Laramie Midwest Refinery   Historically Insignificant

The Midwest/Standard Oil refinery started with one bank of ten stills that were located north of the Midwest Oil control building. These were the first stills to be constructed, starting in the late summer of 1919. These featured an open archway that ran through the 30′ long bases. These were used for heating the crude oil, and in concert with the machinery that would be located in the production line, the oil would move from still tank to still tank in order to dispense the different oil products. The still foundations, or bases, resembled a “bread pan {turned} upside down”, as is evidenced by the images included on this page. These foundations would hold large, (10′ diameter by 30′ long), tanks. The foundations were made reinforced concrete, and had (have), caissons that extend at least 15′ into the ground. All in all, these stills contained the initial 6000 cubic yards of concrete.

The North Still Banks, highlighted. (Courtesy LRCD)

There has been a recent discovery  of images that were made during the construction of the refinery; specifically of this bank of still foundations. These images can be found on the Historic Photographs page. The image below is also found on that page.

A pair of workers sit on top of one of the tanks that would be placed on top of the foundations, (circa 1919). (Courtesy of the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, digital collections)

This foundation is inside of the yttrium building, the resemblance to the “bread pan” can easily be seen. The wooden framing was added later as a means to both enclose the space between foundations, and to provide a floor that spans across three of the foundations and to the western cinder block wall.