Drilling for oil in the Kiester Hills
Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 31, 2004
Second of three parts.
By Ed Shannon, Tribune feature writer
Hunting for oil in the Kiester Hills got off to an explosive start on Jan. 12, 1933, when a large hole was blasted out of the frozen ground. After years of speculation based on confirmed discoveries of pockets of swamp gas, the first of three attempts to find oil in the southeast corner of Faribault County was finally under way.
The dynamite blast occurred on the Herman Katzung farm located two miles north of Kiester and a mile to the east on the Mansfield Road.
This newly created hole on the Katzung farm was intended to be the base for a tall derrick which would be used for the drilling equipment.
A firm named the Gopher State Oil and Gas Co. created by area investors and speculators had leased 15,000 acres of land in Kiester Township, raised operating funds, and formed a partnership with a firm named U.S. Oil Corp. of America. The combined firms had also supposedly arranged for a drilling rig to be shipped to Kiester from Illinois by railroad.
However, all that actually resulted from the first attempt to drill for oil in the Kiester Hills was nothing. No derrick or drilling equipment came to Kiester and in time Herman Katzung filled in the big hole.
Meanwhile, the various people and firms involved with the oil exploration project were trying to cope with financial problems during a time of uncertain economic conditions (the Depression) and some alleged land leasing problems with the township’s farmers.
In August 1935 the Marathon Oil Co. of Oklahoma sent a crew of six men to Kiester to erect a wooden derrick on the Henry Katzung farm, located two miles north of Kiester and a half mile to the east on the Mansfield Road.
This structure, 96-feet high, provided tangible proof to area residents that some progress was finally being made in the elusive search for oil in the Kiester Hills.
The second attempt to find oil north of Kiester soon became the focus of intense public interest. A report in the Kiester Courier reported that at least 75 autos bringing sightseers to the site were parked near the new derrick on a weekend afternoon. The newspaper also said, &uot;Builders promised the rig would be able to explore depths up to 10,000 feet.&uot;
Yet, the folks visiting this tall derrick may have noticed that something essential was missing. There wasn’t any drilling equipment in the center or around the structure. In fact, this was as far as the second attempt to drill for oil in the Kiester Hills went. About a year later the derrick blew down in a windstorm.
The third attempt to drill for oil in the rolling landscape north of Kiester came in March 1950.. This time the essential drilling equipment arrived in Kiester on a railroad flatcar.
During the interval of 15 years the Gopher firm had evidently changed its name slightly and was listed as being from Mount Carmel, Ill. By this time the firm once based in Faribault County had reportedly done some drilling operations in Illinois and Indiana.
Once again the Gopher Oil and Drilling Co. became involved in land leasing negotiations with area farmers.
Those local farmers leased their land to the Gopher firm on a 1/8 royalty agreement. And what was rather unusual, the 16,000 acres of land was leased with a cooperative clause which said if oil was found on one farm, all would share the royalty payments equally.
In either March or May 1950, a five-man crew from southern Illinois arrived in Kiester and actually started to drill for oil on an 80-acre plot of land owned by Ollie Yost. The Yost farm was located near the junction of State Highway 22 and Faribault County Road 28 (the Mansfield Road), and north of Kiester.
The Kiester newspaper said the intention was to drill a well to a depth of 3,200 feet, or until granite was reached.
Using a 54-foot steel mast tower with a cable tool drill and a pipe with a bore of 20 inches which eventually tapered to six inches, the crew started the first real exploration well.
Bedrock or granite was encountered just beyond the thousand foot mark. Without a rotary-type drill head the rock just couldn’t be penetrated to see if there was actually any oil underneath this granite formation.
The drill bit and pipe was pulled up and the entire operation was moved several hundred feet away where a new well was started.
This second attempt using old equipment was a failure. Quicksand was reportedly encountered somewhere in the depths of the well. The drill bit and some pipe became detached. Efforts to &uot;fish&uot; around for these items were unsuccessful. That equipment is still somewhere under the surface of the Kiester Hills.
By this time the Gopher firm was having financial problems and the oil exploration project was terminated. The remaining equipment was disposed of a year or two later.
One person in the past has said the Kiester Hills is an area with an unusual geological formation which is similar to several oil producing places in Oklahoma.
Yet, the men who have served as state geologists have insisted that finding petroleum in Minnesota is almost impossible.
Today, the tallest structures in the Kiester Hills are a communications tower and some utility poles.
However, as Cynthia Matson, editor of the Kiester Courier-Sentinel, commented in an article published on July 27, 2000, &uot;… if the drill bit in the 1950s never bored through the rocks to proper oil depths (in the Kiester Hills), has the matter ever ‘been settled once and for all?’&uot;
Next: Information about the encounters with both gas and coal in Freeborn County.
(Contact Ed Shannon at ed.shannon@albertleatribune.com or call 379-3434.)