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WHEELING – So excited were Sistersville area oil speculators in the 1890s and 1900s that the town’s population swelled from about 500 residents to roughly 15,000 in just a few years, while about 100 drilling companies operated in and around the Tyler County settlement.
A West Virginia drilling activity report dated 1912 indicates the workers encountered a “very black slate” around 4,945 feet below the surface. At the time, these drillers referred to this formation as the Marcellus.
Despite the Marcellus and Utica shale rush gaining significant attention over the last several years, the oil and natural gas business is well established in the Mountain State, as the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. During the association’s convention at Oglebay Park last week, organizers of “The Oil & Gas Museum” of Parkersburg displayed some of their memorabilia, including the 1912 log report and a device they called a “spring hole bit.”
“We believe this was used in the 60s – the 1860s,” museum president Paul Hoblitzell said while examining the instrument.
According to Barbara Vincent, secretary, treasurer and board member for the Sistersville Oil and Gas Festival, the annual event celebrates the history of the industry that took the small Tyler County town by storm more than a century ago.
“Practically overnight, oil derricks popped up all through the town and along the countryside,” she said. “It was something while it lasted.”
Vincent said some of the legendary Sistersville wells took the names of “Big Moses” and “Pole Cat.”
Although the city is home to fewer than 1,400 residents, the annual festival showcases the heritage of the oil rush.
Sistersville was home to nearly 100 oil companies, fine hotels, country club, one of America’s oil refineries.
Today, the city’s population is less than 2,000. (1,359).
As part of celebrating the industry in the state, Benjamin A. Hardesty, owner of Alta Energy and an association board member, recently discussed the book he edited: “A Century of Service.” This book chronicles WVONGA’s 100 year journey of promoting the oil and natural gas business in the Mountain State.
“In 1900, West Virginia led the world in oil production,” Hardesty proclaimed.
Because of the growth of the industry throughout the state, including notably in the area along the Ohio River from Sistersville to Parkersburg, industry leaders decided to start the association in 1915.
Hardesty said drillers in 1918 reached a then unimaginable depth of 7,386 feet – or about 1.4 miles – at an operation in Harrison County.
“Scientists from Russia, Germany, everywhere wanted to know, ‘What’s the temperature down there?'” Hardesty said of the international reaction to this achievement.
Hardesty said some don’t seem to realize how established the oil and natural gas industry is in West Virginia, a fact that could partially be due to how dominant the coal business has been in the state for so long.
“There are more buried underground pipelines in West Virginia than there are miles of interstate highway,” he said.
Hardesty added the oil and natural gas boom of the last century eventually spurred the growth of manufacturing in the state.
He provided a photo showing the state saw a “petrochemical” plant open in 1920, nearly a century before the concept of an enormous ethane cracker employing thousands of workers in the Marcellus and Utica region.
“It’s here – it’s always been here,” Hardesty added of the industry.
As for the museum in Parkersburg, Hoblitzell said the recent industry boom has renewed interest in the center, located at 119 Third St. in Parkersburg, or at: oilandgasmuseum.com/Pages/oilandgashome.html.
“A lot of the oilfield people come through to see how the industry has evolved in West Virginia,” he added.