Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-25
FIFTY FEET THICK,
That Is the Proven Thickness
of the Fifth Sand in the
PinhOok Field.
IT MEANS GAS FOR YEARS.
This Rich Sand Covers an Area of
Over 25 Miles in Length.
BIG PRESSURE OF THE KIDD WELL
Rumors of Another Big Find That Prove
to Be Only Gossip.
IT MEANS GAS FOR YEARS.
BIG PRESSURE OF THE KIDD WELL
Rumors of Another Big Find That Prove
to Be Only Gossip.
IT WAS ONLY A. FOURTH SAND GASSER

the richness of the new Pinhook gas fel,
are being borne out each day BY natura
gas experts and by the work of the drill
A. W. Mccullough, gas expert for the Roya
Gas Company, says the truth of the grea
Pinhook field has hardly been stated and
declares that it insures gas for years Il
Pittsburg and the towns along the ALE
gheny Valley. He says the drill ha
already proven that the fifth sand, which il
the great producer of the Pinhook district
is 80 feet thick and covers an area of 81, 0O(
square miles. This practically assures ar
abundant supply of the natural fuel fol
years to come. While The DIsPATcE
only claimed length of 20 miles fol
the Pinh hook field he puts its length ct q
miles for the one district and declares there
is go cd gas field for 100 miles on the Pin.
hook anticlinaL
The Discovsrer of the Mod onald Field. p
A. W. Mccullough, the expert who makes
these statements, is the man who discovered
the great Mcdonald oil field, and he had
tapped the great Pinhook district be-
fore even the Herr we'll was drilled.
BE discovered gas in the fifth sand
in Butler county several years ago.
He was then working for A. H. Logan.
The odor of the oil was so strong that he
believed there was oil close to the gas
Following the 40 line he finally decided
that the oil must lie at Mcdonald His
employers had such faith in Mccullough s
Judgment that they at once began to de-
velop the field For six months they had
poor results but they persevered and found
the greatestoil field of history.
The Kidd well of the Equitable Company
struck in the Pinhook field Wednesday,
caused a death yesterday when an attempt
was made to shut it in and test it. On the
first one-half minute it showed 210 pounds
pressure and its minute test was 315 pounds
When they went to take the rock pressure
the gate valve bursted and William Scott
Anderson was killed and Patrick Tuche was
seriously injured
Plenty of Gas for Years to Come.
Yesterday THE DISPATCH received two
letters from A. w. Mccullough on the Pin
hook field Neither Mr.. Mccullough nor
his company own foot of territory in the
Pinhook field, so his statements are based
purely on his observations and knowledge
of the field In a letter of a semi-private
nature he saId:
Iaskyou to bear with me while group
together some OF the facts that have gath
cred from long experience and observation
in the gas and oil business. L might say-en
passant-that located the well on Crooked
creek, in Armstrong county, for the Pitts
burg Plate Glass Company that led to the
discovery of the so-called fifth sane, months
before the drilling of the Hess well, on Plum
creek, in Allegheny county.
The great rock pressure of that sand was
as much of revelation to me as the dis
Covery of the sand itself. l pre-
dicted at the time, as my let
tiers to various persons will attest
be brought in south of Crooked creek. The
enormous rock pressure gave assurance of
wonderful volume as soon as a pebble nest
or gravel bed would be found in that
hitherto unknown land stratum. Volume
depends upon two things-porosity of rock
and the maximum gas pressure of that rock.
Given in any gas sand stratum a gravel bed
and we have instantaneous rock pressure
the full volume as quickly as the gate can
be closed. Now that is exactly what has
happened both on Crooked creek and on
Plum creel1-the terInini of gas district 81
miles long and the Lord only knows how
wide, for its width has not yet been deter
mined by the drill, the only thing that will
determine both the persistence and the
productiveness of that unique gas land
reservoir.
have no patience with the attempts to
minimize the value of the discovery of this
deep sand deposit. When the Speedily
sand was accidentally added to the list of
gas-produoing strata, by the drill of a tender
foot operator piercing it, those who should
have been interested in the find were in
clined to belittle the result; and scr1bplers
wrote it down. But its record as a gas
producer has passed into history. Much in
the same way has there been an attempt to
talk down, and write down, ana cover up
the facts concerning this new sand that is
furnishing the largest wells in the State,
both at Crooked creek and Plum creek.
From Mllltown, on Plum creek. In Allie
gheny county, to Walkers Mills-to the
northeastern Crooked creek in Armstrong
county, along the crest of the Pinhook
axis-as the crow fiies-it is 81 miles. The
phenomenal wells at each terminus are pro-
ducing from identically the same sand-and
that sand heretofore unrecorded in the
stratlgraphical column OF rocks.
stopped Too Soon and Failed.
These people, who have been swift to write
about the failures" along that anticlinal,
seem TO be ignorant of the fact that such
failures are the result of stopping the drill
in stratum hundreds of feet above where
this great fifth sand is found.
No man can foretell the future output of
that fifth sand gas area in cubic feet; but its
persistence-as evidenced by its presence at
two points q miles apart-with no wells in
tervening that have been drilled to its hor-
lion to prove that it does not extend the
ness, as already known on Crooked creek,
supplemented by its enormous rock press
ure are sufficient to warrant the prophecy
and expectation of its fulfillment that a
long-lived supply will be the result.
Mr. McCullough's other letter, which was
intended for publication, is as follows:
The Pinhook anticlinal that has been
brought into such prominence by the recent
gas strikes at Plum creek in Allegheny
county, and at Crooked creek in Armstrong
county, is, longitudinally, one of the greatest
OF the rock waves that rolled back from the
Allegheny Mountains at the time of their
upheaval
starting to the southwest below Amity, in
Washington county,i it takes its course north,
4O0 east, until it reaches Mingo creek in the
southern part of nottingham township. At
this point the strata-resisting the uplifting
force, remain Sin stu, " and the undulation
the furrow by an obstruction in its way.
About five miles further northwest the told
ing starts in again in Peters township, and
takes its original course across Southern
Allegheny county until it reaches the Mon
ongahela river below Braddock. From this
point it shifts westward again,
from its general bearing-a distance of two
understanding anew at Homestead, and
continuing its course, passing under VIII
kinsburg and thence on its northward way
without further deviation until it reaches the |
on the West Penn Railroad. At this point |
the wave defects, and the bearing changes |
to north so east, until it reaches Walkers |
Mills. on Crooked creek, in Armstrong |
county. Thence northward, it is more or |
less broken as it passes out of Armstrong
county, and finally loses its force and dies |
away in Jefferson county.
North OF the Kiskiminetas, different Sec
tions of the same strata crumpling take |
different names. such as "Bagdad, j" ''Green- |
dale" etc., but they are each and all parts |
less than 100 miles-its anticlinal character |
being pronounced the greater part of the |