, 1888-05-05
JUST OVER THE LINE.
Oil Discovered in the Foothills
Southwest of This City.
Laramie Men Find Petroleum Thirty
Miles From Sherman.
Burrowing Through Snow for Sps-
Cimens of Surface Rock.

The adventurous pioneers who explored
this section in the early ffties were con-
vipced hat it was a mineral region, but in
their anxiety to realize dreams of untold
wealth on the shores of the West has
tened onward. Since that time gold,
silver, copper, iron, coal and almost every
other metal enumerated in the geologist's
lexicon has been discovered in this i'm
mediate vicinity in paying quantities.
Traces of petroleum have often filled
the bosom of the Pennsylvania fortune
hunter with hope and recalled almost in
credible recollections of Eastern expert
ences.
Only last summer Prof. Robt. Burk-
hardt, a Laramie well borer and oil ex-
pert, declared hat petroleum occurred
near Steamboat lake, in the southern por-
ton of Albany county. Many we're Ger
tain that he was mistaken, but the gentle
man asserted that oil would yet be dis
covered near the lake. He had observed
signs Of the light fluid In the streams and
in the formation of the country.
Two years ago a prospector happened
upon a small deposit OF crude petroleum
in a basin near Steamboat lake, but was
unable to discover the source.
1t has remained for Chas. Bellamy,
United States Deputy Mineral Surveyor
Geo. Mccall and Geo. Hooton, a trio of
practical men, to discover the much talked
of petroleum deposit near Steamboat
lake"
The gentlemen named were in Chey-
enne yesterday securing assays of spcci-
mems of their find, and were interviewed
by a reporter for THE LEADER.
They have located 100 acres Of oil land
in Weld county, Colo, and are well salts.
fed hat their claim is a valuable one.
The find is eight miles south of Steam
boat Lake, thirty miles from Sherman,
fifty four miles from Cheyenne and twenty
four miles from Laramie. The establish
ed route is via Sherman.
Messrs. Bellamy, Mccall and Hooton
did not succeed in obtaining samples of
the petroleum rock until many difficulties
had been s~urmounted.
They employed a guide who became
snow blind and i'll and who was conveyed
to a settlement and placed under a physi.
clans care after travelling almost to the
goal. The trio then prospccted on their
own account. Bellamy and Mccall are
mineralogists and after several days care
full search became convinced that they
were nearing the oil belt. a heavy snow
fall almost discouraged them, but they
burrowed in drifts and ~excavated drains
until the petroleum ledge was uncovered.
About this time their supplies became ex
hausted and they vera compelled to re-
turn to a supply point.
The specimens exhibited include a
black, doughy substance, im~pregnated
with oil and a large rock Of caked matter
resembling crude asphaltum or the sedi-
ment of petroleum.
The assays made by W. C. Knight are
very satisfactory.
The men interested in the discovery
left for Laramie last evening and will
proceed to their claim Monday. They
declare that the work of development
will be prosecuted with all diligence al
lowed by their means. They anticipate
encountering the oil pond or deposit be-
meath the surface rock in a few weeks at
most.
The proximity of the find to a railway
greatly enhances its value. There is a
good wagon road from Sherman to the
claim, but thirty miles distant.