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30. Dearborn’s Deep Test Well
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30 Dearborn’s Deep Test Well Henry Ford was not only a very inquisitive person, but he also had the financial means to satisfy his curiosity in a number of unorthodox ways. Beginning in 1912, when Ford had perhaps more money than he knew how to spend, he began to explore the earth beneath him with a number of deep wells on his various properties. One well was drilled in 1912 at Ford’s Highland Park manufacturing plant to a depth of 2,500 feet. In 1924, he drilled a well on his Detroit,Toledo & Ironton Railroad property at Jackson, Ohio, where he struck gas at 1,925 feet. In 1937, at his assembly plant in Long Beach, California, both gas and petroleum oil were being pumped from wells at depths of about 2,000 feet. On June 19, 1915, the Detroit News ran the following: Henry Ford Digging a Hole a Mile Deep on His Farm at Dearborn It is just like this [quoting Ford]: Last fall when Mr. Edison was visiting me, he and I went over the country here a good deal together and one day he said to me: “Why don’t you dig a hole around here some place?” And I said, “Well it never occurred to me but maybe I will some day.” And Mr. Edison said, “You might as well.” I got to thinking it over during the winter and as soon as the frost left the ground I got the contractors busy. They’re down about 300 feet and acted kind of discouraged. They said they hadn’t found anything. And I said, “Well just keep going. That’s the only way you’re ever going to find anything. You go down at least 5,000 feet, and every five feet you take a sample of the earth and see what is in it. You never can tell, they might find gas, they might find oil, they might find potash. You never can tell.” A little later that year, on October 22, 1915, the Dearborn Independent described drilling at the Ford tractor plant in Dearborn: Work at the experimental well was suspended Monday because of water struck below the Trenton rock which rose to within less than 200 feet of the top. This caused a breaking down of the walls above 229 Published previously in the Dearborn Historian, Vol. 36, No. 2, 1996. 230 [3.227.229.194] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 07:25 GMT) 231 the Trenton formation, necessitating the extension of the casing about 1,100 feet. The depth reached is 4,036 feet so far, Trenton rock being pierced at about 4,000 feet. The water is strongly impregnated with salt. The present casing is about 2,300 feet deep and must be taken out to permit the introduction of the new pipe. On November 26, 1915, there is this report: At the experimental well Monday the drillers had almost reached the bottom of the 4,036 foot hole, which they have been cleaning out, and expected to begin drilling at once. Another account of the activities at the Ford tractor plant appears in the Dearborn Independent on March 31, 1916, where well drilling is mentioned and a photograph of the plant is shown identifying, among other things, the approximately 50-foot-high drilling rig. The personal reminiscences of William Mielke of Dearborn add considerably to our knowledge of Ford’s Dearborn well operations: About 400 feet south of the railway, Elm Street made a turn to the right and then became an east and west street lining up with the present Beech Street. Just south of Elm Street, after it had made its turn, there stood a drilling rig very substantially built of oak. Of course almost everyone in Dearborn was curious to know what Ford had in mind. Some of us were eager to know what formations were below us. As with most drill crews, the information given to the public was vague and misleading. However, I kept on asking them questions but never found out what was below us until years later. Finally I was able to procure a log or chart of findings which disclosed formations similar to other wells in the state. However, the thickness of the salt area was enormous starting at 985 feet down. The drillers worked two shifts and made good progress, as they started in June 1915 and by October were down 4,035 feet. Some Dearborn people protested...