Topic: Resources
from the program of the Niobrara County Pageant-Spectacle, in the late 1940's, found for me by the nice ladies at the historical museum in Lusk.
A small town always takes pride in its own industries, and one such industry that the community came to appreciate greatly during the war was the C & H Refinery, a "home-owned institution." Started on a bare minimum scale, it is today much enlarged and making an annual production of some 600,000 gallons of white gasoline, as well as 360,000 gallons of No. 1 fuel oil, 140,000 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil as well as kerosene and Hot Shot tractor fuel. Even residue is now used for fuel where plants have pre-heaters to utilize it.
Besides serving the immediate area, gasoline and other products are trucked as far east as Bridgeport, Nebr., west to Douglas and north to Winner S. Dak.
The C & H Refinery was established in the spring of 1933 by James Hoblit and Roy Chamberlain, who had been working for the Ohio Oil C. at Lance Creek. These men remember significantly that there was only one oil burner in Lusk then, and that the development of the fuel oil business was a difficult task. But no refinery could operate unless its by-products have a market as well as the gasoline.
At first the refinery trucked crude oil both from Lance Creek and Osage, but in 1935 a pipe line was constructed from Lance Creek, and now the refinery not only supplies its own needs, but sells crude oil. In 1937 Mr. Chamg=berlain sold his interest to his partner and Mr. Hoblit is now the sole owner.
Of the present employees, Sharon Chamberlain has been with the firm longest, and is the all-around handy man who knows every angle from the servicing of furnaces to the handling of stills. George Sylvester and Dick Spinney began working for the firm in 1935 and 1939 respectively, andf the past two years Bill and Bud Hoblit, brothers of Jim, started work as stillmen.
Posted by wyoil
at 2:19 PM PDT
