The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-03

1t is now about two years since the
phenomenal advance in oil, occasioned
by what was thought to be the ex-
tinction of the stocks in the winter of
1S94-5. During that two years one
of the most exciting chapters Of Oil
region history has been written, and
the epoch passes away to find condi-
tions but little changed in any respect
The market is a few cents lower, with
a hope of an upward tendency, just
as existed at the opening of March,
1898. The stocks have increased con-
siderable, yet not enough to create any
excitement. The number of new wells
has been unprecedented in the two
years. more having been drilled since
the opening Of 1895 than in the best
three years previously, and nearly as
many as in the five years just pre-
ceding. says the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Two years ago oil men became i'm
bued with the fear that the Oil terri
tory was reaching its limit. The no.
ton spread as the stocks fell rapidly,
and in March such a panic took pos
session of the market as even the oldest
operators had never seen, and which,
as subsequent experiences have shown,
was wholly groundless. In few days
after the price of crude started up
ward it ran away, and from the edge
OF the dollar mark It bounded upward
until the price reached $3.50, a figure
never dreamed of by anybody. 1t could
not long hold that unnatural lodge
ment and almost as quickly as it went
no hipL CT, lyaT off
But the market held above a dollar
until just before the holidays, or near
~ two years.
The experience of the two phenomen-
al years in the oil field has developed
two things beyond doubt The Arneri-
can oil regions are not in danger of
exhaustion. Nor are the American
fields likely to depend right away again
on the big and enduring pools that
began with Pithole and reached the
climax in the great black sand slayer
at Bradford. Since the excitement be-
gan in 1895 the drill has been uncom-
monty busy. The number of new wells
each year has exceeded 1000, the total
for the two years being almost $4,000.
In new territory the scout and wild
cater have prosecuted their work, and
in fields already run over the drill has
been made to do duty. Strangely
enough, it is not in new country that
the prizes have been met that reward
the efforts of the operator. The best
pools have been in country thought to
have been thoroughly explored, and i'll
it's day abandoned. Among the best
producers were the Chipmunk and the
jacksonville pools. in the Bradford
field, and every foot of the ground has
been as familiar to the driller for
years as the best leases in the neigh
bcShood. The Bingham lot was the
beginning of the Bradford renaissance.
region that had been drilled and drilled
until the notion that oil would
ultimately be found there furnished a
theme for joke. Chipmunk was
pretty nearly as deciSively condemned.
Yet the two of them have been pro-
ducing oil enough to stay the decline
in stocks and to add materially to the
county the Cecil pool was one of the
most evanescent ever known. In a
few days the production had climbed
up to hundreds of barrels, and in a
few days more the wells were pumping
q dry lead. The jugular vein was
small, but it afforded a rich return for
those wells that tapped it while it held
it's treasure.
The Frieden and Diest pools in the Sisters
Vile country gave promise, and reached
production daily of 5000 barrels. This terri
tory was short-lived, as was the Hebron and
the Belmont development that followed. In
Pennsylvania, through Butler Allegheny.
Greene and other counties, little pools of
apparent magnitude have come to light, only
to flash in short time, and show that but a
few thousand barrels of oil were to result.
The two years Of unequaled search for oil
have resulted in the discovery of nothing
that gives promise for the future, so far as
the opening of new territory Is concerned,
and nothing that leads to the expectation of
big quantities Of oil from any section. Ten
nessee, which at time offered consider
able hope, has not held up antiepations. The
Kentucky counties near the Tennessee line
are about as bad. The formation is SO in
definite that it affords no light on what to
expect and the discoveries are too often
merely pockets in the cavernous limestone
to pin any faith to that section of the Union
as source of supply for the future.
The Big Sandy country in West Virginia
and Kentucky has added nothing to the en-
thusiasm Of those who are working in that
vicinity, and welleposted oilmen profess to