The famous Salt Creek oil field is located in Natrona County, 40 miles north of Casper. Representative Stephen W. Downey was the first man to acquire land at Salt Creek in 1883, after the discovery of the Jackass Spring oil seep. The discovery oil well in the area was drilled in March of 1889 in the Shannon pool. Mr. Shannon later built a small oil refinery in Casper in 1895 to process his oil. The main Salt Creek oil field was opened with the discovery of oil at the Dutch No. 1 location in October, 1908. It initially produced 150 barrels of oil per day. As the field was developed and expanded, many of the Salt Creek wells were famous for being gushers. After 20 wells were producing oil in Salt Creek, Franco-Wyoming Oil Company decided to build a 5,000 barrel of oil per day refinery on 20 acres located immediately east of Highland Cemetery. Transportation of large amounts of oil to the Casper refineries was a problem until the completion of two pipelines in December 1911. For some time Salt Creek was the largest light oil field in the world. The Teapot Dome oil field of President Harding’s tenure in the 1920s is located nearby.