Indiana gas boom facts for kids
The Indiana gas boom was a time when a lot of natural gas was found and used in Indiana and parts of Ohio. This exciting period started in the early 1880s and lasted until the early 1900s.
When the huge natural gas area was first found, people in Indiana didn't really know what it was. It took almost ten years before anyone started to use this valuable resource. Once they understood its importance, they found that the Indiana gas belt was the biggest natural gas deposit ever discovered at that time!
Besides a lot of natural gas, developers also found a giant oil reserve in the 1890s. It was the first one of its kind in the US, with about one billion barrels of oil. People quickly started using these resources. However, much of the gas was wasted. So, the Indiana General Assembly tried to make rules about how it should be used. The Indiana Supreme Court later agreed that these laws were fair.
Because people didn't know much about oil and gas wells back then, about 90% of the natural gas was wasted. It either escaped into the air or was used carelessly. By 1902, the gas fields started to produce less. This led people to switch to other types of energy. When most of the gas was gone, there wasn't enough pressure left to pump the oil out of the ground. Experts believe that about 900 million barrels of oil are still left in the field. New ways to pump oil, called artificial lift, have helped get some of it out. But it's slower and costs more than getting oil from other fields.
Discovery of Gas
Natural gas was first found in Indiana in 1876. Coal miners in the town of Eaton were digging for coal. They dug down about 600 feet (183 meters). Suddenly, a loud noise came from the ground, and a bad smell came from the hole. The miners were scared! Some thought they had dug into Hell. They quickly plugged the hole and didn't dig there again.
In 1886, Indiana's first successful gas well was made. George W. Carter, William W. Worthington, and Robert C. Bell hired Almeron H. Crannell to drill another well in Eaton. Crannell found gas at a depth of 922 feet (281 meters). When they lit the escaping gas, the flame shot 10 feet (3 meters) into the air!
More gas wells were drilled. Sometimes, the escaping gas was lit on purpose to show off the discovery. People thought the gas would never run out. These big flames were called "flambeaux."
"Gas fever" spread across the state. Thousands of gas wells were created. Explorers found that this gas field was the largest natural gas field ever found at that time. It covered an area of 5,120 square miles (13,260 square kilometers). This area became known as the Trenton Gas Field. Drillers also found large amounts of oil along with the natural gas.
The Gas Boom
The discovery of gas helped industries grow in East Central Indiana. The Ball Corporation opened in Muncie. They used the cheap gas to make glass. Other factories also moved to the area. These included the Kokomo Rubber Company and the Hemmingray Bottle and Insulating Glass Company.
Companies that made iron and other metals also moved in because of the cheap fuel. The low cost of gas was a main reason why U.S. Steel chose northern Indiana for its operations. Other cities in northern Indiana also grew quickly. These included Hartford City and Gas City. Gas City was right in the middle of the gas field. It had the strongest gas pressure, between 300 and 350 pounds per square inch (2,068 to 2,413 kPa). In 1892, Gas City had only 150 people. But just two years later, its population had grown to 25,000!
Cities outside the gas field also got gas through pipes. The fuel was even sent across the Midwest. The Indiana Natural Gas and Oil (INGO) company was started by businessmen from Chicago. Charles Yerkes led this group. The company hired Elwood Haynes to be their superintendent. He oversaw the building of the first long-distance natural gas pipeline in the US. It connected Chicago with the Trenton Field, over 150 miles (241 km) away. One big use for the gas was to power lighting.
The money and jobs brought by the gas wells caused many people to move to northern Indiana. Southern Indiana, on the other hand, had not recovered from problems during the Civil War. It was struggling economically. The northern part of the state offered new jobs. The gas boom also led to fast improvements in pumping and piping technology. Inventors like Elwood Haynes created many new devices and methods that helped the industry.
As more gas was used, many scientists warned that too much gas was being wasted. They said that the supplies would soon run out. Almost every town in northern Indiana had one or more gas wells. Producers would light a flambeau on top of each well to show that gas was flowing.
The Indiana General Assembly tried to stop this waste by limiting open burning. But this law faced strong opposition. Many town leaders depended on the gas money. They didn't believe that the wells would run dry. This practice wasted a lot of gas. INGO did its own study and found that its flambeaux wasted $10,000 worth of gas every day. So, they ordered their own flambeaux to be stopped. Even with these findings, other companies did not follow their example.
Elwood Haynes filed a lawsuit a month after the new rules were passed. He argued that the government could not control the industry. This legal challenge went on for several years. Finally, in 1896, the Indiana Supreme Court said that the laws were constitutional.
Almost every community in the Trenton Field had a gas well. Many were bought by local governments. They used the money from the gas to improve their towns. Many towns and cities installed free gas lighting throughout their communities. They used gas from their own wells. Communities also piped gas to homes. This provided cheap heating fuel and made city life more appealing. Gas was also used to make electricity that powered electric street cars in several cities. Businessmen also started companies to buy gas from local markets and sell it to other states.
Decline of the Boom
Wasteful practices quickly used up the gas field. By the early 1900s, the wells started to produce less. Some flambeaux had been burning for almost twenty years. Slowly, their flames became shorter and weaker. Modern experts believe that as much as 90% of the natural gas was wasted in these flambeau displays. By 1903, factories and towns needed other energy sources. This led to the building of many coal-burning electric plants.
Oil lasted a few years longer. But early oil drilling was new, and people made mistakes. Producers didn't know that the natural gas pressure helped pump oil from the wells. The pressure quickly dropped around the turn of the century. In 1895, the pressure was 164 psi. By 1898, it was 173 psi. As the pressure dropped to around 150 psi, oil moved into the upper part of the field. But since the natural gas had been released and pressure dropped below 130 psi, there was no way to pump out the remaining oil.
Oil production in Indiana reached its highest point in 1905. Over 11 million barrels (1.7 million cubic meters) were pumped that year. By 1910, the once plentiful resources had slowed to a trickle. By then, new industries had moved into the state. So, the decline of the gas industry did not cause a major negative impact. The availability of cheap energy had brought so much new industry that Indiana became one of the leading industrial states. The economy of northern Indiana continued to do well until the Great Depression began later. In total, over 1 trillion cubic feet (28 billion cubic meters) of natural gas and 105 million barrels (16.7 million cubic meters) of oil are thought to have been taken from the field.
Smaller pockets of natural gas still exist in Indiana. They are at depths that could not be reached during the boom era. Indiana still had a small natural gas producing industry in 2008. However, people and industries in the state use about twice as much natural gas as the state produces. In 2005, there were 338 active natural gas wells in the Trenton Field. In 2006, Indiana produced more than 290 million cubic feet (8.2 million cubic meters) of natural gas. This made it the 24th largest producing state, far behind the major producers.
It is estimated that only 10% of the oil was drilled from the Trenton Field. About 900 million barrels (143 million cubic meters) may still remain. Because the field is so large, pumping gas back into the well to increase pressure, which is common in smaller fields, is not possible. Also, because of the depth and limits of hydraulic pumps, it was never cheap enough to use them to get oil. It wasn't until the 1990s that efficient methods of artificial lift were invented. This has allowed some of the oil to be extracted. But it costs much more than when there is enough natural gas present.
See also
In Spanish: Bum del gas en Indiana para niños
