The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1889-07-05
The OIL Wells.

Joe DeBarih thus describes, in the
Wind River Mountaineer, a visit to the
Shoshone oil basin.
"on last Thursday morning, accom-.
panied by Fish Commissioner Orson
Grimmett, / paid the wells of the Sho.
shone oil basin a visit. Upon our arrival
al tle wells we were received and royalty
entertained by Hon. Mike Murphy.
After an hours rest Major Domo Joe
Brown Joined the party and drove us to
the three oil spouters. These wells are
numbered !. 2 and 3, and are situated
about 1000 feet apart, forming a
triangle.
No. 8 well was the first one visited.
Here Messrs. Murphy and Brown un.
locked the well and turned on the
stream" A noise, loud as thunder, and
unlike that made by a locomotives ex-
haust, ensued. Then came the oil, a
seething. smoking, black mass, thick as
molasses, and two inches in diameter.
n mass, as it rushed from the well
pipe, foated down q gradually inclining
dltchWay and owe an embankment into
the smallest of two mighty lakes of lub-
rlcatinS liquid. In this natural lake lit
has been estimated by Prof. Charles Bly,
dcnbure) are fully 3 600 barrels of oil,
nearly all of which cannot but be wasted
IN time through atmospheric causes.
We'll No. 2 is situated Immediately on
the banks of the Little Popoagie
river. The noise of the uprising gas,
when the oil tube was opened, was al
most deafening, followed a minute later
by a two.inch stream of jet black oil.
The entire surroundings seemed sur
charged with the smell of oil, and Mr..
Brown received one charge over the body
that made him slippery as an eel, even
his words partaking of the lubricant's
nature and becoming remarkably smooth
and oily.
AT well Ne. ! the most marvellous sight
met our gaze. Here is situated the fam,
GUS oil spring that has been written of &C
often. After the well had spouted oil tc
a distance of forty feet across the eecond
lake and had been shut off, our attention
was directed 10 the unusual disturbance
occurring in the spring. The oil took or
a motion something like water at a boil
ing heat; then the large bubbles would
burst and throw the black liquid into the
air to a height of four feet. Mr.. Murphy
Informed us that the spring always
"actcd just go" whenever the well wa!
turned on and then closed. Although VIZ
paid the spring a second visit some halt
hour after the well had been closed, it,
surface was as much or ever more dis
turbed than when we first noticed it,
strange actions.
Our attention was next directed to the
larger Of the two oil lakes. This lake il
about 300 yards in length, its width vary
ing from twelve to fifty feet. This huge
body of oil is 30 thick that wild ducks
lighting or its surface become so weighed
that they are never able TO extricatt
themselves, in consequence of wbichdcat
ducks are as thick on the oily surface a!
a fly paper is of flies. Professor Blyden
burg estimates the barrels of oil il thii
lake at 10, 600.
Mr.. Murphy thinks that the daily les
of oil in wells and lakes by evaporation
is fully three barrels. Much Of the OF
that finds its way to the surface from
well No. 9 trickles down an embankmen
and on to the surface of the river, and i
thus carried off,"