WOOD COUNTY, OH (WTOL) - Just before the turn of the twentieth century, the landscape of Wood County and much of Northwest Ohio was studded with oil derricks.
As far as the eye could see, the wooden towers crowned the countryside and the small towns as the Black Swamp claimed to be the oil capital of the United States.
Activity in the Black Swamp "oil patch" was robust and prosperous. Everyone had "oil fever".
Fortunes were made, and fortunes were lost. But the "fever" could also be dangerous.
Work on and around the rigs was rugged and grueling.
Perhaps the most dangerous work was that of the so-called "shooter". These were the brave souls who dared to "shoot" the well with the highly volatile explosive of nitro glycerin to help coax the oil from its ancient underground pools.
The work was daring. Risky at best, lethal at worst.
On September 7, 1897, it proved to be the latter.
The small town of Cygnet, south of Bowling Green and a center of the oil boom, would pay the price.
As the story is told, at about mid-afternoon a shooter by the name of Samuel Barber pulled his wagon load of liquid explosive up to a well called the Grants well.
The Indiana Torpedo Company worker shot the well with 120 quarts of nitro glycerin.
The well, however, was filled with natural gas. It exploded, shooting a roaring flame up through and over the top of the derrick.
Several workers jumped up to the derrick platform to shut off the gas, but it was too late.
Newspaper reports said "they had barely gotten there, when there was a terrific explosion."
The flames then found two nearby wagons still filled with nitro glycerin, and the combined explosions issued a mighty roar
The town and the countryside "trembled with the shock".
That shock killed six men immediately and wounded many others, including women and children on the streets of Cygnet.
One of those killed was a young boy by the name of C. Havens. Also left dead in the rubble was Samuel Barber, the shooter.
Where his nitro glycerin wagons stood, only a huge hold in the ground was left.
Nearby buildings were reduced to splinters and shambles, and every window pane in town was said to be shattered.
Cygnet had suffered numerous mishaps and fires during the oil boom era, but this one was the worst.
