The Rocky Mountain Oil Journal
Nearly a century ago, a new journal was introduced to the people of Montana. It focused on a relatively new and growing industry in the state that would eventually affect every citizen. The name of this new publication was the Montana Oil Journal. The following mission statement, which was written in 1921, is as follows:
“The Montana Oil Journal has been launched for the purpose of laying the oil fields of the state before the eyes of its readers with each issue. Essentially, it will be a magazine of oil news. Tremendous forces are producing oil and carrying on the search for new strikes: events are going forward with the velocity always apparent when the nucleus of a wealth-giving industry is formed. This publication proposes to become the log of the oil fields.
“The Journal will cover alike all sections of the state. Explorations will this year be carried into many of the fields that give promise of production, and it will be the business of the publication to record their progress and to report the personnel of the oil world. The host of people who are backing their faith in the Montana structures will find in it the news in which they are most interested.
“The sudden precipitation of the industry among more established lines found the state without legislation, which eventually will be necessary to regulate the fields and their output, and oil laws, actual and contemplated, will shortly be of vital consequence. The discovery of gold, the stocking of the ranges, the peopling of the prairies, the subduing of the soil each brought their distinct problems, and so it will be with oil. No publication devoted to the best interests of the industry can consistently avoid concerning itself with problems upon which hinge the advancement of the fields and the welfare of their people.”
So, with those brief remarks, the Montana Oil Journal was born. And like any infant growing up, numerous changes have occurred within the industry that have caused the paper to evolve. At one point the name was changed from the Montana Oil Journal to the Montana Oil and Mining Journal, because of increased mining efforts in Montana for precious minerals. With the discovery of oil in the Williston Basin, added coverage became mandatory for the paper to serve its expanding readership. Just like the industry, which has seen its ups and downs, so has the Rocky Mountain Oil Journal. When the current owners of the paper purchased the Montana Oil Journal in October 1991, there wasn’t even a rig running in the state of Montana that week.
But the belief in this industry to rebound and the resiliency of the people involved in the oil and gas industry gave the current publisher and editor the impetus to expand coverage and to change the name to the Rocky Mountain Oil Journal. It is because of our subscribers and advertisers that the paper (and now a website) will hopefully continue publishing pertinent information concerning our industry within the Rocky Mountain region far into the future.
The paper is owned and operated by two veterans of the industry. Cody Huseby, the editor, began his career as a scout with Exxon. Jerry Davis, the publisher, spent more than 24 years with Halliburton’s logging subsidiaries.
The RMOJ is not a glossy trade publication that sits out in the receptionist area. It is a “salt of the earth” publication that people in the Rockies use on a weekly basis. It is the industry standard in the Rocky Mountain region.
