Norman No. 1 Oil Well Site is the site of an abandoned

oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may ...

, located at the northeast corner of Mill and First Streets in

Neodesha, Kansas Neodesha is a city in Wilson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,275. The name is derived from the Osage Indian word, ''Ni-o-sho-de'', and is translated as ''The-Water-Is-Smoky-With-Mud''. H ...

, USA. The well, which was drilled on November 28, 1892, was the first successful well in what is now known as the

Mid-Continent oil field The Mid-continent oil field is a broad area containing hundreds of oil fields in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The area, which consists of various geological strata and diverse trap types, was discovered and exploite ...

, kicking off a major oil boom in states from

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The well site, now a small municipal park, was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1977.

Description and history

The Norman No. 1 Oil Well Site is located in the small southeastern Kansas town of Neodesha, at the northeast corner of 1st and East Mill Streets. (It is ''not'' on the south side of Main Street, where a replica

oil derrick A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and ...

stands.) The site is in a small public park, about in size, set on the western bank of the

Verdigris River The Verdigris River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. It is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ...

. The park has open grassy areas and a small parking area, and the original site of the oil well is marked by a plaque. The park originally housed a small visitors center, playground, restrooms, and the replica derrick, but all of these were removed due to repeated flooding. The Neodesha area was known to Native Americans for glowing "gas springs" prior to its settlement by westward-migrating Americans. Reports of this feature eventually brought William Mills, an oil explorer to the town. One of the sites he selected for drilling was on the land of T.J. Norman, a local blacksmith. On November 28, 1892, the well struck oil at a depth of . This kicked off a local boom, which was eventually expanded to a much larger geographic area by other finds. and Norman No. 1 operated until 1919, when part of the well casing failed, and its infrastructure was dismantled. The city built a replica of the derrick and other infrastructure on the site in 1961, turning it into a small park and tourist attraction. The derrick and museum were moved to Main Street in 1989, due to repeated flooding of the site.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Wilson County, Kansas National Historic Landmarks in Kansas Energy infrastructure completed in 1892 Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas Tourist attractions in Wilson County, Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Wilson County, Kansas Oil wells on the National Register of Historic Places

Description and history

See also

References