The year is 1900, a group of people have gathered for a festive event in a local farmer’s
field. Picnic lunches are spread on blankets on the ground. Children laugh and play
chasing each other around several horse drawn wagons. A pretty young girl is chosen to
perform the key activity of the day’s festivities – dropping an iron ball called a go-devil
down a small hole that has been loaded with nitroglycerin. The hope is that the
impending explosion will fracture the limestone hundreds of feet below the surface of the
ground releasing pools of oil that are stored within its cracks and crevices. The day’s
activities commemorate the birth of another oil well – in Wells County, INDIANA.
Looking out over the peaceful farmscape of east central
Indiana, it’s hard to imagine that a little over 100 years
ago, this was the site of one of the world’s biggest oil
booms.
How did this happen?
In Eaton, Indiana during 1876
natural gas was discovered while drilling a
2-inch hole for coal exploration. The gas
was ignited and produced a 2-foot high
flame. Since natural gas wasn’t considered
a valuable resource at that time, the flame
was left burning as a curiosity. It burned for
10 years. During these 10 years, the value
of natural gas became better known.
In March of 1886, the first productive
natural gas well was drilled near Portland,
Indiana and the old hole near Eaton was
deepened in the hopes that it might produce
more natural gas. While natural gas was
being used as a fuel, it was not being stored
or transported great distances.
Therefore, the natural gas wells were used
primarily as a resource for the surrounding
towns. They were first drilled near large
cities and eventually near smaller towns.
Natural gas was pretty much a local
commodity.
Then, in 1889, the first oil in commercial
quantity was discovered in a well near
Keystone, Indiana in Wells County.
Prospectors flocked to the area. The first
Indiana oil boom had started. Since the
United States was practically the only
producer of oil in the world at this time, the
oil field in Indiana was a major supplier in
the world oil market. Over its lifetime The
Trenton Oil Field produced 105,000,000
barrels of oil.7, 8
Location of the Trenton Oil Field
The Trenton Oil Field gets its name from the
Trenton Limestone which can be found
underneath the surface in East Central Indiana
and North West Ohio. This limestone is
permeable and acts as a sponge trapping oil in
its many fractures,
cracks, and crevices.
The portion of the oil
field that can be found
in Indiana is shown on
the map. The complete
oil field extends from
Northwestern Ohio
south through West
Central Ohio and then
into Indiana.3, 5, 8
Geologists think the reason this portion of
Indiana produced so much oil is due to
three facts:
How many gallons in a barrel of oil?
A petroleum barrel holds 42 gallons of oil.6
1. The Trenton limestone in this area has a
high content of dolomite which makes the
limestone permeable,
2. The limestone is overlain by shale that
traps the oil underground.
3. The limestone structure’s proximity to the
Cincinnati Arch Formation seems to form
a reservoir for the oil.
All of these factors acted together to form
an ideal condition for oil pooling that
could be tapped into through drilling.2, 3
History of Crude Oil
Until the middle of the 19th century, oil was nothing more than a pesky byproduct of salt mining.
It contaminated the brine from salt wells and served no useful purpose. Cars weren’t invented
yet, and crude oil didn’t burn well enough or clean enough to use in lamps or other ignitable
devices. In fact, about the only benefit derived from oil was its purported use as a natural
remedy. In the 1830s and 1840s, Samuel Kier had a profitable business selling bottles of oil as
an oral cure for various ailments. Then, in 1847, Colonel A.C. Ferris distilled some of Kier’s oil
and discovered that distilling greatly improved its burning qualities. Ferris offered $20 a barrel
for crude oil figuring he could distill it and sell it for use much like whale oil which at that time
sold for about $2 a gallon. The worldwide search for oil had begun! 7
What happened to the Trenton Oil Field?
In the 19th century, there was little
understanding about the nature of crude oil.
Crude oil is a fossil fuel. This means that it
is formed by ancient microscopic organisms
that break down over a very long period of
time. Once broken down into petroleum and
natural gas, the petroleum products will
begin migrating through the rocks on their
way to the earth’s surface. The shale and
limestone in which the Trenton oil was
found is over 70 million years old
(Ordovician age). This means that the
fossils that broke down to form this fuel
were at least 70 million years old and
probably much older. Crude oil cannot be
readily replenished.
While geologists in the 19th century
understood this dilemma and urged citizens
to treat crude oil like the precious resource
that it is, the general public and prospectors
viewed the oil as an unlimited resource. The
drilling was unregulated and over 50,000
wells were drilled – some of them very close
to one another. When a well stopped
producing oil, the pump was pulled from the
well, oftentimes leaving a gaping hole that
let rainwater and runoff into the reservoir
diluting the oil that was still there. The
natural gas was used as flares and lit to show
the prosperity of the towns around the oil
boom. People commented that night was as
bright as day in these towns.
Trenton Oil Field Production 8
In a very short period of time, the oil had
either been used up or diluted by rainwater
to the point of being unusable. After
reaching peak production for natural gas in
1900 and peak oil production in 1904, the
production dropped dramatically each year.
Prospectors moved on to Texas or
Oklahoma where new oil fields were being
drilled leaving behind little to show from
this prosperous time in Central Indiana
history. Today the Trenton Oil Field
produces only a negligible amount of
petroleum. 2, 3, 7, 8
The Trenton Oil Field Today
In 1960, the Central Indiana Gas Company started using an area in the Trenton Oil Field as a
storage site for natural gas. This area is called the Unionport gas-storage project. By 1980, 42
gas-storage wells had been constructed on 670 acres of land in the North and South fields of the
Unionport project. The conditions that let the natural gas collect in this location in the first place
are ideal for storing gas there now. 4
How much oil does it take to produce a gallon of gasoline?
Out of each 42 gallon barrel of oil, approximately 19.5 gallons of gasoline
are produced. This means that it takes more than two gallons of oil to
produce one gallon of gas. 9
Oil Gathering 101
While equipment and procedures have changed over the past century to become safer and more
efficient, the basic method for obtaining oil from beneath the earth’s surface has stayed pretty
much the same.
1. It starts with drilling. In the Trenton field, a hole was drilled to a depth of about
1,000 feet.
2. A long pipe called a casement is inserted into the hole to keep the sides of the hole
from caving in.
3. If the oil is not pooling rapidly, the rocks below the surface are
shattered to release the oil from the rock crevices into the oil
reservoir. This process is called fracturing. Today, high powered
pumps inject pressurized liquid into the wells. This liquid gets
into the crevices of the rock and expands causing the rock to break
and release the oil. In the Trenton field, nitroglycerin was
dropped down the well hole and then an iron ball, called a godevil, was dropped in to ignite it creating an explosion which
shattered the limestone and released the oil.
4. After the oil is flowing, a pump is placed over the well hole and
the oil is pumped until it is gone. Once the oil is gone, the well
can be re-drilled to see if there is more oil at a deeper depth. 1, 7
Works Cited
1. Baker, Ron. A Primer of Oilwell Drilling. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin, 2001.
2. Gutstadt, Allan M. Cambrian and Ordovician Stratigraphy and Oil and Gas Possibilities in Indiana. Bloomington,
IN: Indiana Department of Natural Resources Geological Survey, 1958
3. Hall, Robert D. Geology of Indiana. Indianapolis, IN: IUPUI Department of Geology and Center for Earth and
Environmental Sciences, 1998.
4. Keller, Stanley, J. and Abdulkareem, Talal F. Post-Knox Unconformity – Significance at Unionport Gas-Storage
Project and Relationship to Petroleum Exploration in Indiana. Bloomington, IN: State of Indiana, 1980.
5. Ohio Oil and Gas Association. Ohio Crude Oil and Natural Gas Producing History. Retrieved 20 March 2005
from http://adamite.igs.indiana.edu/geology/coalOilGas/oilandgas/index.cfm.
6. Pees, Samuel T. Oil History. Retrieved 21 March 2005 from http://www.oilhistory.com/pages/barrels.html.
7. Rarick, R. Dee. The Petroleum Industry – Its Birth in Pennsylvania and Development in Indiana. Bloomington,
IN: Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 1980
8. Rupp, John A. Oil and Gas in Indiana. Indiana University Indiana Geological Survey. Retrieved 20 March 2005
from http://adamite.igs.indiana.edu/geology/coalOilGas/oilandgas/index.cfm.
9. “Selected numbers for comparing the mileage per Megajoule, per BTU, and per kWh of various vehicles”.
Retrieved 24 March 2005 from http://www.herecomesmongo.com/ae/comptab.html