Wyoming

Once Wyoming’s Premier Oil Patch, Midwest Has Nation’s Richest 80 Acres

Published

2 years ago

January 6, 2024

Once Wyoming’s Premier Oil Patch, Midwest Has Nation’s Richest 80 Acres

MIDWEST — The richest 80 acres in the nation can be found just north of this central Wyoming town east of Interstate 25 between Casper and Buffalo.

It’s part of the 9-mile-long by 5-mile-wide Salt Creek Oil Field that during its boom days in the 1920s drew 17,000 people to Midwest alone. Add to that the other company-owned camps around it where people lived and worked, the area rivaled the size of today’s Casper.

The field during its peak produced more light crude oil than any other field in the world, earning millions of dollars for mineral rights holders and investors. It continues to send oil down its pipelines at a rate of 8,500 barrels a day.

Salt Creek Oil Field historian and Contango Oil and Gas Co. engineer tech Everett DeWitt has spent more than 40 years working in the field. Over a nine-year period starting in 2006, his role was to find every oil well that had ever been drilled in it. Digging into old Oil and Gas Commission records and BLM files has made him the expert on this oil field.

He recently hosted Cowboy State Daily for a visit at the Salt Creek Museum on C Street in Midwest, and was quick to point to a photograph of one of the many characters that make up the field’s history.

Cy Iba And The ‘Iba 80’

“Cy Iba was the first one to make authentic claims out here,” DeWitt said.

Iba staked his claims next to oil seeps in the late 1890s. Some historical accounts say Iba, who originated from Pennsylvania, had sought gold in California and Idaho prior to settling in Wyoming.

A Dec. 1, 1898, story in the Natrona County Tribune newspaper reported that Iba “went to Cheyenne last week to have a hearing in the United States term of court, regarding some oil land in Natrona County, returned home Friday evening, the case being put off until the next term of court.”

To make a claim, one had to dig a hole 6 feet square and 10 feet deep with a mineral in it, DeWitt said.

“He would dig a hole next to an active seep and, of course, he would have an oil claim,” he said. “The main ‘seep’ that he claimed was called Jackass Springs, and it is just northwest of town here. Jackass Springs was a spring of oil.”

Historical accounts say $100 worth of improvements had to be done to maintain the claim.

The Sept. 12, 1901, edition of the Natrona County Tribune reports that, “Cy Iba left last Saturday morning for the Salt creek oil country, where he intends to fix up the roads and do some other assessment work on his land.”

DeWitt said that in addition to other claims, Iba laid claim to 80 acres of land with title and deed, which has become known as the “Iba 80.”

“More money has been made off of that 80 acres than any other 80 acres in the United States,” DeWitt said.

Visitors to Midwest can find a lot of artifacts from its storied past at the Salt Creek Museum. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
A photo at the Salt Creek Museum in Midwest shows a view of Midwest during its heyday. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
A photo at the Salt Creek Museum shows a North South train making its way with oil cars. The railroad brought a big boost to the oil field’s efforts from 1923-1935. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)

Legal Fights

Iba died in 1907 before he saw any great wealth from the claims because of legal wrangling after the Dutch Company hit a discovery well in the field in 1908. That well triggered a flood of oil seekers and companies to the region.

The potential for wealth led to claim jumping, legal fights and literal fights — sometimes armed.

A newspaper account from 1909 relates that Mary G. Iba, “executrix of the estate of Cy Iba,” was allowed to put a monument on her husband’s grave and could not spend more than $350. Other legal notices show her as a defendant in court property disputes with oil companies.

“The U.S. government withdrew this field from homesteading for a period of time and there were legal battles continuously,” DeWitt said.

The nation’s Homestead Act of 1862 allowed for homesteaders at least 21 years old to file for 160 acres of federal land. After five years, if the filer improved the land, he could claim ownership.

Eventually, claims were ironed out. Mary Iba had been able to hold onto the 80 acres, and when she died July 12, 1951, at the age of 99, she left an estate worth $500,000.

An article in the Dec. 9, 1951, Casper Tribune-Herald attributed her wealth to the “Iba eighty in the Salt Creek field” and stated that “in 1911, when the oil royalties began pouring in, Mrs. Iba built her home at 604 South David, and she and her family resided there.”

One well, called Iba Six, initially came in at several thousand barrels a day, DeWitt said. When the well died back, operators would shoot it with nitroglycerin and it would ramp up back up. He said it is still producing 100 barrels a day.

The Roaring ’20s

DeWitt said that during its heyday in the 1920s, the Salt Creek Field had more than 50 operators with leases on acreage, some with 160-acre quarter sections or entire sections of the field. Each operator created his own camp where employees would live and work. Photos of the camps at the museum show derricks sprinkled between rows of homes.

In addition to Midwest Oil Co., which was formed by Colorado Springs man Verner C. Reed around 1909, there were Sinclair camps, Continental Camp, Consolidated Camp, Staley Syndicate the Scotch Camp, and more.

In Midwest, as in other camps, operators tried to lure married men with families to work the fields, which at the time were little more than derricks and desert. Houses in Midwest were built at a clip of five a day and the company poured money into giving families something to do.

“Those producing companies knew that a married man with a family was more stable than a young buck who would come in and work three days and get a paycheck and go drink it,” DeWitt said.

When the North South Railroad arrived in 1923, it helped transform the community by bringing building materials in and shipping oil out. It also helped transform Midwest into a place that became livable for wives and children.

There was a hospital, schools, electric plant, theaters, commissary, shops, bowling alley, shooting range and seven golf courses in the area, DeWitt said.

“Anything that you could get in New York or San Francisco, even down to fresh seafood, you could get in Midwest then,” he said.

DeWitt said by 1925, there were 1,980 wells sending oil to Casper down the first welded pipeline in the world. The pipeline was completed in 1922.

A drilling rig south of Midwest is doing repair work on one of the Salt Creek Oil Field wells. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Today, the Salt Creek Oil Field continues to produce oil at a rate of 8,500 barrels per day. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)

Dangerous Work

Working in the oil field brought its dangers.

Light oil is extremely flammable, and during his research, DeWitt has found original accident reports related to oil rig fires and explosions. One particularly deadly one happened in 1927 when the men had tried the nitroglycerin technique to stimulate production of the well.

“The hill where this well sits right now is called Dead Man’s Hill,” DeWitt said. “They shot it with nitro and they were trying to get a control valve on it. Well, something happened and it exploded. It caught fire shooting more than 100 feet into the air. Three men died immediately and two more died getting off the location. About a week later, another guy succumbed … (and) there were several others who were injured pretty bad.”

In 1932 as field operations matured, DeWitt said Midwest Oil Co. consolidated the field through agreements and buyouts. The field would be run by a single operator from then until today.

As the Great Depression arrived, the Salt Creek Field experienced a fall in demand and financial issues, just like the rest of the country. The railroad stopped running in 1935. DeWitt said oil was pumped, but if things broke there was no money to fix the equipment.

World War II changed everything and brought new life as the nation needed oil to fuel its war efforts.

In the 1960s there was another boom brought by the use of water-injection into the field to get wells flowing again. DeWitt said when he arrived in 1980, it was difficult to find housing. By the late 1990s, Wyoming’s familiar boom-bust cycle had busted again.

New Technique

When Anadarko Petroleum bought the field in the early 2000s for $265 million, a boom returned as it changed the field from water injection to CO2-injected fracking wells. When the company arrived, the field was producing about 3,500 barrels a day. The CO2 technique took it up to 15,000.

Two years ago, Contango Oil and Gas Co. bought the history Wyoming oil field and about 80 employees continue to keep its 2,000 producing wells operating.

DeWitt said the field continues the CO2 injection using a five-die pattern where the middle well is the injector and there are four corner producers. He said his research discovering the nearly 5,000 wells that have been drilled in the field during its history continues to pay off.

“The interesting thing about that is some of these wells that were drilled in 1918 and plugged in 1934, we have been able to go back in and make those a well again if they fit our five-spot pattern,” he said. “We can go back in and reactivate those wells, and that costs us about $400,000 whereas drilling a new well would be about $1.5 million.”

The Midwest that was the company town became incorporated in 1978. DeWitt said he didn’t like the place he moved to in 1980, but he has come to enjoy living in a community that boasts such a rich past.

“In Midwest, we’re stable. Some of the people who live here work in the field, and some in Casper,” he said. “I love it here. I am one hour away from anything I want to do. Prior to moving here, I was an over-the-road trucker and I thought, ‘Who would want to live in a place like this?’ Now you couldn’t drive me out with a big old stick.”

Only one of the four two-story block building that contained stores, entertainment and more during Midwest’s boom time in the 1920s remains. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.

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Wyoming

Momentum builds to reform Wyoming Public Records Act

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3 hours ago

March 23, 2026

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Momentum builds to reform Wyoming Public Records Act

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Wyoming

Wyoming Wrestling Finishes 12th at NCAA Championships with Three All-Americans – SweetwaterNOW

Published

16 hours ago

March 22, 2026

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Wyoming Wrestling Finishes 12th at NCAA Championships with Three All-Americans – SweetwaterNOW

CLEVELAND — The University of Wyoming wrestling team capped its 2025-26 season with a 12th-place finish and 38 points at the NCAA Championships inside Rocket Arena, marking the highest NCAA finish in head coach Mark Branch’s 18-year tenure. The Cowboys had three wrestlers earn All-American honors.

“It was a great weekend for the Cowboys,” Branch said. “I couldn’t be more proud of these guys for the way they fought through this incredibly difficult tournament. They handled themselves like champions. It was awesome to be around this, and it was awesome to celebrate this with them. Being an All-American is something they’ll have the rest of their lives, and I know how important that is, how big it is and how hard it is at this level.”

At 197 pounds, No. 5 Joey Novak earned his second consecutive All-American honor with a fourth-place finish. He defeated No. 11 Camden McDanel of Nebraska, 7-3, in the consolation semifinals before falling to No. 3 Stephen Little of Little Rock, 7-4, in the third-place match.

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“He embodies the Cowboy tough mentality,” Branch said. “He loves this program. It’s what you need in this day in age. You need guys like Joey. The leadership that Joey has shown is what we’ve been trying to build.”

At 184 pounds, No. 6 Eddie Neitenbach secured his first All-American recognition with a seventh-place finish. He won his final match via medical forfeit over No. 22 Zack Ryder of Oklahoma State.

“Eddie is awesome,” Branch said. “He came in with the most favorable seeding, meaning I was surprised how high a seed he was. Don’t let that fool you. He’d been hanging around 8/9/10 in all the polls. It wasn’t a given he was going to come in and place. He definitely had to show up, and he put together a heck of a tournament.”

Heavyweight No. 18 Christian Carroll also earned his first All-American honor, finishing eighth. Carroll dropped his final match to No. 10 David Szuba of Arizona State by disqualification.

“Christian was gutsy, and he’s learning a lot about himself,” Branch said. “He certainly was feeling the weight of this tournament on him. After losing that first match, his confidence was shaken a little bit. But he picked it up and battled back and showed a lot of grit there. He showed what he’s about and what he’s capable of. He’s been an awesome addition to our team.”

Elsewhere, Gabe Willochell went 3-2 at 149 pounds, advancing to the blood round, while Luke Willochell (133) and Riley Davis (174) each recorded one win in the tournament.

Penn State won the team title with 181.5 points, followed by Oklahoma State with 131 and Nebraska with 100.5.

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Wyoming

Wyoming’s Turkey Vultures Do Much More Than Hang Around Looking Creepy

Published

1 day ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming’s Turkey Vultures Do Much More Than Hang Around Looking Creepy

Many people in Wyoming aren’t terribly fond of turkey vultures. They poop all over trees, barf up “pellets” of leftover gristle and who knows what else, and just hang around looking creepy.

That’s a rush to judgment, vulture advocates say. They admire turkey vultures as a bird that can migrate from Canada all the way to South America and play a vital role in keeping the landscape clear of rotting carcasses.

One of the first signs of spring is vultures showing up in Wyoming, usually in March. They roost by the hundreds on the University of Wyoming campus, in Casper and elsewhere across the state.

They’ll fly out in the morning, usually between dawn and about 8 a.m., and spend the day soaring through the skies, looking for carrion to devour. Then they return in the evening to roost for the night.

Around October, they’ll leave, migrating south for the winter.

Much remains unknown about Wyoming’s turkey vultures. To help find out more, the UW Biodiversity Institute launched the Vulture Watch Wyoming volunteer program in 2024. A vulture-watching training session is set for March 24.

Turkey vultures show up in Casper in March, and stay until October, when they migrate south. (Courtesy: Joanne Theobald)
Every spring, hundreds of turkey vultures show up on the University of Wyoming campus and stay until fall. (Courtesy: Anna Petrey)
Every spring, hundreds of turkey vultures show up on the University of Wyoming campus and stay until fall. (Courtesy: Anna Petrey)

Here Come the UW Vultures

In Laramie, the UW campus is turkey vulture central; there have been as many as 297 of them counted roosting in trees or on buildings, mostly around the Old Main building or in clusters of spruce trees around 15th and Garfield streets.

Vultures seem to like spruce, cottonwood and poplar trees. They don’t seem to care much for pine trees, and nobody is sure why, said Elizabeth Wommack, curator and collection manager of vertebrates at the UW Museum of Vertebrates.

They first started showing up on campus around 2010, she told Cowboy State Daily.

“They sort of used that core group of spruces when they first arrived, and they spread out to other trees,” she said.

Anna Petrey, a Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at UW, told Cowboy State Daily that she developed a fascination with turkey vultures after spotting them on campus and joined Vulture Watch Wyoming.

“Vultures are a really precious and interesting bird to me,” she said.

She understands that most people don’t perceive vultures that way.

“I think it’s in part because people do find them to be stinky and gross. But I thought, ‘that can’t be fair, I need to learn more about them,’” she said.

“I think they’re pretty cool-looking; that might be an unpopular opinion,” Petrey added.

Even when there are hundreds of them roosting on campus, it’s easy to miss noticing them.

“They roost up high in trees, and people might not look straight up and see them,” she said.

Vultures are also incredibly quiet, because they basically can’t vocalize, she added.

“The best that they can do is a quiet hiss, and that’s all they can produce,” Petrey said.

Every spring and summer, hundreds of turkey vultures roost in trees on the University of Wyoming campus. (Courtesy: Mason Lee)
Turkey vultures scour the countryside across Wyoming, looking for carrion to eat. (Courtesy: Rena Parsons)
The turkey vulture on the left in this photo is a juvenile, identifiable by its gray head and beak, compared to the red head and white beak of an adult. (Courtesy: Joanne Theobald)

Roosting, Not Nesting

Wommack said that roosting spots are where turkey vultures go to rest and sleep. They don’t nest or raise their young in those places.

Vultures nest in hidden, isolated places, and don’t like their nests being disturbed, she said.

“The nests are hidden, in places like crevices, caves or hollow trees,” she said.

A turkey vulture nest was once discovered in the trunk of an abandoned car in Nebraska, Wommack said.

Juvenile turkey vultures are ready to leave the nest after a few months. They can be identified by their gray heads and dark-colored beaks.

That’s in contrast to the red heads and “bone-white” beaks of adults, Wommack said.

It’s uncertain just how many turkey vultures spend the spring, summer and early fall in Wyoming, she added.

That’s one of the mysteries that she hopes the Vulture Watch Wyoming program will help unravel, she said.

“It’s one of those common avian species that we sometimes take for granted,” she said.

“We decided that reaching out to the community and asking the community to help would be the best way to find out more about them,” Wommack added.

Turkey vultures show up in Casper in March, and stay until October, when they migrate south. (Courtesy: Joanne Theobald)
Turkey vulture have warts on their faces, called crunkles. (Courtesy: Joanne Theobald)

Nature’s Clean-Up Crew

Vultures are designed to consume dead animals, particularly in warm weather, Wommack said.

“They don’t have the same equipment that eagles do,” such as huge claws and sharp, curved beaks for catching prey and killing it, she said.

Those same features allow eagles to turn to scavenging during the winter, because they can rip into frozen carcasses.

Vultures, on the other hand, require softer carcasses that have started to rot a little, which is why they show up to scout the Wyoming landscape during the warmer months.

Vultures search for food by soaring at high altitudes. As one might expect, they have excellent eyesight for spotting dead animals below, Wommack said.

They also have an incredible sense of smell, which helps them find rotting carcasses from great distances, she added.

In Wyoming and across the Great Plains region, turkey vultures don’t have much direct competition.

Farther east or west, they must contend with black vultures or California condors, both of which are bigger and will bully turkey vultures off carcasses.

Adult turkey vultures weigh about four pounds on average and have wingspans of 4½ to 6 feet.

“They have about the same wingspan as golden eagles, but they weigh much less than golden eagles,” Wommack said.

There are written records of turkey vultures in Wyoming going back to the 19th century, she said.

Turkey vulture have warts on their faces, called crunkles. (Courtesy: Joanne Theobald)

‘Crunkles’ in Casper

Multitudes of turkey vultures roost in trees in Casper, said resident Joanne Theobald, a Vulture Watch Wyoming volunteer.

“I’m lucky enough to live in a tree neighborhood in Casper. So we’re lucky enough to have roosting vultures, including one right outside my window, in my neighbor’s tree. So I get the view without the mess,” she said.

Though vulture poop is remarkably clean, it builds up over time, so she understands why homeowners with trees get fed up with it.

“They also throw these pellets; they barf them up. And then there’s the feathers too,” she said.

“People just kind of develop this idea that vultures are dirty, or that they mean death, or they’re going to carry off your small animals,” Theobald said.

“People think they’re creepy, because they’re ugly, but that’s not their fault,” she added.

In addition to their bald heads, vultures develop white facial warts, called “crunkles,” she said.

That might make them even less visually appealing to some, but Theobald said she wonders if the differing number of crunkles on vultures’ faces could help identify individual birds.

Theobald hosts presentations to educate people about vultures and dispel some of the negative impressions about them.

And she thinks Wyoming makes a great place for turkey vultures to come hang out during the warm months.

“If I were a vulture, I would love Wyoming. It’s windy here and they just love to ride the thermals. And there’s wide open spaces with lots of things just dying of natural causes,” she said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.

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