Weston Wednesday: Tricky oil deals and a Caney oil well fire

Editor's Note: In collaboration with the Bartlesville Area History Museum, the Examiner-Enterprise has revived the late Edgar Weston's 'Revisiting the Past' columns that ran in the newspaper from 1997-99. Weston's columns recount the history of Bartlesville as well as Washington, Nowata and Osage counties.

I was the supervisor of roads in the north end of Washington County when we applied for Federal Aid Secondary, to construct the Copan to Wann Road. It was granted and the seven miles of road construction began. We had an immense amount of work to do in setting back the fences to widen the roadway, extend the bridges and culverts, widen the roadbed to F.A.S. standards, construct new drainage ditches and prepare the road bed for a soil-cement base.

Ten acres of sand rock were contracted to be excavated 10 feet deep and placed on the roadbed. It had to be sprayed with water and sheep-footed down to sand; rototilled with a dozier and tiller, an 8 percent Portland cement spread on the surface, tilled in; and then bladed to a smooth surface and a chip and seal surface completed the roadway. It later became State Highway 10.

During construction Bob Goodman, a Cherokee Indian was a truck driver working for us. He was a very fine man and I spent some time each day visiting with him. After a time, he related the following story to me.

He said his mother, sister, brother and himself were allotted land in the area of north Cotton Creek and oil development began in that area and northeast in the early 1900s. Harry Sinclair and his brother, whose father had owned a drug store in Independence, Kan., inherited the drug business and began prospecting for oil in Indian Territory in what is now northeast Washington County. He discovered the Canary Pool and drilled a number of oil wells on the Canary Ranch.

Oil wells were drilled west and southwest of the Canary discovery wells. The area was very promising and oil developers rushed in to obtain leases. Bob Goodman said he was old enough to drive a team and work in the oil fields.

The Truskett family of Caney, Kan., were aggressive businessmen around Caney. They were involved in farming, ranching, lumber, brick, tile industries and in oil. The oil play was really booming in Cotton Valley and scuffling for oil leases and gas leases was rampant. Bob Goodman was an underage Cherokee Indian who had an allotment in a very desirable location.

The Trusketts prepared a lease agreement and Bob Goodman was encouraged to sign it, which he did. The Kansas Natural Oil and Gas Co. land man also prepared a lease. Goodman was encouraged to sign it, which he did.

Bob told me that he didn't realize at the time what signing these two leases meant. He was working on the leases nearby and one morning when he arrived at work his boss told him to drive a team of mules to Bartlesville and put them in the livery barn there, and ride the train back to Caney and someone would meet him there and bring him back to the Cotton Valley lease where he worked.

When he arrived in Bartlesville, and put the mules in the barn, he went to the Santa Fe Depot and boarded the train. Billy Heenan from Caney boarded the train with him. And, as they road along, Heenan told him, "I have some business for the company on up the line, and we will stay on the train. I'll see that you get back to Caney to the lease."

Bob said, "He talked and visited and they road on and on. Heenan bought food and finally they ended up in Montana in a rooming house." Bob said he was well taken care of and never was worried or concerned. They were there nearly two years and when Bob reached his 21st birthday, the Kansas Natural Oil and Gas Co. representative prepared another lease and Bob signed it. They boarded the train for a return trip Caney and were taken back to the Cotton Valley lease.

Bob Goodman was paid $50,000 by check and was free to do whatever he pleased.

The Truskett's were raging mad when they discovered what had taken place. The Kansas Natural land man who had prepared the first lease and set up the train trip roomed at the Caney Hotel, a wooden structure on Main Street. There was no inside plumbing in the hotel and Truskett knew that sooner or later the land man would have to visit the outside privy and he waited nearby until he came out and shot and killed him.

Great gas wells were being drilled near the Goodman family allotments. A gas well was drilled in at a depth of 1,428 feet, February 14, 1906. It was gauged showing a production of 28,500,000 cubic feet of gas a day, with a pressure of 660 pounds per square inch, making it one of the six largest gas wells in the world at that date.

An effort to tube and cap the well was at once begun. About 400 feet of eight and one-quarter-inch casing used in drilling was in the well standing on a shoulder of rock and reaching two feet above the ground. Six and one-quarter-inch casing was then used. The first attempt was a failure as the packer used was blown off. The casing was pulled out and two packers put on. It was again being lowered into the hole and was about 400 feet from the bottom when a thunderstorm came up, on the afternoon of February 23.

Fearing fire from lightning, the workmen were ordered from the derrick. They had scarcely reached safety when an electric flash ignited the gas and the greatest oilfield-fire in history was in deadly fury. The derrick and the rig were at once destroyed.

A joint of inner casing not yet lowered reached up 20 feet; and, from the top of this, the flames roared upward about 150 feet. The gas escaping from the mouth of the well around the inner casing was deflected in all directions by the clamps with which the inner casing was suspended, causing a spray of flame that made approach impossible.

This well was located four and a half miles southeast of Caney.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Weston Wednesday: Tricky oil deals and a Caney oil well fire