When workers, looking for coal in 1876, drilled a hole into the ground near the East Central Indiana town of Eaton that is now part of Muncie, a loud noise and an odious smell convinced some that they had discovered hell instead.

Corking up the hole, the workers walked away from their find not realizing its significance until eight years later when natural gas, found in Ohio, was reported in Indiana papers. Suddenly the Indiana gas boom was on, changing the landscape of a large part of the state from a rural to an industrial base with the founding of such businesses as the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Co., Hemmingray Bottle and the Insulating Gas Company. U.S. Steel chose Northwest Indiana for its operations in part because of easy access to gas.

The gas, many thought, would last forever and despite warnings that it was being wasted and legislative actions to limit flambeaus or flames lit at the top of each well the practice continued and that, coupled with other wasteful practices brought the boom to a bust by the early 1900s.