When we mention that the Casper area and Wyoming in general has a rich history in the oil fields, this is what we're talking about. It's a retro video showing how much of the oil industry work was done in our region 100 years ago.

Periscope Films is one of my favorite follows on YouTube. They dig (no oil industry pun intended) into their archives frequently and our history gets shared a lot.

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This video in particular is compelling. It was captured in the Salt Creek oilfields north of Casper back in the early 1920's. If you understand the dangers of oil work now, you should see how it was done 100 years ago.

American Oil and Gas Historical Society shared some details of how fracking was done back then and apparently in this video based on the description:

Applied legally or illegally, by 1868 nitroglycerin was preferred to black powder, despite its frequently fatal tendency to detonate accidentally.

Here's how the video share described what you'll see:

This silent movie made by the Burlington Railroad and titled "Petroleum" shows the oil industry in and around Casper, Wyoming including the Salt Creek Field. The Salt Creek Oil Field around the town of Midwest, Wyo., about 40 miles north of Casper, is still producing oil today and was at one time the largest producing oil field in the world.

While technology has advanced the work over the years and made some aspects of the work safer, this video is a reminder of the roughneck days when it was truly living on the edge.

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