Ferry Lake No. 1 - The First Offshore Drilling Platform

Oil has been used for thousands of years.  Initially oil was obtained only from sources that seeped to the surface.  As early as 347 A.D. wells were drilled in China using bamboo poles with bits attached.  In 1848, the first modern oil well was drilled in Asia, on the Aspheron Peninsula north-east of Baku, by a Russian engineer, F.N. Semyenov.  The following year kerosene was distilled from oil. 

In 1857 the kerosene lamp was invented and kerosene replaced whale oil as the choice for an illuminant and thus created a new market for crude oil.  Over the next few decades, oil wells were drilled in Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and Oklahoma; all on land.  Beginning in 1896, oil companies in California built piers to reach oil that was in the ocean.  While these rigs were over water, they were not true offshore drilling as the piers (up to 300 feet) connected them to land. 

For a couple of millennia, the area now covered by Caddo Lake and more, was a low-lying area that was covered by swamps and natural lakes.  Big Cypress Creek flowed through the area.  About 1100 A.D. the Great Red River Raft started accumulating. This logjam raised the water levels on the Red River upstream of the obstruction.  The water levels also rose on the tributaries to the Red River, including Big Cypress Creek.  As this occurred, the low-lying areas flooded, creating the body of water that the Spanish called Laguna Espanola.  Later it would be referred to as Ferry Lake, at least on the Louisiana side because of the ferries used to cross the lake.  Today it is Caddo Lake, named after the Caddoans.  The Caddoans were Native Americans who populated the area prior to being forced out by Whites in the early 1800s.  200 years ago, prior to the removal of the logjam, the lake covered a much larger area and was deeper than it is today. 

Beginning in 1828, efforts were made to break up the Great Raft.  The project was not fully accomplished until the mid-1870s, and with the removal of the logjam, water levels in the Red River and its tributaries, including Caddo Lake, dropped.  The lake was now too shallow for the steamboats that had once traversed its length to deliver and pick up goods in Jefferson, Texas.  What remained of the great lake was a series of shallow, swampy waters. 

Beginning about 1895 northern Caddo Parish experienced oil and gas production. Some towns prospered and waned as oil was found and exhausted.  A J.M. Guffey Petroleum Company employee had observed gas seepage bubbling up through the water in Caddo Lake. This discovery in 1907 prompted the company to lease a thousand acres of land on the Mooring sport side of the lake. Guffey's first well was drilled in 1907 for gas at 800 feet.  But, the first major completion on the property, the Number 1 Hostetter, was brought in on December 8, 1908.  That well produced 1600 barrels of oil a day from a depth of 2,282 feet. In 1910, Guffy Petroleum Company bid a total of $100,000 for 8,000 acres of lake-bottom drilling rights that were owned by the Federal Government.  The problem of drilling over water had perplexed other bidders resulting in the low auction price. 

One hundred and seven years ago, the world's first true offshore well, the Ferry Lake Number 1, was completed by Guffy in early May of 1911.  The well produced 450 barrels of oil a day from a depth of 2,185 feet.  Guffy Petroleum Company, which would become Gulf Oil Company, and is now Chevron, repeated the process over 250 times on the lake.  Cypress pilings that were obtained by felling trees on shore, were driven deep into the lake bottom.  Simple wooden derrick platforms were constructed and drilling equipment floated to the drilling sites on barges as large as 30' x 90’.  This was the birth of offshore drilling production worldwide. Excursion trains were run from Shreveport so that people could see this wonder. Mooring sport became a boomtown. 

New technologies have resulted in drilling rigs capable of drilling 250 miles offshore in ocean depths exceeding 10,000 feet.  There are more than 5,000 offshore oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico alone.  They operate around the clock, seven-days a week. It is the largest artificial reef system in the world. 

But, the water level in the lake was low.  In an effort to raise the water level to what it had been prior to the breakup of the logjam, the Federal Government built a crude earthen dam near Mooring sport in 1914. The current dam, with construction beginning in 1968, was completed in 1971.  Today Caddo Lake covers 25,400 acres at 237 feet altitude.  The water level of today's Caddo Lake is about 10 feet lower and the lake is substantially reduced in surface area than it was prior to elimination of the Red River Raft.  The current dam uses an outlet weir system rather than the gate system seen on most modern dams.  This does limit the reservoir manager’s capability to influence the water level in Caddo Lake. 

In 1909 two fishermen discovered pearls in mussels from Caddo Lake.  Most of the pearls were small, but some larger pearls were found.  With the construction of the first dam in 1914, the water level rose and the mussels died. 

This article was originally published in the Jefferson Jimplecute on May 3, 2018 and is authored by Mr. C. Halliday. He can be contacted at doc@william-halliday.com. The article is recirculated with the authors' permission.