Carlsbad Field Office celebrates 100 years of potash

On Aug. 1, 1925, Vachel Harry McNutt looked at the drill cuttings from an oil well outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, and believed he saw potash, the trade name for potassium-bearing minerals used to fertilize crops.

It turned out McNutt was right, and 100 years later, the Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad Field Office held a celebration Aug. 1 commemorating his discovery. Potash was important for the Carlsbad area because it brought jobs and prosperity and for the country due to its vital role in plant growth for food production.

Many in the Carlsbad Field Office help implement the Secretary of the Interior’s 2012 order on potash, which enables potash mining and oil and gas drilling to take place in the same area of BLM land safely and productively.

The celebration took place at lunch time, and Tom Evans, a geologist who specializes in potash, gave a talk detailing the importance and history of the minerals. Allison Morency, a petroleum engineer, and Ashley Shreves, an outdoor recreation planner, drew pictures and created a 20-foot banner depicting potash’s history. Paul Murphy, a natural resource specialist, baked a cake with stratified layers and a mine shaft with crumpled blue and pink rock candy to represent potash.

Jim Rutley, meanwhile, a geologist who has worked in the potash industry for more than 30 years – 18 years with the BLM – acted as a consultant and helped pull everything together. The occasion was so momentous he brought along his mother, Pat Rutley. An expert in potash, he plans to give a talk during the City of Carlsbad’s celebration Sept. 3.

Dawn Jones, manager of the Carlsbad Field Office, thanked everyone who put the event together.

Evans, during his presentation, said that when McNutt discovered the vast deposit of potash ore in 1925, the United States was nearly 100% dependent on German potash. When World War I began, Germany placed an embargo on the importation of their potash, and it became prohibitively expensive. Potash prices quickly went from $35 (more than $1,000 today) per ton to almost $500 per ton (more than $16,000 today).

When McNutt found potash near Carlsbad, he was a hero for several reasons, Evans said.

“He understood the national need for potash,” Evans said. “He understood his oil geology. He understood his potash geology, and more importantly, he was observant. All those other geologists in the entire basin who had been looking at drill cuttings, who had seen this Salado Formation, all those people, they didn’t realize that that pink thing was so important and that everyone in the U.S. was looking for it.”

McNutt’s discovery stands as a great example of opportunity meeting the prepared mind, Evans said.

The discovery helped the United States gain greater self-determination by not having to rely on other countries for potash, Evans said. In the United States, miners produce potash only in Carlsbad and Utah. Meanwhile, Canada is the largest producer in the world.

Evans detailed the history of potash throughout the years, including the fact that on July 31, 1790, Samuel Hopkins received the first U.S. patent, signed by President George Washington, for a new method of making potash and pearl ash. Before mining, producers made potash by burning plants, adding water to the ashes and allowing it to evaporate.

Evans held a (nonalcoholic) toast to McNutt and answered several questions from the audience, including the one on everyone’s mind: “Do you think V.H. McNutt licked the potash when he found it?”

“Hard yes,” Evans said, referring to the tendency of geologists to lick rocks to help identify them. “I have zero doubts.”