page_title: History of the oil shale industry in the United States
section_title: The first western oil shale boom
hierarchical_section_title: History of the oil shale industry in the United States / World War I and the thirst for gasoline / The first western oil shale boom
caption_attribution_description: English: Oil shale retorts, Nevada, 1922
context_page_description: The history of the oil shale industry in the United States goes back to the 1850s; it dates back farther as a major enterprise than the petroleum industry. But although the United States contains the world's largest known resource of oil shale, the US has not been a significant producer of shale oil since 1861. There were three major past attempts to establish an American oil shale industry: the 1850s; in the years during and after World War I; and in the 1970s and early 1980s. Each time, the oil shale industry failed because of competition from cheaper petroleum.
  As of 2014, there are a number of companies doing research and development on oil shale deposits in Colorado and Utah, but there is no commercial production of oil from shale in the United States.
context_section_description: "the potential industry has suffered much harm by the fake promoter and his fake companies."
  Attracted by rising oil prices, and the promise of a permanent shortage of petroleum, oil-shale prospectors swarmed over the Piceance and Uinta basins of Colorado and Utah. Some established oil companies joined the rush, but about 100 new companies formed to mine and process oil shale, and, not incidentally, to sell shares of stock. Many of them built retorts to extract the shale oil.
  Many of the new companies were legitimate, but the honest ones had to compete with the exaggerated promises of the crooks. Oil shale processing worldwide had always included a retort to produce oil by heating the shale, and a separate refining process to make marketable products from the oil. But some promoters claimed to be able to draw gasoline and other consumer products directly from the retort. One huckster promised that he could extract gold from the oil shale as a byproduct. The US Bureau of Mines had to go out of its way to assure the public that it could not detect recoverable amounts of gold in any oil shale.
  At the start of the boom in 1915, oil and oil shale were still locateable minerals under the General Mining Act of 1872. Any US citizen could stake a placer claim to reserve the mineral rights over 160 acres of oil-shale land. Congress changed the situation when it passed the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, which declared that oil and oil shale were no longer locateable minerals, but instead the rights to mine them had to be leased from the federal government.
  In September 1920, of the many oil shale companies being promoted, none were yet in commercial-scale operation, although five were said to be close. Of the five, one plant was near Dragon, Utah, one at Salt Lake, two at Elko, Nevada, one at Denver, and one at Dillon, Montana. The plant at Dillon was mining oil shale of the Phosphoria Formation, Permian in age. The American Continuous Retort plant in Denver was receiving test lots from western Colorado, and as far away as Texas and Kentucky, largely on the proprietor's claim that he could recover gold and platinum from the shale, along with the oil.
  First attempt to produce oil from the western deposits was made by mining engineer Robert Catlin. Catlin became intrigued by oil shale, and in 1890 bought a plot of land near Elko Nevada that was underlain by oil shale of the Elko Formation. When the price of oil started rising in 1915, he dug a mine shaft down into the best yielding shale, built a bank of retorts and a small refinery, and began producing oil. He refined the oil into gasoline and lubricating oil, but the products were said to be of low quality. in 1917 he incorporated Catlin Shale Products Company. Catlin's plant at Elko produced about 12,000 barrels (1,900 m³) of oil from shale before he closed it in 1924. Catlin Shale Products Company was dissolved in 1930.  Of the hundred-odd companies that formed to produce shale oil in the postwar boom, only Carlin's had actually done so on a commercial scale and marketed the product.
  The first attempts to exploit the Green River Formation deposit was made by establishment of The Oil Shale Mining Company in 1916.  In 1917, they erected the first commercial retort at the head of Dry Creek, near De Beque, Colorado.  However, also these attempts were unsuccessful and by 1926 the company had lost its property.  In addition, companies like Cities Service, Standard Oil of California, Texaco and Union started their oil shale operations in 1918–1920.  In 1915–1920 about 200 companies were established to exploit oil shale and at least 25 shale oil retorting processes reached to the pilot-plant stage.
  Although most of the attention had shifted to the oil shale of the Green River Formation in Colorado and Utah, a number of companies also tried to develop the eastern Devonian shales, mostly the New Albany Shale in Kentucky and Indiana. Although the eastern shales had a lower oil yield than the western shales, they had the advantages of better infrastructure, abundant water supply, and proximity
caption: Catlin oil shale retorts, Elko, Nevada, 1922
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