A Gas Well

A Kansas Portrait

In May 1903, near Dexter, Kansas, drillers for the Gas Oil and Developing Company struck gas at a depth of 500 feet. Conservative estimates placed the flow at 9,000,000 feet daily, and called it the strongest one ever discovered in Kansas.

Telephone and telegraph wires spread the news to the surrounding towns. Although neighboring Winfield doubted the claims, the afternoon train brought men who assured their friends that Dexter's well was "as a cyclone to a mild wind compared with theirs."

Stock was quickly sold, real estate prices grew, and several new enterprises were projected. However, every time flames were brought near the well the roaring gas would blow them out. Dexter's dreams of becoming an industrial metropolis were blown out with them. For two years the scornful name of "wind gas" was applied, then analysis showed that helium was present. Beginning with the First World War the gas that would not burn was used in military balloons, but it was 1927 before Dexter had a helium extracting plant. Since then dirigibles, nuclear reactors, and ballistic missiles have kept the industry alive although today the original Dexter well no longer produces.