Most Frisco fans know that during the 1930's several oil wells were drilled near the Frisco's Oklahoma City roundhouse. Recently, I tried finding more information about these wells, and I put together this piece.
Karl - I almost wound up in the "Awl Bidness" myself. I came close to working for Humble at Baytown, Esso at Baton Rouge or ER&E in NJ, or Shell in Wood River. But, the chem biz won out, and I never regretted it. K
Wow, what a great read. I had no idea Frisco ever leased any land for oil production. Neat to see the drilling info with the decline curves. It may be of interest to know there is a field in Bowden Oklahoma, on both sides of the Frisco ROW at MP432. This field has the Wilcox Sand and the Taneha Sand.. The field was first drilled in 1909, and has sold oil every week since then, and is still producing to this very day. Check out this Preston George image from 1946, the dereks in the background are long gone, but the wells underneath them are still there and still active, I purchased the field in 1999, and have drilled producing wells on the field as recent as 2012. Bowden used to have a double track main with a center passing siding and the ROW was 200 feet wide, and is still 200 feet wide. I have tried multiple times over the years to purchase part of the ROW and even to get a lease on the outer lying areas of the ROW, but no sale or oil lease agreement has ever been made. Without a doubt, the ROW at MP432 has at least a couple hundred thousand barrels of oil under it and it will not be extracted any time soon, still a very very busy main line.
Great picture, Paul. By the time I hired on in 1971, the double main had been reduced to a single main with CTC control. I could easily see where the second main was, but I never knew there was a passing track between the two mains back in the day. Terry
It is interesting that the OKC Frico wells were dead by the early 1940s, I bet they were still making a reasonable oil cut but were abandoned due to the expense of operating a 6400' deep well. The wells in Bowden by comparison are only 1600' deep and are not expensive to operate at that depth, and that is likely the primary reason the Bowden wells outlived the Frisco wells. It is notable that that OKC field still gives up a few thousand bbls of oil per day today. Also notable that the oilman that drilled the Frisco wells has a small town south of Tulsa named after him. Slick, Oklahoma
I found it interesting the the down dip wells lasted longer than the three up dip wells. I would have expected the reverse to be true. The scout ticket summaries indicate that another operator attempted a work-over on the #1. The scout ticket didn't provide the details. During lunch on friday, I did some looking for the Bowden wells. The maps show the 4 townships and the wells within them at Bowden. All the Slavens operated wells. The first three wells drilled during 1908. Well header details in the spreadsheet.
Nice map Karl, it is mostly accurate. A lot of wells have been drilled and plugged over the years, and today there are 21 total wells active. 18 producers and 3 injectors. 13 of the wells are old, dating from 1909 to 1920, and 8 of the wells were drilled in the modern era between 2008 and 2012. Bowden was lucky to have the Frisco and the oilfields. My old oil maps show the ROW as the 'Frisco Railroad" and all the surface deeds out here describe the ROW as the "railroad right of way occupied by the Saint Louis - San Francisco Railway" Even to this day when a deed is prepared it still references the Frisco. The photo below shows a well in the foreground that was drilled in 1910, the well in the background was drilled 2010.
