Montana Oil

Oil might be considered the life-blood of our society, in fact, of civilization as we know it. The first oil field in Montana was the in the Cat Creek area. The discovery well was showing oil in February 1920 and by May production from one well was up to 200 barrels a day. The Cat Creek area is 75 miles east of Lewistown and soon was heavily populated as were all exciting oil discoveries, with as many as 300 men living in tar paper shacks, a school, a post office, a church and cemetery. An interesting reference to this is on the internet at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtpcpl  see Chapter 4, photos are included. The magnificent sign on the right indicates the pride of the operators at some point after the discovery and before it shut down in 1975. The Cat Creek area had about 150 wells at its peak production and has been estimated to have produced 23 million barrels of oil.This was and still is quite isolated and in rough country where all the required supplies had to be hauled to the site. Winnett,some 20 miles west, became the supply depot and pumped oil was piped to the railhead there and shipped by rail to Wyoming refineries. Since the 1920’s there have been other oil fields in Montana and of course, this led to the development of refineries that were locally owned and that marketed their  own unique brands of gasoline and oil. The following material will provide an introduction to many of these very important gasoline refineries and brands. The information on this page is not easily available and certainly not on internet sites, and for this reason there may be errors that are unknown to the persons who prepared the site even though every precaution has been taken to have complete accuracy. There were certainly other brands marketed in Montana that are not represented here. The webmaster welcomes the submission of additional brand photos and history. Most refineries had 3 grades of gasoline not long after going into operation much as is the case today, which is why many of the companies shown below marketed a lower quality fuel with its own name and a higher one which was called “ethyl”. While it was usual for a new oil field to be followed very quickly by the construction of a refinery, over the years all of the smaller refineries have been dismantled leaving only 4 that are still active in Montana. Great Falls has the Montana Refining Company, Laurel has the Cenex Refinery, and Billings has both the Mobil-Exxon and the Conoco refineries. Special thanks go to Mike Tyler from Moore Montana, and to Joe Ashley from Bozeman Montana, who furnished the photos used for this display. Some of the globes are very rare and even having a photo is considered a prize. The material on this page is copyrighted © , and may only be used for personal pleasure and may not be reproduced for any purpose or placed in any retrieval system either electronic or otherwise. References: Montana Magazine of Western History, Spring 1998 – Montana Refining Industry part I, 1920-1942 and Summer 1998 – Montana Refining Industry part II 1942-1996. J. M. Ashley  

The ARRO refinery at Lewistown began in 1921 and lasted until about 1942.

This was probably not a Montana globe, but Farmers Union has been marketed in Montana for many years.In 1986 the Farmers Union Exchange name in Billings was changed to Cenex.

HI-POWER gasoline was a product of the H Earl Clack distributor in Havre that began in about 1919.  Clack was a distributor who stayed in business until 1954, expanding to some 200 stations in 4 states before selling to Husky Oil, a Wyoming company.  He had other brands as well.

Husky Oil Co. is a Cody Wyoming company that was well known throughout Montana and even though the facilities have changed brands or uses the Husky dog is still often visible.

Litening was the main brand of Yale Oil Corp. that started in Miles CIty in 1928, expanded to Billings in 1930, closed Miles City in 1933.  Yale sold out to Carter in 1943.

Carter is a Rocky Mountain subsidiary of Standard Oil / Exxon of New Jersey .  Wildfire was Yale’s lower grade brand.

Glacier was a lower grade gas marketed in the late 30’s by Glacier Production Co. in Cut Bank MT.  This was a subsidiary  of Montana Power created to avoid a law prohibiting electric companies from selling gasoline if they sold natural gas.   Montana Power was primarily in the natural gas business and needed to get rid of the gasoline that came from their natural gas wells in the Cut Bank fields.

Power gas was the mid grade, and Power ethyl was the high grade of Montana Power Co. gasoline. Montana Power was forced by the Federal Government to sell there gasoline business to Union Oil in 1944.

A Rocky Mountain Co. brand from Cheyenne Wyoming.  It may not have been marketed in Montana.

The Shelby Promoter, 1938  –  The Northwest Refining Company from Cut Bank opened a new bulk plant in Shelby Montana, featuring Grizzly gasoline, which is widely accepted by motorists in northern Montana, and is made entirely from Montana crude oil.  Location of the new plant is south of the railroad tracks, directly across from the Sullivan Hotel. A. J. Wilcox is the distributor of the gasoline. This company was sold to Carter Oil a subsidiary of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey in 1944.

Conoco became one of the  main gasoline brands in Montana and had a refinery in Lewistown, built by Lewistown Oil and Refining Co. in 1921, it was the oldest or first real operating refinery in Montana.   The refinery was acquired by Conoco in 1930, and was known as  Continental Oil Co. from 1931-1943.

There is some debate about this likely being an economy gas from Conoco, this globe and gas was probably never marketed in Montana.

White Eagle was marketed in Montana, acquired by Mobil in the1930’s.  The White Eagle brand vanished before 1950.The white eagles were signs, roof ornaments, & globes.

Hi-Line gas was marketed by Northwest Stellarene Co.  They had a refinery in Shelby in the early 1930’s.

Powerized gas was from the Great Falls Refinery which was known as Sunburst Refinery from 1923 – 1933.

Monto gas was the low grade gas of the 1930’s Home Oil and Refining in Great Falls  1931-1947.  It was then sold to Wasach Oil, a subsidiary of Phillips Oil.The refinery started in 1922 as American refining then changed hands numerous times.

Silver gas was the middle grade gas of the 1930’s Home Oil and Refining in Great Falls 1931-1947.  Silver ethyl was the high grade.

Big West Oil Co. of Kevin started in 1925 and was originally marketed as brand “Big West”.   In the late 1950s the name was changed to Thunderbird.  Thunderbird lasted until 1977.

Spur gasoline was likely another Big West Oil Co. brand. in earlier years sold by the Kevin Montana company.

Marketed by the Independent Oil and Refining Co. in Laurel Montana. from 1933 until 1943.  Montana law prohibited selling gasoline with more than 2/10% sulphur content.  Elevated sulphur was due to heavy crude oil from WY used in the refining with earlier equipment which would not remove it.  The solution was to rename the product as “autofuel”.  The globe on the right is prior to that law.In the mid 30’s they improved the refinery and called it gasoliine.  In 1943 the name changed to Farmers Union Central Exchange Refinery, now known as Cenex after 1986.