

CH4 Stream Discovery
1903
In Kansas a well drilled called “The Cowley County” well’s “roaring gas blew out every flame brought near it,” states a Kansas State Historical Marker #49. The flowing well produced another kind of gas with the natural gas.
As the historical marker explains, the well was unusual because it produced, “The Gas That Wouldn’t Burn.”
Although no longer producing, Cowley County residents still celebrate their 1903 Dexter “wind gas” well.
For the next two years, the Dexter well was scornfully called the “Wind Gas” well by disappointed residents. The Gas, Oil and Developing Company disappeared by the time scientific analysis revealed the natural gas contained almost two percent helium.
Working in Bailey Hall on December 7, 1905, Hamilton P. Cady and David F. McFarland discovered significant amounts of helium in a natural gas sample from Dexter, Kansas. Cady and McFarland subsequently analyzed more than 40 other gas samples, showing that helium, previously thought to be rare on Earth but abundant in the Sun, was available in plentiful quantities from the Great Plains of the United States.
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