Kansas has long been oil country, with legends of Indians holding council around burning springs and emigrants skimming rock tar from oil seeps to grease wagon axles. A mile southeast stood Norman No. 1, one of the most famous oil wells in the United States and the first commercially successful well of the Mid-Continent field. W. M. Mills of Pennsylvania drilled it in 1892, and within 22 days, at 832 feet, the hole began filling with oil. Mills plugged it, reported a poor well, and began drilling another, then hurried to Pittsburgh with samples. The samples so galvanized operators Guffey and Galey that they leased a million acres, while Norman No. 1 and its secret remained plugged for ten months. In the next two years they drilled over 100 wells, then sold out to Standard Oil. 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.