Oil and Gas History of Kentucky: 1900 to Present

Contact: Brandon C. Nuttall

[Kentucky Oil History Home] [Pre-Drake] [1860 to 1900] [After 1900]

• 1901: January 10, 1901. A well drilled by Al and Curt Hamill for Capt. Anthony F. Lucas blew out on Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, southeast Texas. A 6-inch spray of oil rose 200 feet over the derrick. Oil production in Texas went from under 1 million barrels a year to 17.4 million barrels in 1903 and John D. Rockefeller lost the monopoly on oil. (Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum)
• 1901, Kentucky: Discovery of the Menifee Gas Field (Ragland Sand).
• 1902, Kentucky: The Cumberland Pipe Line Company extends a line from Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky to Salt Lick Bend, Cumberland County. For a while, the high gravity oil transported by the line was known as "Somerset Grade" and was held as a high standard in the Appalachian Basin. By 1905, after the discovery of the Spindletop field in Texas, the price of oil was so depressed that the line was taken up.
• 1903, Kentucky: Discovery of the Campton Field, Wolfe County and the Busseyville and Fallsburg pools, Lawrence County.
• 1903, Kentucky: A small amount of oil production was first secured by rank wild catters near Irvine in Estill County. The extreme shallowness of the oil horizon or 'pay' here, however, caused this small Corniferous pool to be soon drilled up and exhausted.
• 1905, Kentucky: Discovery of the Furnace Field, Estill County. Oil and gas production in this area was first noted in 1852, but was not exploited.
• 1919, Kentucky: The Ross Creek pool was the most active pool in eastern Kentucky.
• Wooden "cable-tool" drilling rigs powered by steam engines were common in early drilling in Ohio County.
• Big Sinking is one of Kentucky's largest oil fields.

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