St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-03
COAL OIL IN DAKOTA.
A Globe Representative Smells It and
Traces the 0dor TO It's Source.
EXPERTS CALL ITPETROLEUM
The Formation Of the Country and
Coal Deposits Give Color to
the Oil Theory.


the Oil Theory.
Special to the Globe.
MANDAN, Dak., March at is put
ting it very mild to say that this COM
munity is excited over the Oil question.
The indications of a genuine Oil boom
such as were referred to in last Satu-
days GLOBE have been followed up by
your correspondent, and although there
have been attempts to cover up the
facts, they shall be given as found. The
people of the prosperous little settle
ment on the Little Heart river, about
fourteen miles south of Mandan, think
they have struck oil, and it is question
whether they don't think that their
property is worth good deal more than
they regarded it few weeks ago. Many
of them are dreaming of good times,a
they are not slow to predict-the most
optimistic ones-that derricks will be
seen on every hill in the course of
year or two, when the spectators and
the capitalists realize just what there is
to be found beneath the soil.
There is no mistake about one thing
this is a very interesting part of Da-
kota. There is relief from the broad
expanse of prairie that one meets in the
eastern part of the territory, and be-
meath the soil there is the never-failing
coal that is such source of comfort to
the West Missouri settler, and source of
profit to the community in general. 1t
hot ,,.tn &c ,OtI slynJr To,
be so overwhelming when the investi-
gator has to drive span of horses in
the teeth of biting wind, filled with
ice particles that are as matter of
courtesy called snow. The horses may
be willing, but even horse sometimes
finds it difficult matter to keep in the
road when the marks of prior travel are
Obliterated by fresh snow. The
FIRST OBJECTIVE POINT
of the party-consiSting OF Banker
Streichenberg, Real Estate Spectator
Halleck, Expert Hoke and the GLOBE
cOrrespOndent-wa the farm of Conrad
HOeffler, who with his spouse and twelve
children lives in comfort i'll a capaciOuS
log house near the creek that
affords such strong evidences of
oil. The reports had been to the effect
that Mr.. HOeffler had quit buying oil in
tOWH-tlidt lic was OOWu VII thO CtdlIu-
ard Oil company on general principles,
and he was using that which he got off
the water in the creek. On
the way to the house of this industrious
and thrifty German we encountered
Emory Sheppard, who has resided in
the vicinity for six years, and who was
inclined to laugh at the ''dudeS" who
had been induced to come out such bit
ter day. But he admitted that he had
smelled the kerosene in the water of the
creek for years, especially in the winter
time, and he thought nothing of it. AS
there was not enough to take off the
water to use, and as there was no re-
finery out there anyway, he hao not
bothered over the matter. But the ker-
osene was there, and could be found
anywhere that q hole was cut in the ice.
Mr. Hoeffler said that he still used the
Standard Oil c0mpany's product, and
had never thought of getting his oil out
of the creek but oil was there. never
theleSS.
The most satisfactory exploration
was made at the place OF &. w. Grant.
The old man has not proved up on his
claim, and he is afraid that if there is
oil there he will have difficult in con-
vincing Uncle Sam that
OH. Is A VEGETABLE.
= He can have no object in foOling the
public il he were able to do so, for he
has nothing to gain Here we found
hole in the ice about eighteen inches in
diameter, which hole is kept open all
winter, and from which water is hauled
with which to water the cattle. There
is no draining into the creek above or
below from any farm yards to faint the
water. Yet, as dipped up. there is a
strong and somewhat offensive smell
as it is taken out of the hole, though the
cattle drink it without objection. Mr..
Halleck, VINO is from Pennsylvania, re-
"My. but that smells like home" This
water, if put into bottle and allowed
to stand for about three days. gives off
a very strong smell of kerosene. There
has been no dOctOring of the water, for
there has been no chance for this.
ID. ID. Wilbur, who lives up the creek
a little way, has hole in the ice from
which water is taken that smells just
like that which the Grants show. The
smell is the same when taken out and
when allowed to stand awhile, the
KEROSENE SMELL APPEARS.
Now that the subject is being talked
up there are plenty of men in the county
who say that they have similar water
OH their places, and that they have con-
stantly seen in the summer time, on
this and that pool, a scum which was
greasy when taken off. The Indians
have been i'll the habit of taking the
same scum off the water and using it
for purposes of medicinal character,
mostly for external application for
wounds, bruises and rheumatic affec-
tiOns. w. E. Martin, who has claim
north of town about twenty miles. re-
ports the same kind of water on his
farm. Young Mr.. Grant says that last
year he thought that the queer smell to
the water, which was the most ObServa-
ble.in the winter time, was that of gas,
which in the summer time, passed Off,
but which could not get a vent through
the ice in the winter time, and so came
up through the holes that might be cut,
and there appeared the strongest. But
the strong Kerosene smell which is OBJ
Servable only when the water is allowed
to stand would indicate that there was
something more than gas to it.
A theory has been advanced which is
worth quoting. 1t is said that the vein
of coal that crops out at the Little Heart
dips north. and if a bore were made at
Mandan, fourteen miles above the crop
ping-out place, the vein would be struck
about $50 feet down. Four miles north
of Mandan another vein crops out, and
this also dips north. From this vein a
good deal of the coal that we use is OBJ
tanned. The theory is that connected
with the vein of coal that crops out at
the Grant place is deposit of oil. Down
at the base of that vein kerosene is in
the process of making, and the smell
that we find in the creek is nothing but
the gas that comes up from the chemical
the earth, somewhere below Mandan or
miles north. To bore down at Little
Heart would not give the borer the oil
that lie seeks for, unless perchance he
managed to strike pocket of oil that is
being formed OF stored at the base of an