The presence of a structural basin in the western Dakotas, was noted by exploration parties along the Missouri River about 100 years ago. Discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874, and of artesian water in the Dakota sandstone early in the 1880's, led to rapid delineation of the eastern and southwestern sides of the basin. The Cedar Creek anticline and the Nesson anticline were discovered in 1910 and 1917, respectively, incidental to the inventory of our coal resources.

About 25 oil tests were started within the basin proper between 1920 and 1925. Six or eight of these went deep enough to supply useful pre-Cretaceous stratigraphic information, but most of the early interpretations were incorrect.

Appreciation of the oil possibilities of the area as a structural basin awaited the development of the Michigan and Illinois basins in the early 1930's. Modern exploration began with the drilling of the Gypsy No. 1 Hunter in South Dakota and the California No. 1 Kamp in North Dakota in 1937-38. The first concerted efforts to locate stratigraphic traps were made in the 1940's.

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