Nellie Johnstone No. 1

Nellie Johnstone No. 1
Location Johnstone Park, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Coordinates 36°45′23″N 95°58′19″W / 36.75639°N 95.97194°W / 36.75639; -95.97194Coordinates: 36°45′23″N 95°58′19″W / 36.75639°N 95.97194°W / 36.75639; -95.97194
Area 10 acres (4.0 ha)
Built 1897 (1897)
NRHP Reference # 72001077[1]
Added to NRHP April 11, 1972

Nellie Johnstone No. 1 was the first commercially productive oil well in Oklahoma (at that time in Indian Territory). Completed on April 15, 1897, the well was drilled in the Bartlesville Sand near Bartlesville, opening an era of oil exploration and development in Oklahoma.[2] The well was backed by George B. Keeler and William Johnstone, traders who had a store near the Osage Indian Agency on the Caney River, and was named for Johnstone's daughter. Keeler and Johnstone, together with partner Frank Overlees and their Native American wives, took out a lease from the Cherokee Nation on an area of oil seep and enagaged the Cudahy Oil Company to drill. The well went to 1,320 feet (400 m), and was completed using a then-usual technique of dropping a nitroglycerine charge into the well to fracture the bore and release the oil. Keeler's stepdaughter Jennie Cass dropped the "go devil" charge in front of fifty spectators. The ensuing gusher produced between 50 and 75 barrels a day, and had to be capped for two years until means could be found to move the oil to a market.[3][4]

The well was uncapped in 1900 when the railroad came to Bartlesville. The well produced more than 100,000 barrels of oil in its lifetime, stimulating the development of the Bartlesville field. It was capped in 1948. Nellie Johnstone Cannon, who was six years old at the time the well was drilled and named for her, was granted the land on which the well was drilled by allotment through Native American ancestry. She sold the land to Bartlesville in 1917. The area is now Johnstone Park. A replica drilling rig was built over the well in 1948, and a replacement was built in 2008.[3][4]

The well site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 1972.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ Ruth, Kent (September 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Nellie Johnstone No. 1" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  3. 1 2 Wilson, Linda D. "Nellie Johnstone Number One". Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Discovering Oklahoma Oil". American Oil & Gas Historical Society. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
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