Cottonwood, Alabama: "Floating on a pool of oil"

The Cottonwood Oil Boom of 1927

by Dale Cox

The 1927 oil boom is briefly mentioned on the historical marker
that tells the story of Cottonwood, Alabama.

One of the biggest oil booms ever seen in the South hit Cottonwood, Alabama, in October 1927. It started when someone realized that water from local wells would actually fuel gasoline engines:

     There are four wells on an acre of ground near the center of town at Cottonwood that have been showing evidences of oil for several years. All have been abandoned so far as drinking purposes, but recently evidences of oil became more pronounced.
     The oil is refined to a degree, having seeped from the underground strata of oil, which geologists say comes from the north, and which, they also say, cannot be far away.      
     Sam Barker, it is said, has been running a motor which operates a grist mill, the sole fuel used is that taken from his well. 
     Several automobile owners in Cottonwood have been propelling their cars with this fuel, it is said. - Dothan Eagle, May 4, 1927.

It didn't take long for the strange discovery to attract the attention of major investors. J.R. "Bob" Sealy and his brother were convinced of the validity of the strike when Bob filled a car with water from a local well and headed off for Dothan:

Bob Sealy, accompanied by Robert Malone, Calvin Welsh, John McCardle and John Bruner, drove a Ford touring car from Cottonwood to Dothan this morning on what they said was fuel drawn direct from one of the wells at Cottonwood which have been transformed by nature from drinking wells into refined gasoline. - Ibid.

The site of the O'Henry Oil Fields as it appears today in
Cottonwood, Alabama.

The Sealy brothers immediately purchased what quickly became known as the O'Henry Oil Fields, a large tract of land south of downtown Cottonwood. They eventually expanded their holdings to include thousands of acres and mineral rights were purchased for tens of thousands. The mineral rights acquisitions extended miles across the state line into Jackson County, Florida.

An oil geologist named R.G. Worthington was brought in from Oklahoma to inspect the site. He was reportedly a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and visited Cottonwood in June 1927:

...He expressed his opinion that, beyond a doubt, the product coming into these wells is coming from crude oil. He made the statement that he had seen the same product coming out of the ground in other territories. Mr. Worthington has had eight years of field geology. Part of this time was spent with the Gypsy Oil Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma. His opinion is considered very valuable and correct. The opinion of many other geologists who have visited the O'Henry Oil Fields. - Dothan Eagle, June 17, 1927.

The opinion of Worthington was all it took. J.R. Sealy sent a petition to the Alabama Public Service Commission seeking permission to sell 750 acres of land. Each purchaser would gain one-acre of property and a "unit interest" in Sealy Well No. 1, the oil well that the Sealy brothers planned to drill.

This early Fire Protection Map shows many of the
buildings built during the Cottonwood oil boom.
Courtesy of Troy University.

At the same time, business interests in the community exploded. A committee of investors quickly committed to open a bank in Cottonwood:

The bank will be located next to the Cottonwood post office, on the site where the Rose Team room now stands. The tea room will be moved one lot south. This bank will be Spanish type, stucco building. The interior finish will be of Pecky Cypress, the same finish which has recently been used in the construction of the Cove Hotel at Panama City, Florida, and the dining room of the New Albany Hotel, Albany, Georgia. - Ibid.

Public excitement over Cottonwood oil reached its peak in late September and early October 1927. The Public Service Commission approved the planned land sale, and the town was deluged with people:

During the day Sunday, several thousand automobiles visited the Cottonwood section. In every instance, Bob said, these people were thoroughly sold on the merits of his proposition. They got out of their automobiles and looked into the wells, saw the oily film that covered them, smelled of the water drawn from them, and did every other thing that a curious throng is expected to do.
They were convinced, even as I was convinced last week, that something strange was happening in Cottonwood. In some instances they were ready to place bets that oil would be found. In others they admitted their ignorance even in the face of the things they saw but were filled with hope that oil would be found in commercial quantities. - Dothan Eagle, September 27, 1927.

A barbecue sponsored by the Sealy Brothers attracted 15,000 people to Cottonwood on October 6, 1927. They stood witness as the drill bit of Sealy Well No. 1 bit into the earth and started its way down. A second derrick - Sealy Well No. 2 - was already under construction by then. So high was the demand for information that Bob Sealy opened an office on North Foster Street in Dothan:

The oil boom led to a rush of commercial construction in
Cottonwood, as investors poured into the town.

As all this goes on, the people of Cottonwood continue with their program of building. Stories are being told of the opening of tea rooms, drug stores, warehouses, and various other forms of business...And while all this goes on, nine shallow wells in and around Cottonwood continue to flow a product so pure that it runs automobiles and gasoline engines. - Ibid.

By early October the Sealy brothers invested $40,000 of their own money in the belief that Cottonwood was about to become one of the wealthiest towns in America. In fact, Sealy Well No 1 did strike oil:

At 180 feet, Mr. Sealy said, salt water was struck. At 120 feet and also a depth slightly greater than 180 feet, fine oil showings were found. The oil showing shown at these two depths were similar to the oil in the nine surface wells in the Cottonwood community. - Dothan Eagle, December 13, 1927.

The well eventually reached a depth of nearly 5,000 feet, but the expected gusher never came. There was oil under Cottonwood, and it was from a natural deposit, not a leaky fuel tank as some like to claim today. The Sealy brothers just were never able to find it in a sufficient quantity to pump up for commercial purposes.

The oil boom faded as quickly as it had started and was over by the time the Great Depression hit two years later in 1929.

Despite its failure as an oil well, however, Sealy Well No. 1 did prove profitable. The water struck at 180 feet was not just salty, it was warm, and when the derrick was moved, it continued to flow up from the pipe in artesian style.

Dreams of oil wealth faded, but the story of Cottonwood's famed hot mineral well or "hot springs" was just beginning. More on the Sealy Hot Mineral Wells is coming in the next article!