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Disaster in the Big Muddy Oil Fields / 1917
Early photograph of 5 oil derricks near Casper, Wyoming, annotated to illustrate the well owners.
On the verso is an inscription:
Casper, Wyoming
Uncle Walt's Well
Stolen by Standard Oil of New York & where he was killed. It was blown up & a piece fell on his head.
Uncle Walt was W.W. Atkinson of Los Angeles, California. The Atkinson family would go on to make its fortunate in Engineering in Southern California. W. W. Atkinson had been a successful oil speculator in Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming. He relocated to Casper Wyoming in 1916 to pursue oil exploration in the region. He died on April 9, 1917, while supervising a crew at one of his oil derricks, which collapsed and a piece of timber struck him in the head.
The Well locates the 3 oil derricks of James T. Hurst. Hurst's lease purchase in the Big Muddy, which cost him $165,000, was the most expensive purchase of its time.
