The collection, 1974, 2019, undated, includes a mixture of mostly Michigan oil and gas images that Dick photographed, mostly of or about the blowout [natural gas well fire] east of I-75 near Waters and Gaylord, Michigan, in June 1976; a news report Dick Bolton wrote about the blowout; and biographical information on Dick and Red Adair. There are eleven small slide boxes of slides and fifteen oversized photographic materials. The slides, collage, and galley prints are colored, whereas the rest of the photographs are black and white. Images include oil well workers, the Red Adair fire fighters, the blowout near Waters and Gaylord, Michigan, in 1976, the installation of oil rigs, and related views. Although all of Dick’s blowout images are dated June 7, 1976, they were actually photographed during the entire month that the fire raged. Five larger images are mounted, matted, or both. Miscellaneous slides include equipment, snow scenes, and fire in the woods. A 2021 addition to the collection is a yellow, plastic MSA safety hardhat, undated, used in 1976, with a felt and cotton lining with a plastic size adjuster. The hardhat has a red, white, blue, and black sticker of an oil well on fire with the text, Red Adair Co. Wild Well Control, Houston, Texas, Oil Well Fires-Blowouts. The hard hat measures 11 inches long, 6 inches high, and 9 inches in width.
Processing Note: Two Oversized boxes of mounted photographs, .25 cubic foot, which were published in local newspapers were withdrawn during processing.
Biography:
Richard (Dick) Bolton III was born on May 19, 1944 in Utica, Oneida, New York (State). States. Dick graduated from Manlius School in 1962, earned a bachelor’s degree in English, a second major in advertising journalism from Syracuse University in 1967, and a Master of Arts degree in journalism from Central Michigan University (CMU) in 1972. Dick served in the United States Air Force, 1967-1971, where he earned the Vietnam Campaign Service ribbon.
From 1972 to the mid-1980s Dick taught photojournalism at CMU on a full- and part-time basis. He was the editor of the Michigan Oil and Gas News, 1973-1981, during which time he heard about the blowout [natural gas well fire] east of I-75 near Waters and Gaylord, Michigan, in June 1976. Dick drove to the fire to photograph and write about the blowout, and returned numerous times during the month the fire raged to report and photograph new information about the challenges Red Adair and his team faced there. Dick was also a partner in Cross County Communications and Exploration, 1981-1987; staff photographer for the Morning Sun, late 9180s-early 1990s; owner and operator of Salt River Woodworks, 1990s, and was a photographer and columnist for the Morning Sun, 1999-2010. He served on the Shepherd School Board and Shepherd School Improvement Team, as well as on the Coe Township Planning Commission and Coe Township Board of Appeals.
Dick enjoyed outdoors activities. He was an avid woodworker. For many years he was a member of the Central Michigan Area Concert band’s trumpet section.
When Dick died on November 27, 2010, he was survived by his wife and daughter, Sharon Appleby Bolton and Kathryn Curran, and other relatives. (This information is from the collection.)
Red Adair (June 18, 1915- August 7, 2004) was a firefighter who specialized in oil well fires. A Texan, he served in World War II. Adair began fighting oil and gas well fires after his time serving in the Army bomb disposal unit. He worked for the “original” oil firefighter, Myron Kinley. Adair earned global attention fighting over 2,000 international land and offshore oil and gas well fires. In the summer of 1976 Adair and his team worked for a month to successfully cap and extinguish a large, dangerous blowout [natural gas well fire] east of I-75 near Waters and Gaylord, Michigan. Adair retired in 1993. (This information is from the collection.)
