Oil well tragedy in Dixie: 1935 disaster claimed 10 lives in St. George oil well explosion
John Rogers
When folks think about fires and explosions in the petroleum industry, the vast oil fields of Texas or Oklahoma come to mind, not the red rock deserts of Southern Utah. But in 1935, a fledgling enterprise was sniffing around the site of present-day Bloomington, just south of St. George, looking for riches among the sagebrush and ancient volcanic flows. Geography of the area indicated the possibility of oil deposits beneath the sand.
The Arrowhead Petroleum Co., under the direction of chief investor and well-site manager Charles Alsop, had drilled one unproductive well and had reached a depth of about 3,000 feet with its Escalante No. 2 oil well in a formation known as the Bloomington Dome, when oil started to show up in the tailings. The decision was made to “shoot the well,” a process where explosives are lowered into the bore hole and discharged to fracture the rock and allow oil to flow into the well for extraction. The method, similar to today’s “fracking,” was common in the early 20th century. Highly explosive nitroglycerin and dynamite were used for the shot.
The shot was scheduled for July 25 and nearly 100 curious St. George citizens gathered around the oil derrick seven miles from town, waiting for the bubbling black gold to emerge from the earth and change their fortunes forever.
As much as 1,000 pounds of explosives were poised on the derrick above the well, ready to be lowered into the well, when a mighty explosion occurred. Nine local citizens and oil well workers were killed instantly, and a 10th, Olive Bleak Snow, who had arrived at the site to bring food for the workers, died later in the St. George hospital. The bodies of four of the workers who were closest to the well were never found.
Flames from the inferno were seen in Hurricane, more than 20 miles to the east. Windows rattled and broke in St. George, where residents thought the shock came from construction blasting for the new sewer system being installed in town. The blast left a crater 30 feet deep at the site and the twisted wreckage of the derrick was unrecognizable.
It has never been determined what caused the explosives to detonate, but an inquiry by Justice of the Peace Harold S. Snow and Washington County Attorney Orval Hafen concluded that it was an accident.
In a twist to the story, the driller who operated the controls and supervised the four-man crew at the derrick, a man named Mike Eric, refused to go to work that day, feeling that too many people had been invited, creating a dangerous situation. Alsop decided he was competent to run the controls in Eric’s absence. Whether he made a mistake or not in the operation of lowering the explosives into the well, creating the explosion, will never be known.
Although a small grave marker was erected in 1935 at the site, no permanent monument was installed until this fall, when the Cotton Mission Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, the city of St. George and other contributors got a monument made and dedicated.
In the years that followed, others would drill in the Bloomington Dome area, but none would be commercially successful. And no other attempt would end as dramatically as on that hot summer day in 1935.