Del Monte, H. D.

Harold D. Del Monte (1897- ), a businessman, settled in Lander, Wyoming, in 1919, where he was in the banking business for ten years before buying the Noble Hotel in 1930. He was very active in Lander and Fremont County civic affairs and worked with the Shoshoni and Araphaho tribes to promote development of the Maverick Springs oil field on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Federal leases for the Maverick Springs oil field were first granted in 1917, and the first successful wells were drilled in 1918. The field produced high-sulphur crude oils, for which demand was low and transportation costs high. Dirt access roads to the oil field were impassable much of the year. In 1927, most of the wells were shut down and capped by the Union Oil Company of California, which had acquired the leases in 1921. By 1937, the leases were controlled by Ohio Oil Company, Texas Company, Stanolind Oil and Gas Company, and Continental Oil Company.

When the leases came up for renewal in 1937, the Shoshoni and Araphaho Councils, with the assistance of the Maverick Springs Committee of the Federated Civic Clubs of Fremont County, chaired by Del Monte, fought to block renewal until assurances were made that the oil field would be brought into production and that roads would be upgraded to ease the transportation problem. Tribal representatives and Del Monte traveled to Washington, D.C. in mid 1937 and again in January 1938 to meet with the Wyoming congressional delegation and Interior Department officials. Limited production was begun, and attempts were made to upgrade roads, but requests for federal road funds failed.