The San Francisco call., 1899-06-05
THE TWO CURRENT
MINING BOOMS

fined in porous stratum and it may
have escaped
"A good deal of land along that side of
! the valley offers inducements for pros
pecting and this boom will bring it. In
Tar Canyon in Kings County, west of old
! Lake Iulare, a company is putting up
buildings and getting ready to drill a
! ilttle north of there four wells are be-
ing put down. A good many are prepar-
| ing Ior prospecting operations, and no
Qoubt some good strikes will be made
Ihere is great deal of interest in the
| oil fields all through that country, and
good deal of wildCatting is being done ana
much worthless land being Whooped up
by promoters Every foot of land for
miles has been taken up. Oil City is COM
posed OF a few cabins in a barren desert
region, and its water is piped to 1t from from
another visit in a month or so.
Everything is favorable for much
larger spread of the oil fever. New wells
and fields recently brought to the front
in Southern California help stimulate the
interest The widespread prospecting
that is going on in Central and Northern
California can hardly fail to result in 9th
er strikes like that at Oil City, and then
the interest will be further fired.
1t is not generally remembered that
California has had two large oil excite
ments before One was in 1S64-65 and the
other in the '70's. The first one was a
royal craze. us course can be traced IN
a long series of newspaper clippings of
that day in a scrap book in the possession
of State Mineralogist A. S. Cooper. 1t
came as a supplement to the wild Penn
sylvana oil craze of the early sos. when
the first Oil City found fame. That craze,
which spread well over the East, caught
California in it's tide. Nobody here knew
much about oil then but attention tic WAS was
in plenty and the sensation was enor-
nous. The interesting tale can be but
briefly given here.
East as West. The Eastern papers told
extraordinary tales of California oil,
backed by expert reports of the, marvel
Gus Oleaginous wealth. Cattle were
drowned right along in pools Of petro-
leum. During 1854 and early '65 many
great oil stock Companies were foated IN
the East. The Ph iladelphia Railroad and
Mining Register OF December 3, 1864, said;
California oil hand shares, subscribed
in gold, advanced $500 in gold per share
two days after the subscription BOOKS
Southern California was the chief scene
promoter bought a Santa Barbara rancn
for $4,000 and telegr aphed the price to
600. @ It was st then EN- sold for s450, 900 Then It
was made the assets of the California Pc
troleum Company of ,10OOO,O0O capital. II
was whooped up by the column by the
Eastern Press In tn New York Inde-
pendent we find that i n one of the eigh-
teen springs marked NO. 1 on the map;
there was IA 500, 900 gall ons of oil actually
in sight: To be conser vative it was as,
sumed that only ten of tthe springs would
be productive. On this assumption there
would be yearly yiel of oil worth
IS AGO COO One-tenth of he capital stocl.
was reserved as a work ing capital ana
half of it was actually SOLD at $50 snare
Other companies capitali2 ed for millions
helped exhaust the power t?f the Language
TO portray the marvels OF Cahforma OIL
But in California itself companies were
formed by hundreds. The State was oil
mad from Humboldt to San Diego. The
slightest seepage of oil about spring or
the smell of it in a marsh or elsewhere
was enough to start rush and make
sure that great wealth was just below.
The country papers teemed with accounts
of oil discoveries and oil well s; A good
sample is given by the Napa Reporter of
March %, 1865, in an account of recent
discovery and rush:
Last week a hired man who was ex-
cited by the reports of oil dia coveries in
other sections of the State was set dig
ging in the swamp for some purpose. In
a short time he cried wildly I We struck
ground with his head over the ne wly made
hole On Mr.. Goodrich appeari ng much
amazed he was told: Here is an oil
spring-smell the oill' holding up hand
ful of the fresh mud, whose STRONG kero-
sene odor was unmistakable evidence.
Measures have been taken for the fmme-
diate Incorporation of a petroleu m COM
pany with a capital stock of 5000 DO"
Every county along the coast range
shared in the wild craze. Scores of re-
gions where prospect wells are now being
driven were stalIed out by rushers then.
Fresno County was included of course,
and. in view of the present craze. and of
the development of the first proc ucing
wells. it is of interest. The Fresno Times
of March 90 1865, says: Our last ad-
vices from the oil region in this county
are very encouraging. The excitement
remains at fever heat" That might have
been used again last week. Many com
nanies were formed then to work the
Fresno oil fields, but it was destined to
be thirty-five years before oil was really
struck in that promising oil region
J. o. DENNY.