Nellie Johnstone No. 1

Nellie Johnstone No. 1 was the first commercially productive oil well in Oklahoma (at that time in Indian Territory). Completed on April 15, 1897, the well was drilled in the Bartlesville Sand near Bartlesville, opening an era of oil exploration and development in Oklahoma. The well was backed by George B. Keeler and William Johnstone, traders who had a store near the Osage Indian Agency on the Caney River, and was named for Johnstone's daughter. Keeler and Johnstone, together with partner Frank Overlees and their native American wives, took out a lease from the Cherokee Nation on an area of oil seep and enagaged the Cudahy Oil Company to drill. The well went to 1,320 feet (400 m), and was completed using a then-usual technique of dropping a nitrogycerine charge into the well to fracture the bore and release the oil. Keeler's stepdaughter Jennie Cass dropped the "go devil" charge in front of fifty spectators. The ensuing gusher produced between 50 and 75 barrels a day, and had to be capped for two years until means could be found to move the oil to a market.^[3][4]

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