![]() “In 1909, a small discovery by Eureka Oil and Gas at Fayette fueled that city’s streetlights for a time, but no natural gas was recovered anywhere in the state for several decades afterward,” he adds. The oil was claimed to be “a known cure for Scrofula, Cancerous Sores, Rheumatism, Dyspepsia, and other diseases.” Like bottled “Kentucky oil,” Alabama’s Lawrence County oil became popular for its medicinal qualities. ![]() Noting oil and water emerging from a crevice in limestone, it was observed, “the tar, or bitumen, floats on the surface, a black film very cohesive and insoluble in water.” ![]() In Alabama’s case, Sorenson uncovered an account by its first state geologist, Michael Tuomey, who described reports of a “mineral tar.” Tuomey cited an account from the 1840s of finding natural oil seeps in Lawrence County. He has documented many reports made prior to the first official commercial oil well drilled by Edwin L. Geologist and historian Ray Sorensen has investigated the earliest reports oil or natural gas in all of today’s producing states. Prior to his rank wildcat discovery well, 350 dry holes had been drilled in Alabama.Īlthough there had not been a major oil discovery in the state, natural petroleum seeps had attracted interest as early as the mid-19th century. Hunt, who had found great success in the earliest Arkansas oilfields of the 1920s, and even greater success in the giant East Texas oilfield of 1930, discovered the Gilbertown oilfield. Famed Texas oilman Haroldson Lafayette Hunt drilled the A.R. Although swallowing tar pills reportedly had been curing ills since the mid-1850s, Alabama’s petroleum industry officially began when its first oilfield was discovered in the winter of 1944. ![]()
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