Kansas had long been oil country, with legends of Indians holding council around burning springs and immigrants skimming rock tar from oil seeps to grease wagon axles. On the banks of the Verdigris River stood the site of one of the most famous oil wells in the United States, Norman No. 1, the first commercially successful well of the Mid-Continent field. It was drilled in November 1892 by McBride and Bloom of Independence, Kansas, for William Mills of Osawatomie, Kansas, on land owned by T. J. Norman, at a price of $2.50 per foot. On November 28, 1892, when drilling reached 832 feet, oil began to flow. The well gave Major Mills evidence that oil was pooled beneath the plains of the Middle West, and he plugged it and hurried to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with samples. The samples so galvanized backers Guffy and Galey that they leased a million acres while Norman No. 1 remained plugged for ten months. On October 1, 1892, the well was shot by G. M. Perry of Oswego, Kansas, and its initial production was 12 barrels daily. After producing for 26 years, it was abandoned because of a leaky casing. Although oil was first drilled in Kansas in 1860 near Paola, the sinking of Norman No. 1 began the continuous development of the Mid-Continent Field, the nation’s largest, spreading over Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.