Vachel McNutt was the discoverer of the first commercial potash deposits in the entire Western Hemisphere. His discovery ended the dependence of the U.S. on imported sources of potash, a commodity whose importance is due to its wide-spread use in the fertilizer industry.​

In 1925, while examining drill cuttings for petroleum exploration in New Mexico, McNutt recognized the potash minerals polyhalite and sylvite. There began a campaign of drilling the following year resulting in the development of the deposit. The American Potash (later, United States Potash) Company’s mine was the first to produce potash and served to found a new industry. All of the known commercial deposits were limited to an occurrence in Stassfurt, Germany prior to McNutt’s discovery.​

Vachel McNutt was widely known as a fine petroleum geologist as well. He was instrumental in the discovery of the Russell Pool in Russell County, Kansas. McNutt recommended the wildcat well that led to this discovery in 1923 and the field is still producing today. He is also responsible for the discovery of the Artesia Oil Field in eastern New Mexico.​

The V. H. McNutt Foundation was established to support the Department of Geology at the Missouri School of Mines, now the University of Missouri-Rolla, in 1926.​

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