The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-12-24

brick in the summer and lime in the
winter. There are five or six other small
Z wells in this locality producing gas.
At Corinne, on the north side of j W.
Guthrie's hotel, they have 9-inch we'll
down about 61S feet. There is a very
heavy flow of water and good output of
gas. which at times shows a trace of
petroleum. The gas is utilized to light
and heat the hotel.
AT Provo there are unmistakable signs
of a large reservoir of gas. There are a
dozen wells in that city that have q good
gas showing and one OF the wells on the
main street throws a flame to a height of
thirty-five feet.
On the west side OF Provo lake, near
Pelican Point, there is q natural gas
spring. During the dry season the well
can be lighted with match, while dur
ing the wet season the spring is COM
pletely submerged by the rise of the lake,
and the water is forced up like a boiling
spring by the energy of the gas in freeing
itself.
In Utah territory it has been known
ever since the early settlement by the in
domitable Mormon pioneers. A large
spring exists southwest of Pennington
that has d record of over thirty years;
another at the mouth of the Jordan river,
that has been burning at intervals of over
twenty five years, and on the Drake and
4
/ little drive Wells have had q flow for over
five years, phenomenal in their output
and fully demonstrating the permanency
OF the supply. About fifty miles north OF
Salt Lake city, natural gas has been uti-
lized in burning brick and lime for several
years. The salt Lake improvement and
Natural Gas company have two flowing
wells of sufficient capacity to supply the
requirements of the city and two addi-
! tional wells have been ordered.
] Natural gas, IN greater or less quantl-
/ ties, is found all over that vast region in
+ this territory that was at one time sub
merged by Lake Bonneville, but nearly
all the exploring has been driving pipe
for water wells not more than $50 feet in
depth.
The Trenton rock producing area
of Indiana is one vast connected field,
embracing more than a dozen counties
and containing an area OF about 5000
square miles. Throughout this area the
initial rock pressure is about 800 pounds.
a condition necessary to secure gas IN
large quantities is an imperviOus cover
| ing of shale, and the numerous stratas
which the drill has exposed in the Salt
Lake basin indicate that this provision
has been amply supplied. The reservoir
must consist of porous rock or sand,
! bounded above and below and on every
side by lmpermeable strata.
ORIGIN OF GAS.
It is well known that all forms of or
ganic matter contain more or less of the
elements of both oil and gas. All forms
of organic matter decOmpose spontane-
ously, and III the decomposition gas is
I generated. Where organic bodies per-
ished and were buried under conditions
/ that did not permit of immediate decOm-
/ position, where they were buried under
accumulatiOns of sediment under seas,
lakes and lagoons, and shut from air, de-
composition was NOT completed Tor ages.
II decomposition was complete the pc
troIeum would all be resolved into gas,
nor was the generated gas permitted to
escape. The superlying Accommodations
formed an impenetrable covering cOnfin-
ing both oil and gas to their original hor-
lion.
Much of this ancient vegetation ac-
cumulated around the margins of and in
the beds Of lakes and swamps at the close