Rocky Mountain Oil Refinery at Overton—1892 or 1893

This large refinery went into operation in late spring 1892, six miles north of Pueblo on Overton Road east of Fountain Creek. The Union Pacific Denver & Gulf railroad ran through the refinery grounds.. A 4-inch pipeline was laid to carry the crude oil from Rocky Mountain wells south of Florence. The art of refining, much less complicated than it is today, consisted of a distillation process by which crude oil was heated and separated into gasoline, kerosene, lubricating oils, wax and fuel oil, with a residue of tar or asphalt. Various types of oil, grease, kerosene (illuminating oil), candles and other products were refined here from the paraffin-rich crude. Gasoline was a waste product as there was little use for it then.

For a couple of years the Rocky Mountain refinery was a great producer, receiving much favorable publicity, and a town called Overton (named for Andrew J. Overton, a prime promoter of the project) was platted around three sides of the 60-acre refinery grounds. Lots were sold in the subdivision but few were ever developed as the refinery was out of production in less than five years, possibly partly because of the nation-wide Silver Panic of 1893, but no doubt mostly because of a fierce price-war in illuminating oil started by the Rockefeller (Standard Oil) interests that owned a refinery in Florence.

— Arla Aschermann (photo from PCHS collection)