Tiger Mike Davis and the Discovery of Two of the Most Iconic Oil Fields in the Rockies

Abstract

Born in rural hard times during the Depression and without a high-school education, Edward “Tiger” Mike Davis became one of the richest, most colorful wildcatters in America. Davis dropped out of high school in Nebraska in 1947 and joined the Army. After serving in Europe he came to Denver, driving trucks and “swamping” in bars until lightning struck. He answered a blind ad for a chauffeur in 1956 and became the driver for Helen Bonfils, a fashionable socialite and heir to the Denver Post fortune. Davis (28) married “Miss Helen” (69) in 1959, and she set him up in the oil business. Not long thereafter he began a lifelong love affair with Phyllis McGuire. She was the youngest of the pop trio, The McGuire Sisters, who were most famous for their #1 hits, Sincerely and Sugartime. “Miss Phyllis” was also involved at the time with Sam “Momo” Giancana, heir to Al Capone as Boss of the Chicago Mob. Pugnacious and generous, profane and shrewd, above all Mike Davis was a wildcatter. Among his greatest financial successes were the sales of his early positions in two of the most iconic oil fields in the Rockies: Bell Creek, Montana, and Red Wing Creek, North Dakota. Sam Gary, Sr. discovered Bell Creek Field in the northern Powder River basin in 1967 after a long string of dry holes. Mike Davis got wind of the discovery and sent landmen with briefcases full of cash to buy leases. He sold his position in the field for $25 million. Bell Creek has produced about 140 million barrels of oil from a Muddy Sandstone stratigraphic trap. Red Wing Creek was discovered by True Oil Co. on a farmout from Rainbow Resources in 1972. Davis paid Rainbow $10 million for their 1/8 working interest position, and then sold it days later to Amoco for twice that sum. A meteorite impact feature with nearly 3,000 feet of Mission Canyon oil pay, Red Wing Creek has produced about 20 million barrels of oil. Tiger Mike’s story is hard to tell without four-letter words, as his swearing was the stuff of legends. No G-rated abstract or PowerPoint presentation can do him justice. He died in 2016 at 85 from complications of prostate cancer. At the memorial service, one mourner told the bereaved, “Mike Davis put the F.U. in funeral.”

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90357 ©2019 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Cheyenne, Wyoming, September 15-18, 2019