Getting something out of it

Lander was the first place in Wyoming where oil was discovered in 1833, by Captain Benjamin L.E. Bonneville, who called a pool of oil he found here the "Great Tar Spring." When the "Spring" was drilled 51 years later, it proved to be a "spouter" capable of producing 200 barrels a day of top-notch crude.

Oil is still drilled in the area today.