Oil Corporation of America*
* Research in Progress
Tapo Oil Company*
Texas-Bunger Oil and Refining Company*
Texas-Rotan Oil Company*
Texas-Washington Oil Company*
Texas Control Consolidated Oil Company*
Texas Crude Oil Company*
Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation
Texas Independent Pipe Line Company*
Texas Oil & Refining Company
Texas Oil, Gas & Mineral Products Company*
Texas Oil Products Company
Texas Producers Oil Company*
Texas Production Company
Texas United Oil Company
The 1919 Oil Company*
Tideland Oil & Gas Corporation*
Toltec Oil Company*
Trans-World Oil Company
Treasure State Oil & Gas Company
Triangle Petroleum Company*
Tri-State Drilling Company*
Tulsa Producing and Refining Company
Twentieth Century Oil & Gas Company*
Twentymile Oil & Gas Company*
* Research in Progress
Uncle Sam Oil Company*
Union Oil & Gas Company*
Union Oil, Gas & Refining Company*
United Cuban Oil Inc.
United Plains Oil Company*
United Southern Oil Company*
United States Oil and Gas Company
United Sulphur & Oil Company*
United Texas Petroleum Company*
Uranium-Petroleum Company*
U.S.A. Oil Company*
Ute Oil Company – Oil Shale Pioneer
* Research in Progress
Ventura Oil Development Company*
Vernon Winner Oil Company*
Vista Petroleum*
Volunteer Oil Company*
* Research in Progress
Warren Oil & Uranium Mining Company*
Washington-Montana Oil Company*
Wellington Oil Company
Wellmington Oil Corporation*
West Coast Pipeline Company
Western Giant Oil Company*
Western Natural Gas Company*
Western Nebraska Oil Company*
Western States Oil Company*
Wichita Oil & Gas Company
Winona Oil Corporation
Wolf Butte Oil & Gas Company*
Woman’s Federal Oil Company of America
Women’s National Oil & Development Company
World Oil Company
Wyoming Chief Oil Refining Company*
Wyoming Consolidated Oil Company*
Wyoming-Dakota Oil Company
Wyoming Oil & Coal Company*
Wyoming Peerless Oil Company
Wyoming Prairie Oil & Gas Company
Wyoming Second Standard Oil Company*
* Research in Progress
Wallace Oil CompanyWarren Oil & Uranium Mining Company*
Washington-Montana Oil Company*
Wellington Oil Company
Wellmington Oil Corporation*
West Coast Pipeline Company
Western Giant Oil Company*
Western Natural Gas Company*
Western Nebraska Oil Company*
Western States Oil Company*
Wichita Oil & Gas Company
Winona Oil Corporation
Wolf Butte Oil & Gas Company*
Woman’s Federal Oil Company of America
Women’s National Oil & Development Company
World Oil Company
Wyoming Chief Oil Refining Company*
Wyoming Consolidated Oil Company*
Wyoming-Dakota Oil Company
Wyoming Oil & Coal Company*
Wyoming Peerless Oil Company
Wyoming Prairie Oil & Gas Company
Wyoming Second Standard Oil Company*
* Research in Progress
Yankee Girl Oil Company
Yankee Oil & Gas Company
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