You may recall an article in this column a couple of months ago about discovering the first big oil-producing well in Bossier Parish found at Bellevue. The papers described it as a ‘wonder’ well because, at the time of its discovery in late 1921, it was the shallowest producing oil well in the Southwest. The Bellevue oil field is about 3 miles southeast of the hamlet of Bellevue. Perhaps Bellevue field got its name due to its proximity to Bellevue.
The following article appeared in
The Bossier Banner on this day in 1922 came the announcement, along with a bit of editorial banter, that the name ‘Bellevue Filed’ is official.
“Under the ‘44 Gravity’ heading the editor of the oil field page of the Shreveport Times says in Sunday’s issue of the paper:
“‘Editor Scanland, of the Bossier Banner, and other champions of Old Belleview, should feel satisfied. They have been contending that the new Bossier sensation be known as the Belleview field, and the Standard Oil Company et als have solemnly and officially named it so.”
“We are much obliged to you, friends, and to Editor Dolph Frantz and Friend McLendon, your neighbors of the Journal. It only took a little publicity and a bit of co-operation on the part of you fellows and one or two other Shreveport friends to turn the trick. We are now plumb satisfied—except that you boys on the Times’ staff won’t spell “Bellevue” as it is here spelled. Without reference to the Banner’s files back in the 50’s and 60’s, we know that we are right on this score. If you’ll make it “vue” instead of “view” all of us will be “rigged up” right and we won’t have a thing to fuss about—until we can dig up something else.”
That week was full of exciting announcements about Bellevue Field, including news of its tenth producing oil well. Bellevue Field made the front page of
The Times. The headline read, “2,000,000 Foot Gasser At 374 Is Bellevue’s Latest.”
“The sensational Bellevue shallow oil field in Bossier parish, the shallowest producing district in the world, has sprung another sensation, hailed by operators in that territory as of greater importance than a duplication of Roy’s 10,000-barrel, 405-foot well of a week ago. Roy & Company’s No. 9 Railroad Lands Company blew in Friday afternoon with 2,000,000 feet of gas from 374 feet and solved the field’s fuel problem. Of such importance is a gas well in the field that Roy remarked in repeating his driller’s report: ‘I’m afraid it will go to oil.’
“The sand in No. 9 was barely scratched when the well blew in. It had previously been fitted with a 125-pound gate valve, evidently, in anticipation of getting gas as a gauge had also been provided, and when closed in the gauge showed 110 pounds within a half minute. How much higher it would have gone is not known as it was opened again immediately for fear the light gate would blow off, and is running wild until a heavier valve can be hauled through the mud to the well.
“The latest well in Bellevue, ranking with the discovery well and the big producers completed since, and overshadowing them in some respects, is in the northeast corner of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 15-19-11. The Humble Oil & Refining Company’s No. 1 Bliss & Wethersby is an offset across the section line to the north.”
Within a month, Bellevue Field boasted a total of 21 wells in production, only four months since the discovery of the sensational wonder well. News of new oil and gas wells in Bellevue Field and in Bossier Parish appeared in the papers for years. Today, Bellevue Field is known as Bellevue Oil & Gas Field and is still a valuable producer.
By: Amy Robertson
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