Story and Photos by Jack Halstead

It's a gray day, with a chilling mist adding to the dismalness of the mood. Gary Henigman feels the chill more than most, as he wends his way down the muddy roads of the family oilfield, just north of Dudley.

While most of us revel in low oil prices and the rock-bottom gasoline prices that go with them, Gary, who's president of Henigman Oil Co. in Martinsville, finds low oil prices take a lot of the zest out of the business.

Those of us who grew up watching "Dallas" find it hard to imagine tough times down in the oil patch. The big stretch limos on that show had stars as hood ornaments, and so does Gary's gray minivan. But the similarity ends there. His hood ornament is the five-point logo of a Chrysler product, not the three-point star of Mercedes-Benz fame.

There are loafers, not cowboy boots, and casual clothes, not megabuck suits. He's not heading for the family helipad, where the private chopper will take him to the airport. Then on to board the family jet to fly off to talk to the senator whom the family owns.

"The Henigman boys had an advantage. They had a "doodle-bug," a gadget invented by their father. It worked much like a dowsing rod for water, and worked well in the hands of a skilled operator"

Instead, he's stopping by the fields to check on the service work being done on a well. Afterward, he'll take his minivan on to the family flower shop that he and his wife bought, to diversify. They hope fervently that it will enable them to weather the latest dry spell.

But to be honest, Gary does plan to see his senator, later in the day. Sen. Dick Durbin has announced plans to be in nearby Paris, and Gary plans to be there. He hopes to let Durbin know that times are tough, and that he wants some relief. In reality, that's probably the way most Americans visit their senators.

Even though very few Illinois oil families became wealthy enough to live like the people on Dallas, many did become quite rich. But

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most of them did it years ago, when oil was easier to coax up out of the ground, there was a lot more of it and prices were better.

The Henigman family was a part of those heady days. Gary's father, Walter, and his uncle, Frank, got into the oil business right after they came home from World War II, and family members helped them with loans of $20-$50. They knew there was oil in Texas, Oklahoma and California, but they wanted to stay closer to their home and family, largely to keep costs down.

They also knew that southern Illinois had oil too, if you knew where to look. They knew, for example, that the discovery of the Salem Field, which had taken place a decade or so before World War II, had been the last large inland oil find in the U.S. At the peak of its production, the Salem field shipped some 168,000 barrels of oil a day. You didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that there might well be oil nearby.

The Henigman boys had an advantage. They had a "doodle-bug," a gadget invented by their father. It worked much like a dowsing rod for water, and worked well in the hands of a skilled operator.

Gary notes that he's put together a family history, and while researching it, came upon a map with lots of mysterious symbols. He figures those scratchings marked spots where "hits" occurred, and different symbols indicated the varying degrees of optimism each hit generated.

At any rate, the Henigman brothers did find oil in Edgar County, and they became a part of the economic fabric of downstate Illinois in a big way. The field is served by EnerStar Power, formerly Edgar Electric Co-operative Association. As time went by, thousands of Illinoisans found work in the oil industry, and thousands of others got jobs supporting them. Some — not as many as in the past — are still there.

Visiting Lester's, a corner cafe in the tiny town of Redmon, Gary runs into a man who works for him. "His dad worked for my dad," Gary says, "and he works for me. There are a lot of long-term relationships in the industry, and when prices are low, everyone suffers — from me, to my employees, to all the little oilfield service companies, to all the little cafes and stores people like us patronize."

Leian Russell, executive vice president of the Illinois Oil and

"There are a lot of long-term relationships in the industry, and when prices are low, everyone suffers — from me, to my employees, to all the little oilfield service companies, to all the little cafes and stores people like us patronize."

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Gas Association in Mt. Vernon, remarks that a lot of those relationships are in trouble, because of major problems in the state's oilfields. "Illinois is fourth in the nation in the number of what we call 'stripper,' or marginal wells, and we shipped 15.8 million barrels last year. "We've had a lot of people drop out of the business," he says, "and a lot of service companies, too. We figure that there have been 600 jobs lost in the last six months, and maybe more. Revenues are down $158 million in the last 15 months. Times are really tough in the oilfields, and even if we start getting good prices now, "There are many retired people in Southern Illinois who have a little well or two on their property. They generally receive one-eighth of the revenues from those wells, and many have used that money to supplement their Social Security checks."

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it'll take a long time for a recovery to really kick in."

Russell points out that there are many more people who will be affected as time goes by, if they aren't already. "There are many retired people in Southern Illinois who have a little well or two on their property. They generally receive one-eighth of the revenues from those wells, and many have used that money to supplement their Social Security checks. Of course, their checks have been really small lately."

He adds that county governments will also feel the pinch soon. "There's an ad valorem tax on oil," he explains, "and it's renegotiated annually, based on the price of crude oil. Those tax revenues will be really down after we account for the last year or so."

Russell refers to the attrition in the oil patch as the loss of "silent jobs," and that the wastage tends to go unnoticed. "What's happening here isn't like a factory closing in town, which gets everybody's attention right away. Here, we have people losing jobs, but it's a job or two at a time, so people don't see it as a problem. But it's still a real problem for the people losing their jobs, and I hope we can find a solution soon."

Henigman notes that his field, which started out as a family operation, is still one, with his brothers and sister sharing equally in the proceeds. In addition, he's paid a small salary, to help try to maximize efficiencies and profits.

"Things vary from well to well," he says, "but in general, we need a price of about $12.50 a barrel just to break even. The price was as low as $8.75 a barrel a year or so ago, and that really hurt. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, agreed to slow production to raise prices," he continues, "and prices have gone up a little in the last couple of months.

"I know a lot of people aren't happy with that, but if you adjust for inflation and factor out taxes, gasoline's cheaper than it's ever been," he says.

"Our oil operation is a lot like a farming operation," Gary says, "in that there are a lot of average years, an occasional 'boom' year and an occasional 'bust' year, like this one. The oil business is also a lot like farming in that it gets in your blood."

While there's often the temptation to throw in the towel, there's also the hope — always the hope — that things will get better soon. "But while we're waiting," he says, "the expenses go on. All these wells have motor-driven pumps, and they run day and night. Wells also need to be serviced to keep them producing. When something goes wrong, I have to pay to have it fixed."

Ernest C. Weber, manager of Norris Electric Cooperative, Newton, notes that his co-op has quite a few oil wells on its system, and that oilfields tend to be good customers. "Many, in fact most of our loads are industrial or residential, and they have lights and machinery that they turn on and off as needed. The motors used to pump oil run 24 hours a day, day in and day out, and that gives us a really good load factor. Norris Electric has some 17,500 members, and our oilfield's accounts for about a third of our load. They've been very good for us."

Henigman, who writes a hefty check to EnerStar Power of Paris every month, is one who helps with a load factor. He remarks that at today's prices, some of his wells are still making money for him, while others are costing him. Soon, he hopes, prices will go up enough that all will show some profit, before he has to dip into his retirement savings.

"I hope to have something to pass on to my children, he says. "We have some family traditions that I like to keep going."

"When I was just a little kid," Gary says, "my dad used to bring me out here and take me up on the catwalks workers use to service the tanks. Even when I was too little to be able to look in, he'd hold me up so I could look down and see the oil in the tank, then he'd spit in the tank. He'd let me spit in it, too.

"Even now, I take my kids down to the tanks and do the same thing. It's just a family tradition that dad started, and as silly as it seems, I'd like to see my kids carry on with it."

While most of us who buy oil products aren't thrilled at the prospect of paying more for gas, we should note that it's actually priced lower now than it has ever been, if you adjust for inflation. Some traditions are worth keeping.

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