The San Francisco call., 1897-07-13
ProspectorS Discover a Body
of the Liquid Miles in
Length.
SUPPLY SEEMS PRACTICALLY
INFXHAUSTIBLE.
Seattle Capitalists Form Syndl-
cate and File Mineral Claims
Upon the Tract.

SEATTLE, WASH, July 12.-What Is
declared to be the most important and
gigantic oil discovery anywhere on the
face of the globe has been made in Alaska,
the country so fabulously rich in gold and
other precious metals. Although single
mine (the Treadweli) has yielded more
than the 100000 and little upward
that General Grant, then President, gave
in the name of the United States some
wears ago for what was declared to be
wild waste, mountainous, inaccessib bic and
unproductive. this and the Monte Crlsto-
like tales of the famed klondyke pale into
significance in comparison with the new
find.
Last November two prospectors one
named Eddy, while securing extreme
Northern Alaska and up very near the
Arctic circle, came across a lake several
miles wide and in places eight or ten
miles in width, and OF almost penetrable
depth, of what appeared to be crude coal
oil or petroleum, From hasty e1amina-
ton it appeared TO them that the lake
was fed by an innumerable mum Der of oil
springs in the sands and mountainous
banks forming it. Further search revealed
great veins and lodges of coal.
With the characteristic secretiveness of
the trained gold hunter, the two prospect
ors took ample samples both OF the oil
and coal deposits. They came at once to
Seattle and reported the result OF their
discovery to Charles f. Munday of the
law firm of White & Munday. This gen.
tIeman had had tests made of the petro-
leum, which was pronounced productive,
first grade coal oil. He was informed, in
short that the great oil fields OF Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio and Indiana yielded no better
oil that if he had sufficient quantity
he needed no other guarantee of fortune.
Munday enlisted number of friends
and citizens of Seattle among them T. j.
Hamilton, who was United States Marshal
, for the Territory of Washington during
the first term of Grover Cleveland. Sc
cretly they organized a company and sent
! five or SIX men. including three or foar of
the best oil and coal experts of the Esst,
to examine the discovery made ty the
! prospectors. These men returned 10
/ Seattle on the last Alaska steamer, the
| Topeka.
Their report in brief, is that this lake
| constitutes the greatest body OF oil ever
discovered. They pronounce it almost
pure oil and say that it is fed by an in
| numera BILE numb ber of springs, apparently
as lasting as the ages. Their stories are
almost incredible. and but for the estab-
| lished regulations and relia Dllity of the
men would not be believed.
| The coal deposits surrounding the lake,
according to these authorities, are appar-
emily inexhaustib bic. The coal is of q good
grade and of a verv shallow depth, and
the surface indications are that there is
enough OF it to supply fuel for the whole
of the United States for an indefinite
number of years.
In the name of the company the ex-
perts and agents sent north to examine
these properties took up $500 acres of
land, including the coal oil lake. They
have complied with all the mineral laws
requirements and the company will at
once proceed to the DEVELOPMENT OF its
property.
The lake is within two miles of the
ocean, a sufficient guarantee of the acces-
siblity of the great property. So close it
is, in fact, that the experts report that the
oil is actually ooZing and seaping out into
the ocean. 1t is reported that the STAN
dard Oil Company is already endeavoring
to purchase both the oil and coal proper
ties; that while the owners have been in
vestigating they have also had secret
agents at work.