Education Commons^™

Oil In Bowling Green: A Lost Chapter In Wku's History, Jonathan Jeffrey

SCL Faculty and Staff Publications

Bowling Green became the center of a five-county oil boom in the late-1910s. Two men working on construction of Western Kentucky University’s Potter Hall were determined to not be left out of the action. Architect William J. Bray and contractor Walter Brashear formed a syndicate to lease local land for oil exploration. In August 1920, WKU’s Board of Regents granted their company, The Great Arch Oil Company, exclusive rights to drill on the school’s farm. The majority of the company’s investors were school faculty and staff. Of the three wells drilled, only one showed promise and it was soon abandoned …