by Bruce Wells | Feb 9, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History
February 09, 1953 – TIME features “Fire Beater” Myron Kinley –
Myron M. Kinley — born in 1896 in Santa Barbara, California, the son of an oil well shooter — was featured in a TIME magazine article about a blowout and fire on a drilling platform 14 miles off the coast of Louisiana. “The oilmen knew what to do. They put in a hurry call to the world’s most famous oil-fire fighter,” the article noted. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Feb 6, 2026 | Petroleum Pioneers
The search for commercial amounts of petroleum in Nevada began in 1907 with a well drilled southwest of Reno. After reaching a depth of 1,890 feet, the remote wildcat in Washoe County proved unproductive — an expensive “dry hole.”
A second exploratory well was rumored to have been drilled seeking an oilfield northwest of Reno, but few details about it survived since drilling permits were not required until 1953. (more…)
