Written by Alice Christianson
Not many people know that Cottage Grove once had it’s very own oil well. The structure was a prominent landmark in the 1920’s at the top of what is now called Mt. David or what was also called McFarland Butte.
The 1920’s was a time in America of many “get rich quick” schemes and other spurious investments. One such “opportunity” arrived in Cottage Grove early in the 20’s in the form of a fruitful sure-fire plan from a would- be man of the cloth.
The Reverend David Olsen first hit town in early 1923. He announced his arrival by putting a small news article in the local paper saying that he’d arrived in Cottage Grove after being highly successful in the oil business in Half Moon Bay, California. A few weeks later, Olsen printed another announcement, inviting townspeople to an important meeting where they were to be told how they all could become rich. The following is a news account from the Oregonian at the time. It describes what transpired at the public meeting held at the high school auditorium in Cottage Grove on April 19, 1923:
Cottage Grove can have an oil gusher within a few months, a hundred or more of them within a year and work on the first one will start within thirty days from the time the people of Cottage Grove offer reasonable cooperation. This was the statement made at a mass meeting Tuesday night by Rev. David Olsen of California, formerly pastor there, secretary of a national Americanization movement and oil promoter. The meeting was arranged by local citizens and was the oddest promotion meeting ever held here.
The Rev. Mr. Olsen devoted the first part of his address to a sermonette and during the progress of his talk digressed to speak upon moral issues. He and his associates offered to guarantee that oil in paying quantities would be found and in the event of failure the money paid by local people would be returned to them.
Mr. Olsen had on the platform with him four weird machines of his own invention, by the use of which he claimed to be able to detect the presence of oil within one mile and to measure with accuracy the depth of each oil stratum. He said that many years of time and hundreds of thousands of dollars had been expended in their production and that, in thousands of trials they had never yet made an error.
One, having somewhat the appearance of a “waterwitch,” indicates the presence of oil underneath the spot over which the machine passes, he said. Another, having something of the appearance of a gander’s neck, points the direction of oil anywhere within a mile. It was asserted that these machines would never make a mistake even when used in an automobile traveling at 40 miles per hour.” The oil derrick was completed and ready to drill in November of 1923.
Time would pass and the Reverend Mr. Olsen would beg citizens for more cash in order to drill yet deeper to get to the “oil”. The public’s patience finally wore as thin as their bank accounts by the end of the year.
When a Mr. Woodard of Cottage Grove returned from Half Moon Bay, California to report that there were no such oil wells, that was the last straw. Fearing reprisals too much to endure, the Reverend Mr. Olsen slipped stealthily out of town with folk’s money and was never seen again. He was finally apprehended and jailed several years later in Canada for attempting a similar fraudulent oil well scheme. He has since been known in Cottage Grove’s history as, “Oily Olsen”, the rascal who stiffed the folks of Cottage Grove all those years ago.