The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-14
NEWEST STRIKE IN OIL.
GREAT LAKE OF PETROLEUM IN THE
wATsoNvILLE DISTRICT.
Barren Pennsylvania Ridge Opened
Up and the Richest Output Since
that at Elk Fork, w. Va.
New York Sun.

New York Sun.
A strip of Pennsylvania mountain ridge,
three miles long and mile WIDE is to-day
attracting more attention from Noil opera
tors than any other section of the United
States, with the possible exception of the
Elk Fork district in West Virginia. The
under side of the ridge is lined with an oil
bearing sand so rich that it has been named
the Klondike. Wells completed within a
month have started off al a thousand bar
rels day, and in six months this new pool
has produced more than 100000 barrels of
high-grade petroleum, and the production
is to-day four times as large as the high
water mark achieved by the famous Chip
munk run pool, in Cattaraugus county,
W hich created furry in the oil trade a
few months ago. The new strike is known
as the jacksonville pool, and is situated in
Corydon and Hamilton townships, in the
northwestern corner of Mexican county, six
teen miles southwest of Bradford, the CEN
ter of the northern oil field of Pennsylvania.
The only reason why there has not been
rush to the Jacksonville district is the fact
that the oil-producing territory is in the
hands of a few large operators and there
is no opportunity to get lease.
The jacksonville pool is a peculiar one.
The oil is in while pebble sand that is
not found in the wells drilled in other parts
of the county. The famous Bradford field,
the richest ever opened, lies only few
miles away, and the oil produced by the
jacksonville gushers is of a higher grade.
showing that the pool is a new one, and
not connected with the Bradford field.
White sand pools usually flash out in a
few weeks, but jacksonville is an excep-
tion A we'll drilled on the Mallory lease
eight months ago is still flowing at the
rate of $50 barrels day, and has already
produced about 1900 barrels of oil.
During the past fifteen years wildcat wells
have been drilled on every side of the new
pool some of them within a stones throw
of the edge of it. Dr. f. A. Van Scoy, of
Bradford, had been trying to locate it for
a dozen years believing all the time that
a rich pool existed in Corydon or Hamilton
township He spent many thousand dol
lars drilling test wells, and now he is reap
ing his reward, for he is fortunate enough
to have interests that will bring nm In
lot of money. The first well that showed
anything remarkable was drilled by the
DeVonan Oil Company on Lot 8. ThlS was
in December 1895. The we'll produced more
salt water than oil, nut it pointed out the
location of a pool, and that was what Van
Scoy and his partners were searching for:
The well flo we'd ten barrels day: The pool
extends northeast and southwest, and the
first well was in the extreme southwest
edge.
L. E. Mallory & Co., of Bradford. secured
lease of the Post lot, mile northeast of
the Devonian well, and on Aug. l of last
year completed the first big well struck L,i IN
ing at the rate of four hundred barrels
day. When the oil sand was tapped the
well flowed, the rig caught fire and burned
and the flood of burning oil came near fry
ing the drillers to death. The we'll showed
that the belt was at least mile long, and
greatly stimulated operations. II al i,o
showed that the further northeast the wells
were driven the less T. ouble from salt water
DAILY PRODUCTION.
Eighty-five wells have been completed in
the jacksonville field, and only ten of them
have been dry. The dry ones were tests
drilled on the edge of the pool. The daily
production is 1900 barrels, and the output
for November will be at least 5000 bar
rels. There is room for four hundred wells
within the defined limits of the field, al
lowing one well to every five acres, so 1t
is easy to figure out fortune for each
leaseholder, to say nothing of the big money
that will be paid in royalties to the owners
of the land. Then there is the possibility
that the pool may branch out in some dl-
The wells at jacksonville are drilled from
LAO to 1,460 feet deep, and 1t requires from
ten to thirteen days to complete one The
average cost of the wells is 1920 and some
of them have paid for themselves in four
days The wells all flow, and none of them
sand. as the white pebble formation in
which the flood of oil is found is called
is usually pierced at LAO feet, and varies
from four to fourteen feet in thickness
Twenty feet below the Kinzua sand lies
the DewdrOp sand, eighty feet of it. in
which there is little oil and big volume
drilled down to the Brandard sand, which
is tapped at 1000 feet, and a small showing
of oil is found in that formation demon
strating that the jacksonville wells have
three distinct and separate oil-producing
strata.
Two years ago the entire tract of land
not have brought $500 if offered for sale
by the sheriff To-day an offer of 81 OOO,-
600 would be no temptation to the lease
holders who control the field, to say MOTH
ing of the landowners. The hemlock and
cherry timber was cut away from the ridge
several years ago, and there is nothing left
but beech and maple, great deal of 1T
second growth, with here and there stray
hemlock that was too Scraggy to be worth
telling. The surface of the ridge is dotted
with sandstone powders, and no home
seeker has been brave enough to build a
shanty among the trees and open clear
ing.
Along the center of the ridge runs the
old stage turnpike that was cut through the
forest from Clean; n. Y, to Kittanning.
Pa. more than century ago. The old
pike traverses the center of the oil belt,
both sides of the road, making very
picturesque sight. The ridge is a mile
wide and as level a barn floor. In the
center of the oil developments little town
has sprung up that has been christened
Klondike. 1t consists of forty hemlock shan
ties story and Il half high scattered along
the pike for two thousand feet. The only
difference between the houses and barns is
this: There are windows in the houses. But
the houses are very comfortable inside and
are utilized as boarding places by the hands.
Only tmble enough is cut away to make
room for the houses and barns, and the
women folks tie the clothes line to saplings
barber shop, pOolrocm, telephone office, an
oil-well supply office and two oil compaT les
offices Later there will be a postoffice,
and perhaps a saloon. Mail now comes
from either Marshburg or jacksonville each
three miles distant from Klondike, and both
just off the oil belt.
FORTUNES FOR WOMEN.
The leaseholders are not the only people
who have made money out of the oil boom.
It is curious fact that with one or two
exceptions all the land embraced in the
pool is owned by women. Mrs. Hotchkiss,
of Bradford, is one of them. She was a
widow in straitened circumstances when the
oil boom came. Her husband bought war
rant No. 5572 at a tax sale several years
ago. Before he died he told her never to
part with it unless it became absolutely
necessary: that if she kept it the chances
were that an oil field would be opened in
that section of the country some day, and
then the one hundred acres of wild land
might bring her fortune. Her daughter
IL.