Wyoming Oil Fields Gave Rise To A New Western Outlaw — The Claim-Jumper

Oil had been discovered in remote Wyoming at the turn of the century and men flocked to the remote outposts of the state in search of the black gold.

During the early 1900s, the oil fields were lawless, and the outlaws who had once robbed trains and stagecoaches had turned their attention their attention to this new source of riches.

According to Wyoming newspapers of the time, aspiring oilmen partnered with others to jump claims and grab up any potential land. Imprecise surveys helped create chaos as claims overlapped.

Competing parties spied on each other. They climbed ridges and watched their adversaries through binoculars. Once a claim had been staked, rivals would sneak out under the cover of darkness and move the stakes. They would then erect buildings to legitimize their claim jumping.

On June 22, 1917, the Green River Star reported one such incident when alleged claim jumpers had been routed. Armed with rifles and wearing masks, three men took the law into their own hands.

These self-proclaimed vigilantes confronted a large number of jumpers in the Government Draw, eight miles southwest of Hudson. They forced the claim jumpers to evacuate the oil camps, which the vigilantes claimed had been illegally established.

It was a tumultuous decade, marked by rampant thievery and lawlessness in the oil field.

End of the Outlaw Years in the Oil Fields

The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 put an end to claim jumping and civility, for the most part, moved in.

In 1908, a successful oil well had been drilled in Grass Creek, 35 miles from Thermopolis. Not only workers, but also their families had moved into this oil camp.

They built a close-knit community with schools and churches mingling with the saloons and pool halls. Wives formed Community Circles and, after a day in school, children entertained themselves in the rocky hills and among the oil fields.

Today, the descendants of these Grass Creek oil fields come together in annual reunions beginning in 1982 so that their past in the oil fields are not forgotten. Albums were created from these reunions that contained first-person accounts, original photographs and newspaper clippings.

One such short memoir was written by Elizabeth McCrady Nuhn, the daughter of oil man George McCrady. Her father had moved to Grass Creek in 1919, arriving in the new frontier in an overland stage.

“He said that the terrain was the driest that he had ever seen, and it was covered with sagebrush,” his daughter wrote. “It looked terribly bleak, and he promised himself that he would only stay one year and then he would return to the East.”

However, McCrady discovered the beauty in the wild terrain and had his family join him. He remained in Grass Creek for the rest of his career and retired as superintendent of the Ohio Oil Co. in 1948.

To his daughter, the bleak landscape was her oasis in the desert. She reminisced about the times 60 years later in the short memoir kept in the Grass Creek album compiled by Minnian Robertson, another student who had grown up in the oil patch.

“I loved the sunsets, the mountains, but most of all I loved the people who lived there,” Nuhn wrote. “They were warm, kind, honest, hard-working, fun-loving people.”

Returning To Their Home In The Oil Patch

The post office and company-run general store continued to provide for the community needs into the 1970s. There were tree-lined roads, large lilac bushes, lawns and sidewalks that led to company-owned homes for the oil-field workers and their families.

The whitewashed school went through eighth grade and the high school students were bussed an hour to Thermopolis. Their mascot was the Red Devils and they had a large gym where they played basketball against the kids of Hamilton Dome and Lucerne.

After leaving six decades ago when the town of Grass Creek began to be dissolved, nearly 60 residents of the oil patch returned. Ranch kids such as Jack Baird and Betty Haulman mingled with the kids of the oil field workers represented by Jerry Sheridan and Linda Letzus. Many of those attending the 2024 Grass Creek reunion had gone to school in the middle of the oil field and for some, it was the first time they had been back since leaving as teenagers.

“There was a great big camp there,” Linda McCoy Letzus said as she described what life at the oil field was once like. “Marathon (Oil Company) provided housing and every one of those houses was full with somebody and most of them had kids.”

Meeting Once More At The Old Brown Ranch

Each year, the number of attendees had dwindled, but Letzus, the daughter of a pipe inspector for Marathon, was determined to reverse the trend. For six months, Letzus sought out those who had once called Grass Creek home, some of whom she hadn’t seen in over 50 years. They planned to meet at the ranch bordering the oil field where most of them had played and worked at during their childhood.

“When you get to this stage,” Letzus said. “The youngest person that was there was in their late 60s and we're losing some every year. It's important that we see these old friends now.”

Growing Up In The Oil Patch

For people today, it is hard to imagine what life was like growing up in the middle of an oil field. Letzus said she wouldn’t trade her childhood for anything.

“You hiked everywhere,” she said. “You had free run. We would leave in the morning, and we'd be back that evening. It was a safe, wonderful place to grow up.”

Some of Letzus’ fondest memories was belonging to the Girl Scouts, and every year they would hike up to white wash the initials of the town on the hillside. The “GC” is still there, overlooking what were once the homes of the workers and their company store.

Betty Benson Haulman had come to the reunion from Elizabeth, Colorado. Even though she was a ranch kid, her experience wasn’t that much different from Linda’s in the oil fields.

“My dad came from Sweden in 1926,” Haulman explained. “He worked as foreman for the LU Sheep Co. Ranch.”

As their family grew, Betty’s parents bought a house in Grass Creek so the kids could go to school during the week and on the weekends, they would go out to the ranch.

“Everybody knew everybody,” she added. “If you ever had any problems, people shared what they had. We had a huge garden at the LU Ranch and, just like everyone else, we helped other families in need. It worked out pretty good. We were just a wonderful, nice community.”

Although it is hard to see their once vibrant camp absorbed into the oil field, the memories are still very much alive. As those at the Grass Creek reunion swapped stories about their childhood, one of the most prized possessions was the series of albums put together by Minnian Richardson. Her son Doug Richardson had brought copies of these albums, which contained stories of their parents and rare photographs of the Grass Creek community.

“She kept every class picture,” Letzus said. “She kept everything about Grass Creek and I mean everything. Everybody was going through the albums. It was great. We were going down memory lane.”

As the group gathered in the shade, the distant sounds of the pump jacks could be heard. It was the sound of their childhood from growing up in the oil patch of Grass Creek.

Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.