Early Spa

Oil on Canvas
20″ x 16″
$800
Contact to Purchase

Hot Water Well
Here in 1956 Shell Oil drilled 8,230 feet before all Hell broke loose. Instead of oil they hit a vein of hot, high pressure water, the same for which Yellowstone is famous. From April to June they tried to plug it off, for they were certain oil was beneath it. On June 7th drilling began again only to blow at 8,256 ft. On the third attempt, July 4th, the geyser blew like a patriotic rocket at 8,840 ft, at which point they put valves on top the casing, so that John Roberts, the owner, and his neighbors to the south, the Lockie Brothers could use the water. The temperature of the water is between 170-190 degrees, and it flowed 2,142,000 gallons of sulfuric water each day. The State required them to slow the flow, for it believed it was the same vein as Thermopolis and Yellowstone Park. The Moore Brothers bought the ranch from Roberts in the late 50’s, moved in an old building, poured a cement floor, installed some bath tubs, and opened a spa for their neighbors and friends. Late one evening, tanked up on adult beverages, some high school pranksters decided to try out the tubs. Unfortunately they did not know how to cool down the water, and their evening frolic ended in the ER of the local hospital with their rumps and other private parts scalded. Fearful of a court suit, even though the boys broke in, the owners removed the building and destroyed the tubs. Now there are only scattered, rusting, overturned tubs and this one, sitting majestically in boiling mud in the middle of the vast plains. The steam can be seen for miles around, but this great energy of the Earth is largely wasted.