, 1885-10-30
OIL BELTS.
Prof Aughey Tells Something About
the Petroleum of Wyoming.
Showing its Existence in immense
Quantities in the Territory.

Prof. Aughey, territorial geologist, has
a very interesting essay on the oil belts of
this territory in the last number of the
Mining Rcricic, from which we make the
following extract:
Several conspicuous oil belts occur in
Wyoming. The most extensive lies east
Of the Wind river, and north of the Rat
tlesnake mountains, 1t commences at
Fort Washakie ON the west and extends
eastward to the big bend in the Platte
river, or from range 81 to l0l west. a dis
lance OF l26 miles; and in townships 80,
81, 80 and 33 north. Along this line oil
occurs at intervals and in basins, but the
oil phenomena hat appear at the surface
run proximately in a northwesterly and
southeasterly direction.
Commencing on the west the first i'm
portant oil springs occur at Fort Washa-
kie, on the Shoshonc Indian reservation.
Southeast from Washable. twenty. FIVE
miles on the Little Papoagie river are the
Shoshonc oil springs and wells. Here,
over an erea of from sixty to eighty acres
in a narrow valley worn down on an antic-
linal fold, are an immense number of oil
escapes, and a large quantity of hardened
oil from three inches to three feet thick.
A bog originally existed here filed with
mud, water and oil. This was drained by
Strengthening the channel OF the river,
putting a dam across each end of the old
bed and using it as a reservoir for the oil.
The first well put down here twelve feet
deep had a hole bored in the center TWEEN
ty-seven feet deeper, which produced be-
fore the hole filed up, ten barrels per day.
The Omaha Oil and Transportation COM
pany have since bored two wells. The
one bored in February last to a depth of
ninety feet produces about eighty barrels
Of oil per day. Another bored the early
part Of this season over three hundred
feet deep produces over three hundred
barrels per twenty-four hours. The entire
yield at this point, at present, from
springs AMI wells cannot be less than
900 barrels per day.
By the windings of the road forty miles
east of the Shoshone the Beaver Oil Ba,
sin occurs. The oil here escapes in a
number Of springs. 1t energies in and
arolnd a cove which is the center of an
anticlinal uplift. Here a shallow well full
Of water is constantly boiling from the es-
cape Of gas. A large quantity of har-
dened oil in places covers the surface, and
the rocks around arc saturated with pc
troleum. The boring commenced here in
the spring will early be resumed. Thirty
miles east Of this point in range 90 and 81
west, there is another area of oil springs.
and the territory occupied by them is, like
that at Shoshone, covered by hardened oil
cake, which ranges from a few inches to
many feet in thickness. Still further east
along the north side of the Rattlesnake
mountains and around their west end is
an extensive oil territory. The hogbacks
here are saturated with oil, and in town
ship ST, IS and 50 are numerous oil springs
and OIL escapes This region here is
known as the Big Horn and Rattlesnake
oH Basins. The Arago Oil Basin in
township 50 extends southeasterly across
the kaltlesnake range, and Is also charac-
lerIzed by OIL springs and oil escapes and
hardened OIL The next important basin
eastward is Seminole mountain and the
territory adjacent. Here IN township 81,
" and NJ west are large areas OF OIL sat
araied rocks and hardened OIL and a few
OIL springs. The territory covered by this
OIL belt cannot be less than l,5O0 square
miles. This belt probably extends fur
ther east but my detailed examinations
were not sufficiently exact to Justify a def
] MIRO EfutArnnnf rs IN that MONT