Voices From The Past

July 28, 1922

Butler Spuds in with Celebration

A celebration Saturday afternoon and evening marked the spuding in of the Butler oil well at the place of Mrs. Esther Williams in the Coalwood structure. People literally swarmed to the location to see the new Leidecker machine in actual drilling operations. Officials of the Butler Oil & Gas Co. were much pleased with the keen interest manifested in this oil development work and they accorded the visitors genuine hospitality.

It is estimated that fully 600 people were present at the celebration. Nearly every section of the county was represented at this gala occasion and people even came from Miles City, a distance of about 65 miles.

The ladies of the Coalwood community contributed meat and coffee in abundance and as nearly everyone brought lunches with them, the feed was simply enormous. The “eats” were spread upon an improvised table and everyone was invited to partake to his or her heart’s content. There was everything to fill a stomach’s void. After ample opportunity had been given to inspect the machinery and to witness active drilling operations with the drill pounding away at a depth of 70 feet, the sumptuous supper was served about 5:30 o’clock.

Toward dusk a good many of the visitors repaired to the Coalwood post office, about seven miles north, where they tripped the light fantastic on an open-air pavilion until late the next morning.

The Butler Company, which is financed by Pennsylvania capital, in its first drilling operations encountered some difficulty by sand clogging the pipes from the water well. Boring was resumed Monday and a night crew went on Monday night for the first time. On Wednesday the well had been drilled to a depth of about 200 feet when a cave-in interrupted operations and it was necessary to close down for a few hours until casing could be installed. At that depth a considerable vein of water had been met which caused some of the annoyance. By Thursday the machinery was in full operation and smoke from the engine proclaimed that the bit was slowly but surely making its way into Mother Earth in quest of the oil or gas that in all probability will be discovered before long. The drillers expect to penetrate the first oil sands at a depth of about 500 feet but the oil bearing sands that will yield oil in commercial quantities are probably at a depth of 1,500 to 2,500 feet.

July 25, 1947

Contractor is Digging Trench

Construction of the Broadus municipal water and sewer system was started Monday morning with engineer F.F. Palmer of Forsyth directing the work. The Mann Construction company of Littleton, Colorado, brought most of the equipment needed on the job to Broadus last weekend.

Tom Devlin of Denver is the superintendent in charge of construction and indicated that the digging of the trench and laying of the sewer tile on the outfall sewer line would be the first of the construction work.

Construction of the 100,000 gallon reinforced concrete water tank on the hill north of town will start next week. It is expected that the crew for this work will arrive this weekend.

Devlin has said that barring freakish weather the construction project can be completed in 75 working days although the time allowed in the contract for construction is 100 days. While it is not expected that the water can be had for this summer’s use, it is believed that by the 1st of October or November the project will be completed.

July 27, 1972

Belle Creek Gas Plant Shut Down

On Monday, July 24th, the Belle Creek Gas Plant was officially shut down, with the Mill-iron crews to be coming in soon to dismantle the plant for the move to Utah. With the closing of the plant no more propane, or natural dry gas or other by products of the oil field will be produced in the field. All who are now on natural gas will be using gas from the MDU feeder lines in the area. Separated gas will still be available.

July 24, 1997

Local Youth Place Well at Gillette Little Levi

By Virginia Robinson

A number of area children placed well in the Gillette Little Levi Rodeo held July 6 at the Cam-Plex Wrangler Arena with more than 150 youths ranging in age from 6 to 14 participating.

Some of the buckle winners were: Britt Williams, senior All-Around Cowboy; Ashley Williams, senior All-Around Cowgirl; Taylor Williams, junior All-Around Cowboy; Brady Williams, runner-up junior All-Around Cowboy; Amber Smith, runner-up senior All-Around Cowgirl; Ashley Williams, first in barrel racing, goat tying and team roping with Zach Steele; Amber Smith, first in pole bending and Brady Williams and Taylor Williams, first in junior team roping.

Others participating and some placing that day were Sheldon Portwine, Kaytee Schaffer, Cora Williams, Mary Trusler, Jessica and Jason Schaffer, Kyle Giacometto, Katie and Kari Daily, Jolene Jackman, Austin Clements, Wyatt and Witt Williams, Troy Mills and Katie Risdahl.