10/30/2025
The wildcat era of oil exploitation in Michigan was a dynamic time in Michigan with new oil fields discovered across the Michigan Basin during the 1930s and 1940s. One aspect of this time I have found especially fascinating are the small refineries that popped up in some of the fields, particularly in 1930s. Some would last and grow into much bigger facilities, others disappearing as quickly as they popped up (many disappearing with the end of World War 2). The two refineries in Bloomingdale fall into the category of the short-lived operations.
When oil was discovered in Bloomingdale on August 17, 1938, it would become quite a boon for the Michigan Central’s Kalamazoo & South Haven branch. To serve this field, two refineries would open in Bloomingdale, the Fort Dale Oil & Refining Company refinery and the Glencoe Refining Company refinery, both came online in 1939. This real photo postcard features an aerial view of the Fort Dale refinery that was located on the east side of town. Visible are tank cars on the siding along the Kalamazoo & South Haven, the refinery office with gas pumps in front if you wanted to buy directly from the refinery, a loading rack for filling tank trucks, a laboratory, the boiler house, the still, bubble tower, condenser, tail house, many above ground storage tanks (ASTs) and a waste lagoon. The refinery had a 1,500 barrel a day capacity when first opened.
At the start of operations, the refinery was shipping 33 tank cars of gasoline a day. Crude was received from fields in Hopkins, Burnaps, Deerfield, North Bangor, Trowbridge, McDonald, Geneva, Berlamont, Overisel, and Bloomingdale. Crude came to the refinery via tank car, truck and pipeline but after October 1942 crude within 200 miles of the refinery could no longer use tank cars due to wartime shortages. For a time in 1944, crude oil from Texas was brought to this Bloomingdale refinery via tank car for refining. The refinery was a big enough customer for the Michigan Central that daily service returned to the Kalamazoo & South Haven in 1944. Gasoline from this refinery was primarily shipped to markets in Northern Indiana (65% via truck). Fort Dale Oil & Refining Company would become the Erie Refining Company in 1945, with the refinery closing that year, then dismantled and shipped to Warren Ohio. Oil from the Bloomingdale field would then travel by pipeline to the Midwest Refinery in Grand Rapids. The Glencoe refinery, which had been located on the west side of Bloomingdale, was even shorter lived, being closed by the state in 1940 for tax reasons. This refinery was dismantled and moved to Reed City to become the refinery there.
Real photo postcard by L.L. Cook.
