When we say that some of the early oil wells in south Louisiana were shallow wells, we mean really shallow. Some of them were dug with long-handled post-hole diggers.
The Abbeville Meridional reported in 1907 that those wells were “showing a marvelous production when the way they are brought in is considered.”
“A prominent oilman” who’d gone to look at prospects near Vinton in western Calcasieu…