History Revisited by Jerome Meyer

When we hear of large petroleum fields and large oil-producing countries in the world, we probably think of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Mexico, just to name a few. A little-known fact to many of us is the United States is the third-largest oil producing country in the world. And in the United States, the top-three oil-producing states are Texas, North Dakota and Alaska.

Many people then often ask, where are the large oil deposits in Minnesota being the state is the next-door neighbor to the oil-rich Williston Basin in North Dakota, with oil reserves estimated of up to 300 to 500 billion barrels? And has Minnesota been fully explored for these oil deposits?

With major discoveries of oil and gas deposits in the 1880s in Pennsylvania and other Great Lakes states, this led many people to believe that valuable oil and natural gas fields also existed in Minnesota. Unfortunately, to this day, no petroleum reserves have been located in Minnesota that are even close to being commercially profitable.  And after millions of exploration dollars have been invested in the drilling of hundreds of wildcat oil wells and over 100 years of drilling frustration, we are told again that there is no oil in the state. “Wildcat” is the term used for exploration ventures in lands not known to be productive.

As far back as 1889, the Minnesota Geological Survey reported that commercial exploration of oil deposits are not to be found.  And we are also told that (simply) or maybe not so simply, that Minnesota straddles the boundary between different rock formations than our neighboring states to the West, thus prohibiting oil to be formed. Petroleum forms from the remains of organisms that lived in large bodies of water hundreds of millions years ago. Over these millions of years, many steps have to occur to produce ground petroleum and then be deposited in oil-rich layers of sedimentary rocks as located in North Dakota.

Also there was some speculation of oil deposits in Minnesota and Iowa from a so-called Midcontinent Rift, which was a huge ribbon of ancient volcanic rock stretching from Lake Superior and through Minnesota and Iowa. There again, no commercial deposits of petroleum were found after much anticipation and a few dry wildcat oil wells.

So with history not on the side of Minnesota, petroleum exploration and speculation still continued over the years with investors hoping to find that elusive oil well and making them all rich. However, many people still didn’t believe the idea of “no oil deposits in Minnesota.” But the speculation and exploration still continued on for many years with a rich history of disappointments.

Two local counties, Fairbault and Freeborn, do have an interesting history of petroleum exploration. As early as 1875 there was speculation of some petroleum deposits being located in southern Minnesota when a water well being dug at a hotel in Freeborn encountered methane gas. When ignited, the gas flamed up to eight to 10 feet above the well head with a roaring sound but only for a short time, which caused quite an excitement within the local community. Many more water wells being dug in southern Minnesota in the late 1800s contained small amounts of natural gas added to speculation of petroleum deposit in the area. Some of these other water wells in the local area containing methane gas were documented and located in Albert Lea Township, Kiester and Bricelyn in Fairbault County. But they had no commercial value.

Starting back in July 1888 with continued speculation of petroleum deposits, Minnesota appropriated $5,000 for one of the first known oil test wells to be drilled in Minnesota near Freeborn. With the lack of drilling technology and reliable data, the Minnesota Geological Survey still thought the geology of that area contained a supply of natural gas and the possibility of oil. The well by December of 1888 reached the depth of 950 feet.

However, no natural gas or oil was encountered in commercial quantities.  So even back in 1889, it was again evident that most of the rock formations in Minnesota lacked the capacity for petroleum. But the bad news on only one dry well never discouraged further oil well drilling and speculation.

It should be noted that there were many documented (scams) in Minnesota mostly dating back to the late 1800s that lured investors into get-rich-quick oil-drilling adventures. However, none of the oil wells ever made money and left most investors broke. Many lawsuits were filed by these investors against the oil well companies claiming they were defrauded by these scams. Many investors seeking thousands of dollars in damages from bounced checks, unpaid judgments, ignored subpoenas, false claims and contempt-of-court citations were in the courts for years and seldom collected any of their investment money back.

So let’s now fast forward from the late 1800s and the early 1900s — up to 1950.  There was continued belief and investor speculation of oil and gas deposits in southern Minnesota even with the past history of never finding commercial deposits of petroleum.  This time the speculation of oil reserves was in the Kiester Hills about two miles north of Kiester on Minnesota Highway 22.

The Kiester Hills are glacial moraines formed during the last ice age some 10,000 years ago and are one of the highest points in southern Minnesota at 1,432 feet.  According to a March 1950 issue of the Kiester Courier, some oil was reported to come out of the ground when a water well was dug in Section 4 of Kiester Township about a mile west of the Kiester Hills in 1894.

And again in 1917, on the Yost farm just north of Kiester, it was reported that some oil spilled out of a water well being dug — adding to the speculation of oil in “the hills.”  Two so-called “official” searches for oil were attempted on the Henry Katzung property in 1931 near Kiester but resulted again with no oil. However, speculation still didn’t stop.

The final attempt for oil exploration in the Kiester Hills was again on the Ollie Yost farm north of Kiester in 1950.  Hopefully this last attempt to find oil would finally settle the age-old question: Is there oil in them thar hills?

An oil exploration company named Gopher State Oil from Mount Carmel, Ill., financed this oil exploration along with local investors.  Herman Johnson, a lumberyard businessman from Bricelyn, was president of the company and a major investor.  The oil rig used for this well was shipped out of Mount Carmel by rail car to the Kiester railroad yard weighing a reported 40 tons and then shipped by truck to the oil drilling site.  Some local people speculated that the oil well would fail as the oil-drilling equipment looked old.

In May 1950 the company started to drill for oil after the local landowners leased their land to the drilling company for a one-eighth royalty payment.  A March 9 article in the Bricelyn newspaper stated that the drill started at 20 inches in diameter and then tapered to 6 or 7 inches. The drilling plan per the Kiester Courier was to drill to 3,200 feet with the intention of finding petroleum deposits at that depth. The mast or steel tower for the oil rig was 54 feet.

However, bad luck started early as the drill hit granite at about 1,000 feet, thus stopping the drilling as the drill bit was not designed to penetrate that hard of rock structure. The drilling rig was then moved about 200 feet away from the original site and a new drilling operation was started.  This second drilling also failed as the bit struck quicksand bending the bit. Drillers were unable to bring the bit to the surface, and it was lost, leaving it forever in the ground.

After the second failed drilling attempt, the investment group ran out of money, thus preventing any future drilling. After about a year, the oil rig was dismantled and moved away.

Even though the Kiester Hills oil well never struck oil, it was the belief of Herman Johnson that there still was oil to be found in “them thar hills.”  We may never really know the answer.

 

Jerome Meyer enjoys writing about local history.