THE GAS BOOM
January 13, 1887, was a typical cold winter day. Darkness was settling
in, but the drilling crew kept working. When the drilling spud hit 518 feet below the
surface, there was a rush and a roar. The well house was immediately filled with the
unmistakable odor of natural gas. A piece of burning paper was held over the pipe, and a
flame shot 8 feet into the air. The drillers had set in mothion a chain of events which
forever changed the was of life in Marion and Grant County. Drilling on the discovery
well continued to 882 feet, at which point the well was shot. The Golden Age of Marion
was launched. The well extended 14 feet into the Trenton Rock, a natural gas reservoir.
The gas pressure measured 330 pounds P.S.I. and had a flow of one million cubic feet
daily.
The entrepreneurs and speculators moved quickly. On February 4, a company
with $100,000 capital was organized to secure gas leases. On February 7, the Mississinewa
Mining Company was granted rights to lay pipes in Marion. By March 25, the boom was well
underway. A citizens' improvement committee was appointed.
The second gas well was put down by the Marion Coal Gas Company on the
Lomax farm on March 12, 1887. This site is now the northwest corner of East Third and
Lomax Streets. It had a flow of two million cubic feet daily, secured at a depth of 887
feet. It extended eleven feet into the Trenton Rock.
Other wells went down quickly. Well # 3 was located in the vicinity of
Nelson and Nebraska Streets. The site of well #4 was near Charles Mill. It had a flow of
seven million cubic feet daily. Well # 5 was drilled to a depth of about 950 feet, 36
feet into the Trenton Rock. It had a flow of eight million cubic feet daily. All of
these wells were drilled in 1887. Marion Illustrated published in 1889 by J.S. Conover of
Coldwater, Mich. reported that 10 more wells had been developed, each of them larger than
the first five. The production of these 15 wells could heat and light the city of
Chicago. They were were located within a radius of two miles. They supplied every
residence, business room, office, church, school, and building where heat and light were
desired; and no residence in the city was charged more than $20 a year and some as low as
$4. Every manufacturer was supplied free.
Prior to the Gas Boom, in 1887, Marion had a few small factories
employing, at most, 150 men. By 1889 Marion had gained 25 new industries, including;
three window glass factories, a bottle factory, a fruit jar factory, a stove foundry, a
lumber company, a planing mill, a skewer factory, a pressed brick works, a paper mill, a
pulp mill, an excelsior works, a hoop factory, the Malleable Iron Works, a clock works, a
hay rake factory, a boiler and machine works, a veneering works, a wagon works, a chalk
factory, a bell works, a nail works, and a nut and bolt works. Many more were negotiating
for locations in Marion.
The population of Marion exploded during the gas Boom. The population in
1887 was 3,500. By 1892 it had grown to 18,000 and to 21,000 by 1894. Transient
residents, for example the gas boomers, gas and oil field workers and their families, were
probably not included in the census. At their peak it is estimated they numbered about
5,000.
Paralleling the population growth was a boom in home building. Over 2,000
homes were built by the end of 1889. The gas boomers had to have a place to stay. Many
stayed in boarding houses, some bought or built their own homes, and some stayed in tents.
still others stayed in hotels such as the Spencer house. Marion drew investors,
capitalists, realtors and speculators like a magnet. Support for an exploding pupulation
provided almost unlimited opportunities.
Measured by any standard, this evidence shows phenomenal and unprecedented
accomplishment for a time period of approximately 18 years.
The Gas Boom Era had some negative aspects. those involved in the gas
business apparently knew little about the supply of gas and oil. The local attitude was
that the natural gas supply would last forever and by some unidentifialbe process was
replenished as fast as it was used. State geologists like prophets in the Old Testament,
warned that the gas supply was finite. Once it was released that was the end. They were
appalled by the waste and made suggestions that would extend the life of the gas
reservoir. Laws regulating gas consumption came too late to save the gas field. Natural
gas was used indiscriminately and recklessly wasted. Geologists estimated that the volume
wasted was equal to the volume that was actually used productively.
For all practical purposes, the Gas Boom had run its course by 1905.
There is no accurate record of the number of wells drilled in Grant County. Registration
and regulations were sketchy to non-existent in the early going. The INDIANA GEOLOGICAL
SURVEY has a map showing wells drilled Grant County over the years. It lists only 418
wells. The real total is probably many times that figure.
The Golden age of Marion
by Steve Bunish
JCT