RMAG Centennial

Part I: The Early Years (1922-1947)

By Jane Estes-Jackson, Donna Anderson, and Matt Silverman

THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY MUST have been an exciting time to be a petroleum geologist. The discovery of the Augusta and El Dorado fields in Kansas in the mid 19-teens demonstrated that the anticlinal theory of petroleum accumulation was a successful exploration method, and innovative geologists quickly adopted it. Both the USGS and the Colorado Geological Survey sent numerous geologists out in the field to map surface anticlines throughout the western US, which directly resulted in the discovery of many large oil and gas fields in the Rocky Mountain region. Following the end of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic, the US saw a sustained period of great economic prosperity throughout the 1920s. The first big oil boom ensued when demand for oil rapidly increased concurrently with the rising popularity of the automobile, and petroleum geologists became indispensable to successful hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation.

FOUNDERS

Colorado has been an important petroleum province since oil was first commercially produced at Florence Field in 1881 (Figure 1), followed by discoveries at Boulder (Figure 2) and Rangely in 1901-1902. By the middle of 1924, 50 rigs were busy drilling forty prospective structures in 16 Colorado counties. Over 35 oil companies had opened offices in Denver, establishing it as a prominent hub for the burgeoning petroleum industry. Petroleum geologists needed a local forum to network, exchange ideas, and hear about the latest innovations and discoveries. So, on January 26, 1922, fifty geologists came together at the Albany Hotel (Figure 3; NE corner of 17th and Stout, also the site of the Denver Oil Exchange) in Denver and founded the Rocky Mountain Association of Petroleum Geologists (RMAPG). Meetings were subsequently held on the first and third Thursday of the month and were “open to all persons interested in the petroleum industry.” The first technical program was held on February 9 when C.T. Lupton and L.R. Van Burgh gave a talk on “Pre-Cretaceous Stratigraphy of Western Kansas.”

FIGURE 1: Producing wells at Florence Oil Field circa 1890.

Denver Public Library Western History Collection

FIGURE 2: The McKenzie well, Boulder Oil Field, 1902.

Photo by J.B. “Rocky Mountain Joe” Sturdevant, University of Colorado Archives

Three months later, in March of 1922, Max Ball, who was the first president of RMAPG, was elected as Vice President of AAPG. He invited AAPG to Denver for a regional meeting that October, which was the beginning of a long association between the two groups. AAPG was incorporated in the state of Colorado on April 21, 1924, by Max Ball, Charles Rath, and Charles Decker, all founding members of the RMAPG. Four years later, in September of 1926, a second regional AAPG meeting was held in Denver.

FIGURE 3: (bottom) The Albany Hotel, located in downtown Denver at the NE corner of 17th and Stout streets (current site of Johns Manville Plaza) as it appeared in the 1920s.

Denver Public Library Western History Collection

Many of the founding members and early officers of RMAPG were pioneers in the field of petroleum geology and were responsible for the discovery and development of numerous important oil and gas fields in the Rockies and elsewhere. A list of some of them (Table 1; Figure 4) is like a Geology Hall of Fame. Their average age in 1922 was 37 years old, and many of them got their start out in the field mapping surface structures (Figure 5).

FIGURE 4: Early RMAG Presidents 1922-1947

photos from AAPG and Colorado School of Mines

TABLE 1: EARLY RMAG PRESIDENTS 1922-1947.

Max Ball (1922) Accomplishments: RMAG Founding Member; 1st RMAG President; incorporated AAPG; early developer of Alberta tar sands

Cassius A. Fisher (1923) Accomplishments: RMAG Charter Member; 2nd RMAG President; worked on Salt Creek and Craig fields

Thomas S. Harrison (1924) Accomplishments: RMAG Founding member; 3rd RMAG President; discovered Hogback Field in NM; Elk Basin, Oregon Basin, Little Buffalo Basin, and Grass Creek fields in Wyoming

Harry Oborne (1937) Accomplishments: Worked on early discoveries in Hugoton Field; named the Las Animas Arch

FIGURE 5: Harry Oborne mapping the Poose Creek Anticline, Routt County, Colorado, 1924.

photo courtesy of Matt Silverman

Ninetta Davis (1941) Accomplishments: 1st RMAG woman president; second woman to graduate from Colorado School of Mines

Ben H. Parker (1944) Accomplishments: Served on the faculty and later as President of Colorado School of Mines; co-authored several papers on the origin, migration, and accumulation of petroleum; one of the founders of AIPG

Carl A. Heiland (1947) Accomplishments: Responsible for the first reflection-seismograph survey in DJ Basin; first head of CSM Geophysicis Department

GROWTH

As the petroleum industry continued to grow and expand during the 1920s through the early 1940s, many new tools became available to petroleum geologists. Rotary drilling, electric well logging, and sidewall coring all became widely available in the 1930s. The first reflection-seismograph survey in the Denver Basin was undertaken in 1932, and by 1940 seismographs were being used throughout Colorado to explore for structures not visible at the surface. During the Great Depression (late 1929-1936), RMAPG membership hovered at less than 50. Association Board members commonly held two concurrent terms, because not enough members existed to fill offices. But hydrocarbon exploration continued on a limited basis, and several new fields were discovered during this time. In 1933 oil was discovered in the Weber Sandstone at Rangely Field (Figure 6), only becoming commercially viable with the arrival of a pipeline in 1945. By the late 1930s the economy began to improve and in 1937 RMAPG published its first guidebook, the Big Horn Basin-Yellowstone Valley Field Conference.

FIGURE 6: Structure map of the Weber Sandstone at Rangely Field.

after Dobbin, 1956, USGS

Although there is no way to know how many members were women in those early years, it is safe to assume that the numbers were quite small. The RMAPG was certainly ahead of its time when in 1941 it elected Ninetta Davis (Table 1; Figure 4) as its first woman President. Ms. Davis was no stranger to being a groundbreaker; she was the second woman to receive an Engineer of Mines degree (1920) from the Colorado School of Mines. She worked for the Midwest Refining Company in Casper and Union Oil of California in Fort Collins before joining the USGS office in Denver in 1934. During her tenure as RMAPG President, a committee produced the “Possible Future Oil Provinces in the United States and Canada” symposium, which was published by AAPG in the August 1941 Bulletin. In 1942 RMAPG hosted its first AAPG annual convention, with Ms. Davis serving as the finance chair for that meeting. In 1944 she left the USGS to take a job with Shell Oil, where she remained until she was forced to retire in 1959 at age 60.

The demand for oil during and following World War II led to another boom. Jobs for geologists were plentiful and by the early part of 1947 RMAPG had grown to 100 members. The first bylaws and constitution were adopted in 1947 and at that time the name was formally changed to the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG). Later that same year RMAG published its second guidebook for the field conference that was held in central Colorado. The organization was growing and thriving.

To be continued in a future issue of The Outcrop…