By 
Ahead of South Shore’s 125th Anniversary, the Current is pleased to publish a special section on the community’s history.
The hills around South Shore have hosted wind turbines for over a decade, producing energy with every turn of the blade. These giants recall earlier attempts to find energy sources in these historic hills.
The area has been drilled for oil at least three times in South Shore’s 125-year history.
According to newspaper reports from the time, land in Section 33 of Leola Township was leased by a Mr. Gilmore of Pipestone, Minn., and by a Mr. Sweet of the First National Bank for the purpose of oil exploration in December 1907. This land is southwest of the town site.
Three train cars of drilling machinery arrived on February 14, 1908, and the drilling crew arrived on March 27. Having reached a depth of 800 feet, the well was abandoned on August 21, 1908, as the pipe could not go farther.
In March 1916, the South Shore Oil and Gas Company announced plans to drill again, and the drilling equipment arrived on July 1. According to a story in the South Shore Republican, the derrick tower measured 80 feet, while the smokestack of the engine “is close to 50 feet high.” The Republican also reported the cost of this project to be at least $30,000.
Despite drilling “day and night,” on this well, on the south side of town, the well was abandoned in October 1917 after nothing more than a “small pocket” was discovered 11 months before.
Forty years later, the Match Oil Company of Ortonville announced plans to drill on the Drake farm north of South Shore. The Lee Drilling Company of Lusk, Wyo., began work in November 1956. Although the test well, completed at the end of July 1957, did not produce oil, the door was not closed. Paul Erly, a geologist inspecting the project was quoted as saying, “There is definitely oil in this area.”
Other tales have involved silver or gold in the hills, as well. However, these claims have never been the subject of enterprise, and they remain lore.
The remains of wells, dry for more than a century, can still be seen in the countryside around South Shore, a testament to the community’s enterprising spirit. Despite the disappointments, the words of the Republican, later reprinted in the Watertown Herald, remain true: “Hurrah for the South Shore oil fields!”
