The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-07-06
The Great OH strike.

such panic in the oil market yesterday,
has been thorn in the side of the indus
try for several weeks. Rumors of the
widest nature were circulated about it
every day. The bulls of the Bradford
market, in declaring the well fraud,
showed persistency only equalled by
the startling ingenuity of the fabrica-
tions supporting their views. The bears,
with a bulldog tenacity, held to the be-
lief that when the mystery was solved,
the whole of Warren county would be
swimming in oil, that the Allegheny
river would be turned into great stream
of petroleum, end that the people would
from lake Erie. For nearly two months
the oil producing industry was in state
of painful anxiety. Everyone had an
instructive dread that when they awoke
some morning they would find the bot
tom of the oil market fallen into space.
Holders of long oil were ready to sell at
a moments notice. Brokers and dealers
in pipe line certificates employed men to
watch the we'll day and night, and to
telegraph every few hours any change in
the situation. All this time the mystery
was as dumb and as still as the stony
eyed Sphinx. A band of drillers and
tool dressers, loaded down with rifles,
revolvers, aud any quantity of knives,
guarded the we'll with the blood
thirsty lnrtructions to shoot at
sight. In the face of this array
of reckless rifiemen no man dared
to approach. Tue brokers' scouts
took long-range observations from the
topmost branches of trees, and spent the
sunny hours in devising ways for sur
prising the guard and becoming pos
sessed of the coveted knowledge Of the
wells true condition. The days ran
along into weeks, until the we'll gave
signs of unusual animation. The pro-
prietors left their homes in jamestown,
N. Y, and watched the proceedings with
feverish interest.
It was lonesome place, deep in the
almost unbroken forest, miles away
from town. Beyond the clank of the drill
and the smoke from the steam boiler
there was nothing in sound or sight to
disturb the stiffness and parity of ma
ture. The path to the we'll wa" on the
moss and pine cones under the trees. A
huge charred stump and ridge among
the hills we're the only guides. Yet in
all its loneliness men hocked to the
place by the score; hundreds came and
went in week. Slowly the great walk
ing beam swung up and down with the
swaying, straining cable and monstrous
drill, ton of iron. The men waited be-
tween hope and fear for the end. 1t
came one day when the watchers had
grown weary. A little puff of gas
struggled up from the bowels of the
earth, sixteen hundred feet below the
surface The ponderous drill never
stopped, but plunged deeper into the
sand and rock. The end was very near.
After a while little bit of oil was
thrown out by the gas. The drill was
then drawn to the surface, dripping with
oil. While yet the silent woods were
echoing back the joyful hurrahs of the
drillers, solid stream of oil seven
inches in diameter. gushed forth and
deluged rocks and trees. 1t was done,
and done we'll.
The owners we're happy. Little cared
they for the evil predictions OF envious
Closing up the well from all outsiders
they ceased operations in order to buy or
lease all the available territory for miles
around.
While they were doing this the mys-
tery became torment to the Bradford
brokers, but until the owners were ready
to open the we'll nothing definite could
be learned. Last Thursday the owners
we're ready and anxious for the final test.
Late in the afternoon the drill and the
bailer cleared the we'll of sand and sedi-
ment. The oil came slowly to the sur
face, and dubbed up as If reluctant to
see the light of day. Then it came with
q rush, and bursting iron pipes and oil
savers, leaped high above the derrick in
q great column of green and gold. All
night and the next day it gushed forth Q
orient of oil. Friday evening thous-
and barrels of petroleum had poured
in fierce spurts from the iron casing.
The excitement in the Oil Exchanges
was tremendous. Men sold oil for what
it would bring, and under the awful
pressure of probable ruin, one man in
Bradford got rid of million barrels.
What the end may be no one pretends to
tell. A vast territory will be open to oil
Developments, and the forests Of pines
and hemlocks in Warren county will
give place to forests Of oil derricks and
dozens of new towns. It means life to
Warren, almost certain oblivion to Brad
ford, and death to prices.
DETAILS OF THE DRILLING.
It Is now flowing eight hundred
barrels through the casing every twenty
four hours, and is not yet finished. It
has been known "a the "6A6" Mystery.
Il is about fourteen miles south from