Oil and gas were discovered in the Newkirk area as early as the spring of 1894, when Mart McClaskey struck gas while digging a water well and kept the find secret until he had secured his claim, while his family quietly used the gas for cooking. In 1901, Kay County's first producing oil well was drilled on the McClaskey farm by a company made up of J. M. Hoefer, Lincoln McKinlay, Ed Korns, William S. Cline, Porter Smith, Jim Brown, and John Thomas. Though short on experience, the enterprise drew investment from many men in Newkirk and the surrounding area who had a spare dollar to contribute. Jim Brown, a Newkirk grocer, and Joe Hayes, a farmer, received the contract to drill the well, using a standard derrick and reaching 960 feet before striking gas as crowds gathered near the contract depth of 1,000 feet. Although the original company had depleted its funds by 1902, oil fever remained high in Newkirk, and a meeting at city hall raised $10,000 for further testing at a well near the present Water Treatment Plant. That venture struck gas at 610 feet and for a short time supplied several nearby homes for cooking. In 1904, the Newkirk Gas & Mineral Company financed drilling expenses for one of its first wells east of Newkirk through excursion train ticket sales arranged by the Santa Fe, bringing nearly 300 spectators from Arkansas City, Newkirk, and Ponca City. The company lowered sixty quarts of nitro in three long tin tubes, set it off with a stick of dynamite and a fuse, and jarred the ground for a quarter of a mile as water sprayed a crowd standing too close. For a brief moment the well sent up a dense dark column about a hundred feet high, and though it was not a gusher, it produced high-grade oil at three to five barrels per day.