Norman No. 1
Opening well of the Mid-Continent Field
Kansas has long been oil country. There are legends that Indians held council around the lights of burning springs. Immigrants, it is known, skimmed "rock tar" from such oil seeps to grease the axles of their wagons.
Three blocks southeast, on the banks of the Verdigris River, is the site of one of the most famous oil wells in the United States. This derrick is a replica of the Norman No. 1, the first commercially successful well of the Mid-Continent field. It was drilled November 1892, by McBride and Bloom of Independence, Kansas, for William Mills of Osawatomie, Kansas, on land owned by T. J. Norman. The price was $2.50 per foot.
On November 28, 1892, when drilling reached 832 feet, oil began to flow. The Norman No. 1 did indeed provide Major Mills with evidence that oil was pooled beneath the plains of the Middle West.
Mills plugged it and hurried to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with samples. These so galvanized backers Guffy and Galey that they leased a million acres while Norman No. 1 remained plugged for ten months.
On October 1, 1892, the well was shot by G. M. Perry of Oswego, Kansas. Its initial production was 12 barrels daily. After producing for 26 years it was abandoned because of a leaky casing.
Oil was first drilled in Kansas in 1860, near Paola, Kansas, but the sinking of Norman No. 1 began the continuous development of the Mid-Continent Field, the nations' [sic] largest, which spreads over Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Marker is on Main Street (U.S. 75) near 1st Street, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
