Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. On August 21 through 23, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming will celebrate 50 years of operation during its annual Rockies Petroleum Conference in Laramie, WY. In 1910, Wyoming Governor B.B. Brooks sought to protect the State's oil industry and organized an oil convention. In 1921, The Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association was formed in Casper, WY, to advocate for oil-based trade and production in the Rocky Mountain States. Governor Brooks served as the first president, along with volunteer Secretary-Treasurer George Jarvis. In 1945, President Paul Stock was elected president. In 1974, the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association's Wyoming division office and the Wyoming Oil Industry Committee joined forces to form the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. Wyoming's oil history dates back to 1832 when fur trader Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville traveled to the Wind River Valley. He found oil springs southeast of present-day Lander. The State's first oil well would be drilled there five decades later by Pennsylvania oilfield explorer Mike Murphy. Murphy sold mainly to the Union Pacific railroad, where the oil was used as a lubricant for railcar axles, and to tanners in Utah. Wyoming's first oil refinery was built in Casper by the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Company in 1895. It was located east of Center Street, near the Chicago and North Western railroad tracks.…
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