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RMAG Centennial, Part 2: The Rise of the DJ Basin (1947-1972)
By Jane Estes-Jackson, Donna Anderson, and Matt Silverman
The years following World War II were a time of general prosperity in the US, and demand for oil expanded along with the economy. Geophysical exploration methods continued to improve, and in 1949, the Ohio Oil Company drilled and completed the Mary Egging #1 well (Figure 1) on a seismic high in Cheyenne County, Nebraska (Figure 2) for 225 BOPD from the D Sand at a depth of 4,429’. It was followed by the discovery of the Armstrong Field (Figure 2) on a seismic high in Logan County, Colorado in 1950. This kicked off the first big drilling boom in the Denver-Julesburg Basin (also known as the DJ Basin or more properly the Denver Basin), which continued throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, driven in part by a combination of the accessibility, relatively shallow depths, low drilling costs, and high gravity oil of the D and J sands. Over a period of 15 years an average of 1,000 D and J sand wells per year were drilled in the DJ Basin. It is estimated that millions of acres were leased within a matter of months as the play moved west and south from southwestern Nebraska into northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming.
FIGURE 1: (right) The Mary Egging #1, discovery well for the DJ Basin
Courtesy of the Cheyenne County Historical Society and Museum.
Figure 2: Index map showing key locations discussed in the text.
Elsewhere in the Rockies, several new pipelines constructed in the late 1940s through early 1950s provided new markets for numerous large gas fields in the San Juan, Piceance, Uinta, and Green River basins, which accelerated drilling activity in those areas as well. Large oil companies established division offices in Denver (Figure 3) and maintained smaller district offices in such places as Albuquerque, Farmington, Durango, Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Casper, and Billings. Uranium prospecting in the western US was also increasing due to the advent of the Cold War. In short, it was a good time to be a geologist in the Rockies.
FIGURE 3: The Continental Oil Company building located at 18th and Glenarm in downtown Denver, circa 1960.
From the Denver Public Library Western History Collection.
The momentum from all this activity had a profound impact on RMAG. In 1950 membership had reached close to 200 members; by the end of 1960 it had increased fivefold to 1,050 members. By 1964 it was second only to the Houston Geological Society in terms of membership. The organization was growing and thriving, and it achieved several milestones during this time. The first member roster was printed in 1951 and was followed in 1955 by the first photo directory.
The first RMAG office was established in 1956 in the Denver Club Building, located at 518 17th Street. RMAG moved and changed management several times over the next 15 years. From 1960 through 1969 the phone and mail functions for RMAG were handled by a third-party business service, with the Board taking care of all the other business functions, including membership and financial records. Petroleum Information managed the RMAG office from 1969 through 1970, and in 1971 RMAG once again established an office with a full-time staff member.
In 1954 RMAG was formally incorporated as a non-profit under the leadership of President Robert Munoz (1904-1998, Figure 4). That same year the relationship between RMAG and AAPG was formalized, and RMAG hosted AAPG annual meetings in Denver in 1948, 1961, and 1972.
Programs were integrated into the weekly luncheon meetings in 1950 as a means of improving attendance. The meetings were held at the Albany Hotel and were attended by an average of over 100 members. While some of the presentations were geologically oriented, many of them were of more general interest. Special evening meetings were also held and usually included programs on the latest “hot” play. By 1964 the Friday luncheon meetings had moved to the “old” Petroleum Club located at 16th and Broadway in downtown Denver. As past President John Rold (1927-2012; Figure 4) remembered:
FIGURE 4: Notable RMAG Members and Past Presidents
Attendance averaged around 165 members and the lunch consisted of a seafood buffet. The tradition of recognizing the best luncheon speaker with a yearly award started in 1965.
In 1964, while serving as RMAG President, John Rold was approached by George Fentress, a member of Colorado’s state legislature at the time, regarding the reinstatement of the Colorado Geological Survey. A joint RMAG-AIPG committee was formed in 1966 to gather research from other state geologists. This information was used to write a bill that was passed and signed by Governor John Love in 1967, when Earl Griffith (1919-2006; Figure 4) was RMAG President. The state of Colorado appointed a selection committee to interview and administer the examination to candidates for the new position and in 1969 John Rold became State Geologist and Director of the Colorado Geological Survey, a position that he held for 24 years. The RMAG newsletter was published sporadically starting in 1951, and in 1956 it became a monthly publication under editor Bill Mallory, who later served as RMAG President in 1960 (Figure 4). Petroleum Information generously provided the printing of the newsletter from 1951 through 1995.
Publications were becoming a very important part of RMAG’s contribution to the scientific community. A committee of several RMAG members revised and updated the "Possible Future Petroleum Provinces in the Rocky Mountain Region" and published it in the AAPG Bulletin in February 1951. In May of that year an RMAG research committee chaired by Alex McCoy III published “Types of Oil and Gas Traps in the Rocky Mountains” in the AAPG Bulletin. In 1954, RMAG published the guidebook "Oil and Gas Fields of Colorado," which sold 1,700 copies and was the first oil and gas field symposium published for the Rocky Mountain region. It established a tradition of compiling technical symposia into yearly hardbound “guidebooks”, which continued through 1963.
By the early 1960s the members of RMAG were generating an abundance of high-quality technical papers and there was a growing need for a venue to publish them. So, in 1964 RMAG established The Mountain Geologist, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal focused on Rocky Mountain geology. In effect it replaced the guidebooks from 1964 through 1972, which in turn had a negative financial impact on the organization. The Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region (aka “The Big Red Book”) is arguably RMAG’s most notable publication. It was inspired by the volume Geological History of Western Canada published in 1964 by the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists. Edited by Bill Mallory (1917-2003; Figure 4), the Atlas was initiated in 1967 and published in 1972 at a cost of $235,000 for 7,500 copies. Pre-publication sales had covered only about half of the expenses, so John Lockridge (1931-2015; Figure 4), who became RMAG President the following year, provided a short-term personal guarantee to secure a loan to cover the rest. A committee of 100 RMAG members was formed to provide additional financial support; three years later this committee evolved into the RMAG Foundation. The Big Red Book was ultimately a significant money-maker for RMAG. There was a second printing of 1,500 copies in 1982; it was digitized in 2006; converted to GIS shapefiles in 2014; and remains an important reference for anyone working the Rockies.
RMAG was very fortunate to have two very notable GeoLegends serve as president during the late 1960s. John Haun (1921?-2020; Figure 4) served as RMAG President in 1968 and AAPG President in 1979-1980. He was the co-founder and first editor of The Mountain Geologist, and an associate editor of the Big Red Book. He edited the AAPG Bulletin from 1967-1971, and is credited with starting the AAPG Explorer. Robert Weimer (1926-2021; Figure 4) followed him as RMAG President in 1969 and AAPG President in 1991-1992. He chaired the AAPG national meeting held in Denver in 1972. In addition to their numerous contributions as petroleum geologists, both Dr. Haun and Dr. Weimer were professors at Colorado School of Mines for over 30 years. Both men received the Sidney Powers Memorial award from AAPG.
Social events have also been important to the mission of RMAG. The first golf tournament was held June 25 and 26, 1951 at the Lakewood Country Club, and the tournament quickly became a well-attended annual event. The first official RMAG ski day was held on April 24, 1961, at Arapahoe Basin, in conjunction with the AAPG annual convention. It proved so popular that it became the “Annual Alpenfest” and was organized and hosted by the RMAG Auxiliary (see “Celebrating nearly 70 years of the RMAGA” in the February Outcrop).
In 1970, Margaret “Peggy” Fuller Boos (1892- 1978; Figure 4) became the first woman to receive Honorary Membership in RMAG, the organization’s highest honor. As a well-regarded researcher and teacher, she established the Department of Geology at the University of Denver in 1935 and served as its department head until 1943. She and her husband Maynard worked as petroleum geologists together for many years, and co-authored “Tectonics of Eastern Flank and Foothills of Front Range, Colorado” published in the December 1957 AAPG Bulletin. She authored over 50 publications throughout her career, and was named the “First Lady of Petroleum” by the American Petroleum Institute in 1971.
One of the most significant events for hydrocarbon exploration in the Rockies took place in 1969, when the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRC) agreed to lease 7.4 million gross acres of its land holdings in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah exclusively to Pan American/Amoco for $9 million. This “UP Strip” acreage followed and flanked the railroad in a checkerboard pattern 20 miles on each side. A resurgence of drilling activity in the DJ Basin soon followed, and the prolific Wattenberg Field (Figure 5) was discovered in 1970 with the completion of the Grenemeyer #1 well (Figure 2), which came on at 484 MCFG- PD and 10 BOPD from the J Sand. Vessels Oil and Gas drilled it under a farmout agreement from Amoco. Within two years Wattenberg was Colorado’s largest producer of wet gas, which was sold to Public Service Company (now Xcel Energy), after the liquid components were stripped out, for consumers in the Front Range. Prior to the numerous discoveries in the DJ Basin, the greater Denver area got most of its natural gas via pipeline from the giant Hugoton Field in southwestern Kansas. Spindle Field, the second largest oil field in the DJ Basin, was discovered in 1971 during Amoco’s initial development drilling of Wattenberg. Denver once again became an oil boomtown, and new skyscrapers popped up throughout downtown.
FIGURE 5: Original map of Wattenberg Field prepared by R.A. Matuszczak, published in 1973 in the Mountain Geologist, vol. 10, num. 3, p. 102.
SOURCES
• A Special Volume: 75 years of the RMAG, by Harold E. Kellogg, in the Mountain Geologist, October 1997.
• Western Oil Reporter’s Rocky Mountain Oil History, by Russ Rountree, 1984.
• High Altitude Energy: A History of Fossil Fuels in Colorado, by Lee Scamehorn, 2002.
• A Look Back at the D-J Play 1950-1965 and Other Oil Stories, by R.E. Chancellor and A.A. McGregor, 1998.
