Oil men drilled more than eighty wells in Utah from 1907 through 1912. In addition, John C. Howard incorporated the Utah Oil Refining Company and completed the construction of a refinery at the northern edge of Salt Lake City in 1909. After 1912, however, the state's oil industry went into a slump from which it did not totally recover until 1922.

However, the prospect of finding petroleum continued to lure a few explorers to various regions of Utah, and from 1916 to 1921 several companies, including such major operators as the Ohio Oil Company and the Midwest Refining Company, drilled a dozen deep test holes. Observing the persistence of these enterprises, one writer concluded in 1925 that their efforts were justified because Utah's structural and surface conditions held "exceptional promise for oil and gas accumulation."

During the 1920s petroleum companies accelerated the tempo of exploration throughout Utah. In addition to working over areas previously examined, oil men initiated drilling projects in new locations such as Salt Lake City itself, where one company drilled a well at the north end of Redwood Road while a second firm sank a well near Highland Drive. Enterprising petroleum operators also tested the Great Salt Lake to a greater extent than had been done previously. The Lakeside Oil Company drilled on the western shore of the lake, and an offshore rig was built on a pier near Rozel Point at the lake's northern tip.