Collections : [Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library]

The collection, 1974, 2019, undated, includes a mixture of mostly images, a news report Dick wrote about the blowout [natural gas well fire] east of I-75 near Waters, Michigan, in 1976, and biographical information on Bolton and Red Adair.

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Note: Two Oversized boxes of mounted photographs, .25 cubic foot, which were published in local newspapers were withdrawn during processing.