Discovered, I don’t know. But it is extracted from natural gas, which Amarillo had access to a lot and formed the Helium Reserve of the US. Being also near to Pantex, where classified work was done on nuclear arms, we lived a nuke life.
Had a driller outfit...not too far from me...here in NE OK...thinking they had found Helium...
It was a dry well....and they spent a ton of $$$.