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.

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