Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1885-07-30
OIL WE'LL ADVENTURES.
Some Curious Information About
the Life OF an Oil Scout.
Watching the Mysteries "A Man Who
Made $4,000 by Watching q Great
Gusher-Twenty-f0ur Hours Under
. Derrick Floor "A Capture.

Gusher-Twenty-fOur Hours Under
Derrick Floor Capture.
Joe Chappeau, one OF the most expert
scouts i'm the oil regions, gives some curious
information about the life of an oil scout.
The incidents he relates give an idea of the
dangerous work OF prospecting for oil.
'Two men in our business" he said, shave
had experience that would make an inter
esting chapter in any book of adventure.
The one is Hughes, the other Beaumont,
Hughes was the first man to make scouting
Tor oil his business. He had been working
about oil wells for several years, when one
day, in the winter of 1881 he received a
message from a firm of oil operators at
Bradford telling him of delicate piece OF
work they wanted done. He was offered a
liberal salary, and a bonus if the venture
succeeded. Until he had agreed to accent
the Offer no instructions were given him.
Then he was directed to spy out the well
numbered GAG.
"To reach the well where his labors were
to begin Hughes had to travel from Warren
20 some fourteen miles through great hem
lock forest. The weather was bitter cold.
beaten track several feet in depth. No
GAG was i'm the midst of Wilderness 1t
was a wildcat venture that was pushed out
beyond the bounds of civilization. Only a
logging road connected it with Warren
Besides the drillers' house there were not a
half-dozen houses between the well and the
town, fourteen miles away. The tall hem
lock trees with a close underbrush grew all
about the derricks.
- IIuphps Spcured hon ri py bo MOO roC%
farmhouse, and his scouting began. At
first the drillers paid little attention to
him. He would drop in on them usually
once day, talk awhile, loiter around, and
then leave. AS the drill kept drawing close
to the oil rocks, though, Hughes began to
he looked upon as an intruder. Finally he
was ordered off the premises entirely, and
warned not to approach the well at his
own peril. The trees and thick underbrush
however, afforded him hiding places from
which he could observe all that was doing
After he had been watching the well for al
most two months, by certain indications
known to the oil expert he became satisfied
that the drill was about tapping the sand
The vigilance about the well had redoubled.
His hiding places in the underbrush had
been discovered. the underbrush cleared
away and the derrick boarded up. Then
Captain Grace, one of the owners of the
mys1ry, brought up half-dozen men from
the rmber camps to serve as guards
Ea1 was armed with breech- loading rifle,
anSw. dered to use it in protecting the WELL
III l,imbermen were wild crew, who de-
hgAN in their new vocation. When
H4iles would be lowering about the mys-
txr on a dark night, the least crackle of a
IL would call forth a shot from one of the
r. rds. Then the whole number would
ferlfn perfect fusilade into the black forest
irai TT surrounded the well like an inky wall
oro re bullets would go whistling past the
hturesome scout in way that was any
'wn ing but comfortable.
, He One night Hughes was called away from
IL ;,ut duty and left friend who had come
i''uD to visit him to keep lookout on the
'cotystery. His friend had hardly penetrated
n, re ravine in which GAG stood before the
q Yards began a promiscuous firing i'm his
ERECTION. They had not seen him, but had
Undetermined his proximity in some other
,Eway. He dropped behind log i'm time to
ESCAPE bullet that buried itself i'm a tree
Inot two inches from where his head had
y been. lie did not lose any time in scram-
bling out OF range, and the well was left I'M
watched for the rest of the night. When
Hughes returned the next day and heard of
his friends narrow escape, he started i'm
mediately over to see Captain Grace. He
and Grace had n warm discussion over the
careless way the guards were shooting into
the forest, and Grace finally said that he
would stop the promiscuous firing.
If they don't, Hughes said, IN retali-
ater
"'All right replied the Captain That
kind of firing will be stopped, but warn
you not to tempt them by trespassing
while they have guns in their hands.
Hughes felt much easier; he could work
with more comfort then. He took close
survey OF the well that night, and resolved
on new course OF action. The derrick
reared its skeleton framework right through
the branches OF a couple of tall hemlocks.
From the left side of the ravine another
hemlock tree had been partly torn from its
roots and rested against one of the larger
trees touching the derrick. The next ght
was dark and stormy. Making his way to
the bent tree, he climbed to the larger one
and then easily dropped from that to the
derrick. To descend the framework of the
latter without making any noise was the
work OF n minute. As soon as he could
hear the voices of the drillers he stopped
and listened. For more than two hours he
sat there close to the derrick with quick
ear Tor all that was said and DONE After
awhile his cramped position became I'M
bearable and he assembled the derrick,
passed to the ground and went home.
They were tapping the sand, he gathered
from what he heard, and he felt like hug
ging himself for JOY at the place he had
found from which everything done could
be observed. For three nights he went to
the derrick by way of the tree. A few min
ute's climb, a couple OF hours clinging to
the derrick, and all the doings at the well
Tor the night we're known. When he came
the fourth night he was almost on the der
rick before he observed that a guard sat on
the top platform dangling his feet in space
whistling softly to himself, and grasping a
gun in one hand. Hughes knew that his
observation place had been discovered,
and slipped back into the gloom to think
out another plan. After circling about the
derrick a couple OF times to find out where
the men were placed. Hughes discovered
that, beyond an occasional visit OF the fire
men, the engine-house was comparatively
unmatched. Without losing q moments
time he slipped out OF the woods, and
lodged and crept to the outlying shed of
the derrick. Then he crawled along the
timbers until he lay close against the der
rick floor. He could hear unusual prepare
lions going on, and was eager to get nearer
Besides he was liable to be discovered by
one OF the men who kept futtering about
from the derrick room past him to the
other parts OF the machinery. Al! the
While the dF!len wsFs making unusual