The Dexter gas well that would not burn
A 1903 gas well at Dexter led University of Kansas researchers to find helium in natural gas.
By Wade Ellison
In May 1903, drillers near Dexter hit what looked like a good natural gas well. Then they tried to light it, and it would not burn.
Scientists at the University of Kansas took samples of the “Dexter gas” and found out why. It was only about 15 percent methane and 72 percent nitrogen. In what was left over, they found helium.
The researchers then tested wells across Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and in 1907 they published a paper showing that helium could be taken from natural gas.
At the time, helium had no practical use. By 1917, the federal government was paying for research into using it in airships, and the gas fields of the southern Plains became the country’s source.
Dexter, platted in 1875 and named for a trotting horse, is still a small town of a couple hundred people. Its place in the history of helium is out of proportion to its size.