l66 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the supply of one or two families — which testifies to the permanency 

 of flow characteristic of some of the pools of the State. The extensive 

 use of natural gas for municipal purposes and industrially did not 

 begin, however, until after 1864 when the discovery of the oil and 

 gas district in Cattaraugus county gave the first impulse to the 

 systematic exploration of these resources. Allegany county was the 

 next important source that was discovered, the first large wells in 

 that section having been drilled about 1880, of which many yielded 

 both oil and gas. 



The two counties just named, with the western section of Steuben 

 county, constitute the southwestern district which lies next to the 

 Pennsylvania border. The pools that yield the oil, as well as 

 producing all of the gas in the earlier years, are found in the higher 

 Devonian strata which constitute the main sources of supply in 

 the Appalachian field to the south. Thus the development of this 

 district came as a natural sequence to the opening of the oil and 

 gas region of western Pennsylvania of which the southwestern 

 New York area may be considered as a northerly extension, both 

 geologically and geographically. 



Following the successful developments in this region, exploration 

 was extended into the adjoining counties and beyond the areal 

 limits of the uppermost Devonian rocks in which alone gas had 

 so far been discovered. In 1887 the Buffalo Cement Co. drilled a 

 successful well on its property within the city limits of Buffalo, after 

 having put down two holes that proved practically dry. Drilling 

 in the vicinity was actively undertaken in the next few years, 

 particularly in the town of West Seneca, south of Buffalo, and a 

 local company was organized to develop the supplies and make 

 them available for general use. By 1895 the South Buffalo Natural 

 Gas Co. had some 45 wells connected with its distributing lines in 

 that city. 



The Buffalo district lies on the outcrop of the Onondaga, Marcellus 

 and Hamilton formations of the Middle Devonian, whereas the 

 district of Cattaraugus and Allegany counties first opened falls 

 within the Chemung series at the top of that system. Gas was 

 encountered in the Lockport dolomite and Clinton limestone, but 

 the main flow was from the white sandstone beds of the Medina, 

 which later proved to be the most widespread and consistent gas 

 reservoir in the western section of the State. 



The appreciation of the importance of the Medina horizon for 

 natural gas production has come through exploration carried on 

 in the last 15 years or so in eastern and southern Erie county, in 



