Oil drilling in Plumstead/Jackson?

[Badfish740]

Ran across this little interesting tidbit recently-it's amazing what you can find when Google a question:

https://books.google.com/books?id=i...q=did anyone ever drill for oil in nj&f=false

Apparently a person named "W.S. Driver" explored for oil in Prospertown and then Jackson's Mills. Searching the name along with NJ yields another account here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=h...6AEILDAF#v=onepage&q="w.s. driver" nj&f=false

Finally, that led me to a catalog of deep wells along with a map produced by the NJ State Geological Survey in 1961:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/pricelst/gsreport/gsr03.pdf

I don't have time to go through it at the moment, but I'm wondering if maybe Jerseyman has some background information on these ventures. It would certainly be interesting to know where these wells were drilled.

 

[Teegate]

I can't find the book at this moment; however, I have one I that tells about a deep well that was drilled in Marlton along Route 70 where they found animal parts over a hundred feet down.

 

[Teegate]

Well, I found it on Google Books. It is public domain so here it is.

 

[Spung-Man]

Also see, Drillers still have hope for gas storage area (Corinne Olson, Atlantic City Press, 10/29/64), which has photos of the rotary rig associated with a joint venture between three companies (South Jersey Gas, New Jersey Natural Gas – Asbury Park, Anchor Gas – Pittsburgh). Olson reports, "Lights cast an eerie glow over machinery as drilling operations continue throughout the night deep in the heart of deer woods, off Broad Street and Tuckahoe Road, in Maurice River Township." She continued, "Last year the same gas companies drilled a similar well on the farm of Louis Dickinson in Lower Township, Cape May County. They reached rock here at 6,400 feet." An Anchor Gas representative would not confirm or deny optimism that gas-bearing sand was found at 3000-feet below Milmay. I barely remember this one as I was four at the time.

S-M

 

[ARMSTRONG]

Well, I found it on Google Books. It is public domain so here it is.

View attachment 6967

When I was a kid we would go to that well and sift the dirt piles with home made screens. We did get shark teeth. I still have them. I will have to fine and take picture

 

[MikeBickerson]

Never would have thought they'd be looking for oil in South Jersey, learn something new every day.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Beck mentioned oil wells in Prospertown (I think) in one of the Forgotten Towns books.

 

[Spung-Man]

Here's one I missed, covered in a Petroleum History Almanac report by the American Oil and Gas Historical Society:

Fake New Jersey Oil Well

"There would be no New Jersey oil boom, despite capers to launch one after the Steelman family of Millville decided to expand from real estate into oil exploration business on their farm in Cumberland County."
​

https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/steelman-realty-gas-oil-company/​

It's by Menantico Sand Wash, between the Cassaboontown Hog Holes and Horse Heaven (where muleskinners plied their trade).

Hog Holes — http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.37096022727597&lng=-74.98315829437257&z=15&type=nj1930&gpx=

I'm not sure of the exact location of Horse Heaven, marked by hundreds of horse teeth. Anyone know the site?

S-M

 

[turtle]

I know of Horse Heaven in our area. One of the older folks in town who owned horses throughout her life told me where residents would bury their horses 1800s - 1950s. It's all grown over with pine and catbriar now. One would never know it exists.