OIL SHOOT, II: “Finally, the day came to shoot the well. A
bright red and yellow Dodge Power Wagon shooting truck backed up to
the rig, and we watched as the shooter carried the copper cans of
nitroglycerin up the plank walk and into the rig. On a standard
rig, the entry to the derrick floor was on the pitman, or walking
beam and sampson post side of the rig.

Bob Slike tells of being one of the 6th grade students who had
watched as the well was prepared for the “shooting” behind the
Derrick City School.

Teacher Hester Shelly was trying to explain a lesson “while
almost everyone, including the girls, had their attention fixed on
the activity at the drilling rig.”

“All of a sudden, Hester abruptly stopped her lecture, slammed
her textbook down on her desk, stomped across the floor and pulled
down the window shades. The sound of her book hitting her desk top
brought us back into the classroom in a hurry.

“Needless to say, she had our attention until we felt the ‘thud’
on the floor of the brick school, which meant the squid had done
its job setting off the nitro, and the gush of oil, water and sand
was about to tower over the top of the derrick. We could hear the
gushing sound, which lasted for a few seconds, and then all was
quiet.

“Roughly figuring, that was about 60 years ago that a well
drilled with a standard rig was shot with nitro glycerin. Virginia
Sisley Johnson recently wrote RTS of a well drilled with a standard
rig being shot with nitro on the Barerra property, which is located
in back of the Model T Restaurant in Derrick City. It could have
been the same rig as behind the school. I am sure many more
standard rig drilled wells were shot with nitro probably up the
late 1950s.

“Many times, before Hester passed on, when I would see her while
shopping or see her at the gas station, I would occasionally remind
her of that day, and then we would have a laugh over it. She
remembered it well. She would always say, ‘I could write a book
about happenings at the Derrick City School.’”

Bob, who claims to have crude oil coursing through his veins,
would love to hear other stories from the oilpatch. Readers?