History of The Glenn Pool Oil Field Educational Center

History of The Glenn Pool Oil Field Educational Center

"Bob [Galbreath] and Frank [Chesley] had already drilled through the deepest, known oil-producing reservoir in the area, the Red Fork Sand, at about 1,450 ft. with a slight show a gas. They should have stopped there, but drilling was cheap. They were using only surface casing, the well was not taking water and was not caving. The steam engine boilers were being fed by coal dug off a nearby hill in Jenks. And, they were living right on the rig. On that night they made the irrational decision to drill deeper into the unknown.

"Frank had just changed shifts with Bob who went to bed on a cot next to the rig. A couple of feet below the Red Fork Sand, they drilled into a previously-unknown sandstone in that area, the Bartlesville Sand. Frank noticed a stain on the bit and ran a bailer that came up with oil in it. Frank woke up Bob saying 'Oil! Oil! My God, Bob. We got an oil well!' The well started to make gurgling noises and then blew in over the derrick with a gusher of 75 barrels of oil per day. The Oklahoma oil boom had started."