, 1885-06-25
OILY
The Wonderful Petroleum Fields of
Wyoming.
An Interested Denver Man Tells
What He Knows.
Large Amounts to be Expended in
Development.

of the Tribune Republican. in which he
speaks in glowing terms of the petroleum
of this territory. Mr.. Goddard knows
what he is talking about. The paper
starts off by saving,
Recent d~evelopments among the hills
of the Sweetwater river. in Wyoming. are
bringing facts to light which indicate that
that territory is destined TO be a second
Pennsylvania in the production of fine
petroleum oils
1t then adds what Mr.. Goddard saws
which is as follows. Thirteen wears ago
DIR. George b. Graf, an Omaha physi.
clan, widely known as a great traveller
and agent of the Omaha Indians. was
touring it along the Sweetwater valley
Wyoming, where the continued and won
derful mount OF crude retroleum all over
the surface of the region first astonished
and then set him 10 Thinking Rac,ro no
had finished his tr;p DR. Graf rc,oo
nized that there was tbc sour.o If ,bo oil
supply for not only all tho western conn
trv for wears to come hn, Car cvno,, 70
foreign countries MS well Ue tool IN,
patents covering all the lands for 100
miles in length betwee, tho e,rty -sooond
and f,rtv-tb;rd nar,Ilels ofla,;,,lo 90
prisinp 40 ooo acres A comnorr r,s =,
once formed. being i-neorporated in Isso
as the Wyoming Oil Mining and Trans
portation comnonv and since tber s9oo .
900 have been exncnded in tho nrolir;nar,,
work of deyelonino the countrv T,ro oar
loads of plant and machinery arc now on
the way from Bradford p, Noooti,-
tons are being comnloted with a, Era
lish syndicate in London for an advance
of $500 600 vbercw;,b 70 onorot. nm =
scale more commensurate with this re-
eion's resources Two railroads ara br;ld.
ing in that direction. so that a speedv out-
let is assured.
The oil tract comprises four blocks
twenty-five miles in length, each one of
which has marked characteristics, and are
called respectively Shoshone. Beaver.
Rattlesnake, and Seminole basins. The
Shoshone is practically an oil lake. with a
crust of a consistency much like the lava
surface of a volcano crater, thirty.two
acres in area, so that in some parts a man
can walk safely on the oil cake crust and
in other parts he will break through and
be smothered in the liquid beneath This
oil crust is four feet thick on the top of
the ground dig into it anywhere and
shortly up comes a great volume of oil.
In fact so completely is the land 10 this
locality saturated, that if two holes be dug.
say five feet apart, and the oil as it fills
the holes be bowled one into the other.
the oil will find equality of level in both
precisely as when water is poured into one
vessel connected with a second the fluid
runs from one into the other until a com
mon level is reached in both,
The daily production by bowling frum .
hole dug in the ground is twenty five bar
rels and when English capitalists called
for a flow of twenty-i five barrels daily for
ten consecutive days, they were astonished
to find that 100 barrels could daily
run to waste from each of the two wells.
a thousand feet apart and sunk eighty
feet. On the summit of a rock 800 feet
high and near the bottoms, a visitor recent
ly kicked off a patch of moss, when to his
surprise he found the rock beneath wet
with petroleum. 1t is claimed that enough
gas escapes to supply New York City, and
iteomes to the surface with loud spluttering
noises. The ShoshoDe product is intensely
black. giving six Oscillations of naptha, to
the extent of GO. Over A. per cent Of
kerosene, 1892 first test, was obtained,
besides giving 80 per cent of a neutral and
lighter colored lubricating oil with II per
cent of dry coke. The oil flowing from tn
wells has a gravity of 2Oo Beaume. This
basin is Ikea vast ampitheater so peculiarly
are the hills and lodges ranged about it,
and rain-bows continually hang over the
place, beyond which rose tinted crags
form at outer circle. There is little vege.
tation here, but there are springs Of water
which rival the famous Empire spring at
Saratoga N. Y. The taste is a little sui
phurous at first, but it is forgotten in a
second sip II is wonderful appetizer,
and yet a big oil hole may only be ten
feet distant Shoshone is 8. 200 feet above
the level of the sea.
The Beaver basin is for all the world
like a crater valley with a huge cone tow
ering in the middle. 1t is G,l00 above
the sea level, and has W. wells in par.
tial running order giving what is claimed
TO be the best lubricant in the American
market ofa gravity in the crude of 1896
Beaume, of a color like dark mahogany