Wildcatter

A Wildcatter ( engl: Wild Cat) is the American term for a person who is looking for oil and performs initial drilling. The term for American oil pickup from the early early days of the oil industry in western Pennsylvania. On March 1, appeared in 1880 in the newspaper " Herald " of Titusville, ( Pensilvania ) of the first articles on the work of the Wildcatter.

One of the remarkable Wildcatter was the Texas oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy (1907-1988), he was known as "The King of the Wildcatters ".

Wildcatter was also American slang for any risky enterprise in the 19th century, before the term became known in the petroleum industry.