The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1899-03-02
AN UNDEVELOPED INDUSTRY.
An Instructive Article on Coal Oil 10 the
Yakima Region.

Yakima Region.
EDITOR HERALD: A great industry can
be built up, not only in this county but
throughout the whole state OF Washing
ton. About two years ago / WAS en-
ployed bv the Commercial club to ex-
anime and report on supposed showing
OF oil that bad been found in well on
the Wenas, this county, owned by Mr..
Arlington. Together with A. B. Weed,
Edward Whitson and F. Horsley, |
made a very careful inspection of the
we'll which found to contain all the in
dications OF oil such as is found i'm Can
ada and the Pennsylvania oil districts. |
found by thorough test the oil in small
quantities in sand or oil rock took il
from the well at a depth of about seventy
feet.
There is good deal of discussion in
several OF the newspapers in the state
since my report about this discovery Of
oil, and several OF nv friends have come
to me and wanted to know If my report
was genuine. For their benefit and the
public at large will say what have
said is correct and, without do ubt, there
is oil to be found In the Wenas valley.
I will 90 still further aud say that from
my experience in the east and in Cali
fornia (where l ae one of company Of
three that sunk an oil we'll for Los An
geles oil company in Ventura county,
California, to the depth of 1900 feet that
the day will come when we on this Goa ct
will have fully as large an oil district as
there is in Pennsylvania. We have the
same soap stone, without particle Of
grit, showing the fossil form alton; the
sand stone which crops out in abundance
in almost every valley; and if coal is any
ind cation of petroleum, we have it in
this state in large bodies. Some fourteen
years ago l received a communication
from r. F. Radebaugh, of Tacoma,
then editor of the Ledger, wishing me to
to come over and make an inspection Of
oil then discovered near Mount Rainier,
and, while did not 60, l have since
learned that there has been shallow
well sunk and oil has been found and
those Of US that have been in Californ ia,
especially in Los Angeles, Ventura and
Santa Barbara counties, can see that oil
rises to the surface in all directions. 1t
is my belief that oil can be found on this
coast from the British posse ssions to
Mexico. do not say that oil could be
gotten here at given depth as compar red
to the Canada and Pennsylvania oil re.
gions. On the contrary our country is
of a volcanic formation. and while oil
might be found in paying quantities at a
few hundred feet, yet in other locations
two thousand feet would have to reached
and then oil would not be found as in oil
countries. have seen two wells as close
as fifty feet and while one would be
good, paying we'll, the other would be a
dry hole and both sunk to the sam @
depth.
No one could doubt the untold wealth
it would bring foil can be found in pay
ing quantities, as it is an article that " i'll
always have ready sale in the markets
for lighting, heating, paving streets
roofing, and hundreds of other uses, as
we'll as its use in making US good roads,
especially in the eastern parts OF the sta to.
The day will come when our county
commissioners will have to devise some
plan to keep our dry, dusty roads from
blowing away and making deep cuts
where it should be the reverse, that is,
elevated instead OF depressed, and petro-
leum in it's crude state will surely be the
cheapest and best article for the pur-
pose. | believe our Commercial club
could not do better thing than to take
up this oil question and try and get
company to make a test we'll in the
Wenas valley, and | would suggest II a
test we'll is sunk to 90 farther up the val
ley from the Arlington well as it would
be getting nearer Mount Rainier where
oil has been already found
w. /. LrNCE.