Oil has always been a major part of Wyoming’s economy. On August 26, 1917, a new producing oil well came in on the Salt Creek Oil Field near Midwest. One of the largest oil fields in the nation, the Salt Creek oil field has produced 209,619,275.48 barrels of light oil since its discovery in 1889. It ranks as one of the largest light oil fields of the world and still produces 8,000 to 9000 barrels of oil per day. This is a snap-shot of the history of the Salt Creek Field.

The Wyoming Oil World, June 15, 1918 – Wildcatters Are Real Pioneers in The Oil Industry These Men Are the Life and Sinew of Production in All New Fields Capital and Brains Needed Many People Laughed When Midwest Entered Salt Creek District – Capital and brains. That is the answer of every oil man in Wyoming to the question: What is wanted in Wyoming for the development of the oil fields? Capital and brains have done the work up to the present, and will continue to do the work. In connection with capital and brains there is nerve needed. The nerve needed is that which calls men to go into unproven fields, spend their money, sink a well, and, if they have a dry hole, to pull the casing and remove their rig and engine to another field and go to it again.

These are the people commonly known as “wildcatters.” It is a fact that some of the big companies in every field could have been classed as wildcatters in the beginning, for they were going it blind, to a large extent. They went into a field that had been passed upon by a geologist who believed there was a dome and believed there was oil. They backed this belief with money and won. Correctly speaking, the only bonafide wildcatter is the man who hasn’t any ground worthwhile and who is selling stock just for the money that he can make out of it.

Wildcatters are the pioneers in a new territory. They have not started without the advice of a reputable geologist. There is the structure for them to drill, tho that structure may prove barren, but it won’t be their fault. These are the men who will go to another part of the same field or to a new field and go after another hole. These are the men who make new fields and who develop oil fields. They are the life and sinew of the oil industry.

Wyoming is considered by many eminent geologists to be the future great oil state of the union. It is true that the ground has scarcely been scratched. The bulk of the wells are in a few sections, the Big Muddy and the Salt Creek being the largest, with Lander, Elk Basin, Grass Creek and two or three others following. But in addition to these area dozen other undeveloped fields, and here is where capital and brains are needed, with nerve, and the outcome if most certain to be a second Salt Creek.

That one or more of these fields will come in big in 1918 is a foregone conclusion. It is reported that when the Midwest (Oil Company) first went into the Salt Creek field there were those who laughed and then went on in their every-day work and gave the Midwest no further attention, except, perhaps, to pass a few jibes at them as the months rolled around. It’s capital and brains and nerve that will develop new fields in Wyoming, just us they have developed the present fields, and they will be forth coming.

The real boom for the Salt Creek field came during WWI, when navy ships began transitioning from coal to oil.

Cheyenne State Leader, November 18, 1917

The town of Midwest was at first a Midwest Oil Company tent town called Home Camp but in 1924, it became Midwest.

The Powell Tribune, January 10, 1924 – Effective January 1, the post office address of the old Midwest home camp in the Salt Creek field, formerly known as Salt Creek, Wyoming, will be changed to Midwest, Wyoming, and the name Salt Creek will apply to the post office at the new town of Salt Creek, the railway station on the new North &South railroad. It is advisable to include the words “Natrona County” In this address to avoid confusion with a Midwest post office discontinued some time ago at Grass Creek field in Hot Springs county. This has been changed to Grass Creek, Wyoming.

This from the Douglas Enterprise, November 7, 1916 –Possibilities Of Wyoming Fields State Geologist Trumbull Discusses the Present, Past and Future of State’s Resources An article recently written by State Geologist Trumbull was printed some time ago in the Wyoming Tribune as follows: While the commercial development of Wyoming’s oil resources, one might say has all taken place during the last five years, the discovery of oil and prospecting for bodies of the same began a long, long time before.

The Indians had long used crude petroleum for medical and commercial purposes, but the earliest printed record we find the knowledge of oil among white men in Washington Irvine’s”Captain Bonneville.” Captain Bonneville visited the Wind River valley in 1883 and, having heard of petroleum springs from Indians and trappers, he hunted until he found the “tar-spring,” which marked the present location of the Dallas oil field. (In Fremont County).

In Stansbury’s expedition to Great Salt Lake, written in 1849, we find regarding the petroleum spring at Milliard, Uinta county, “__a springof petroleum, or mineral tar, oozes from the low bank of a little rivulet flowing into the valley of Sulphur creek. The immigrants collect it for medicinal purposes and for greasing their wagon wheels.”

The Carter spring, six miles to the west, was discovered about the same time. In 1863 oil was being collected from a spring near Poison Spider creek and sold, for wagon grease to the emigrants traveling the Moran trail. In the winter of 1883 the cattlemen in the Big Horn Basin ran short of lamp oil and used the crude oil gathered from a spring near Bonanza creek. Before a railroad was built into the Black Hills, crude oil was delivered to the gold mills for lubrication purposes from springs near Moorcroft. This oil brought $28 per barrel.

The first production marketed from drilled wells was from the Carter well, Uinta county. The first, gusher wells were drilled in the Dallas field in 1883, and the first wells at Shannon on the northend of the Salt Creek field in 1889.Oil from the Shannon wells was hauled to Casper by 16-mule teams, 18,000 pounds per trip, and sold to the little 50-barrel still refinery, which was built in 1895, at $7 per barrel. (According to Evert DeWitt, curator of the Salt Creek Museum in Midwest, many of the ‘jerkline teams’ were made up of mustangs that were running wild in the Midwest area.)

Salt Creek field proper was not drilled until 1908. It is an interesting fact that the first well on Salt Creek dome was advised and located by an Italian petroleum geologist beside the road that the general public, oilmen, prospectors, and even geologists had been traveling for more than twenty years. In fact for some thirteen years, oil from the now unimportant Shannon field had been hauled across what is the largest and most productive field known to date in the Rocky Mountain district. It must, of course be remembered that the science of petroleum geology, as it is known today, was in its infancy, and the new American geologist who had visited the field did not recognize its possibilities.

In 1924, Salt Creek became the first electrified oil field in the world, and in 1925, the Midwest football field was the first lighted football field in the United States. On Nov. 29, 1925, the first lighted football game was held between Midwest and Casper.

Although pump jacks are not in common use today at Salt Creek, they used to be the way to pump the oil.

Salt Creek was also the site of the Teapot Dome Scandal, and Senator John B. Kendrick of Sheridan was a prominent figure in the events surrounding it. A story on the Teapot Dome Scandal appeared on Sheridan Media on April 9, 2022.

The Salt Creek Field continues to produce oil, and oil is a vital part of Wyoming’s economy.

Most photos taken at the Salt Creek Museum in Midwest, with thanks. There is a wealth of history inside. It is open 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, but one must call for an appointment. Tours are available as well. (307-258-9396)