Oil in Arkansas — The Smackover Field

Oil in Arkansas — The Smackover Field. . A little over a year after the initial oil discovery by Dr. Busey, the Oil Operators Trust--Murphy #1, a wildcat well staked on a geologic feature called the Norphlet dome, drilled into the gas-cap of what would become the huge Smackover Oil Field. The well blew out and made a crater 500 feet across and 150 deep, which swallowed up the rig, the derrick, and all of the drilling equipment. The well caught fire and created a 300 foot high natural gas flare, which made night seem like day in downtown El Dorado ten miles away. This well would lead to the discovery of the giant Smackover Oil Field, and later that summer the first oil well, the Reverend Charlie Richardson #1 was completed. The oil boom accelerated with the discovery of this huge oil field, and the populations of towns like Norphlet and Smackover grew to over 10,000 in only a few weeks. Many of the Smackover Field oil wells came in at over 50,000 barrels of oil a day, and one, the #1 Burton, gauged at 74,500 barrels a day. At the peak of the boom Arkansas was one of the leading oil producing states in the nation. During the first five years of the boom more money flowed into El Dorado than the total appraised value of all the property in the state. This influx of wealth gave El Dorado, in the 1920s, the distinction of having one of the largest concentrations of millionaires in the country, and allowed the citizens of El Dorado to construct the biggest and most elaborate county courthouse in the state, three magnificent churches, and a downtown full of fine buildings, including what was at that time one of the tallest buildings west of Mississippi, the Lion Oil Building.