Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-10-17
ovER-EXPLoITED OIL LANDS.
Some Plain Facts About the Industry
in California.

Bakersfield, Cal, Correspondence of
the New York Evening Post: | have
just concluded an interesting week,
driving over the McKittrick, Sunset
and Midway oil lands, all within a ra-
dius Of seventy miles from this oil cen
ter. My especial object has been to
visit and inspect the exact locations,
with their surroundings. of the OF! COM
pany's holdings. The catalogue would
be interesting; but the substance of my
observations is that investors in Cali
fornia oil companies cannot safely
| trust the representations made by ad-
yertisement and prospectus. OF thir-
ty-three locations | have visited. only
seven | found to in any degree justify
the published statements regarding
them. And OF these seven, only four
| possessed wells, operations, and sur
rounding developments as described in
the company's announcements. Regard
| ing the other three, while evidently the
statements of the companies had been
| correct at the time their prospectuses
| had been printed, they were no longer
true at the time of my visit, and had
not been true for q period of nine
months to year. Prospects had not
been developed, wells had gone dry and
been abandoned Operators had ceas
ed, and sought other localities, The
foundation Of the companies claims for
financial recognition had been taken
away
OF the 2,4S3 companies that have been
incorporated to handle California oil
and operate for its projection. there
are now only $50 that are active. Most
of them have, so far as public atten-
ton is concerned. disappeared. The
local public, apparently, was carried off
its feet, and up into the air, by the mag
nitude of the early Bakersfield wells
and McKittrick gushers. Neighboring
ground showed itself rich in oil. Guilty
ing territory for miles yielded most
profitably to the drill. And so thou
sands of prospectors distributed them
selves over the San Joaquin valley, To-
Gated under the mineral law tract after
tract, without discrimination, and or
ganized companies at large capitaliza-
ton and price of a few cents per
share, to get money for developing.
Any outcropping OF gypsum, the
presence of shale, or dried asphalt was
eagerly seized as the certain indication
of the presence Of oil; and as these signs
extend over large portion of the west
srn side of the state, there was practi
caIly no end to the territory which
could be filed upon and advertised. Ex
perience during the last year has shown
that these surface indications only indi
cate natural Installations which ex-
hausted the crude generations ago and
that 'oil signs" do not by any means
indicate that oil is porducible in COM
merciaI quantities.
But many Of the districts covered by
the advertising companies which | have
visited during the past week, and pre-
viously, do not possess even those SUI
perficiaI characteristics of attraction.
have wondered after reaching some dis
tant localities whether the wgwam
was lost or the Indian. The geologic
traces of the presence of oil in large
quantities are not difficultto follow. The
black derricks mark its subterranean
trail. The long range of foothills and
cable lands extending northwest from
hcKittrick, into the Tremblor and Dew
rs Den, is plainly marked 1t is not
smooth 1t is not an unvarying track.
There are, | have counted. thirteen
breaks in the formation where proba
bly, oil is not. But these are plain to
be seen, and the line of safe develop
ment is plainly set forth even past
5preckles White City to the gushers of
Coalnza Any of this tract, which
could have been easily obtainable at
the time OF the creation of these COM
panies. it may confidently be stated, is
safe for oil, without going off into the
badly-broken, conglomerate rocks, the
sage-brush, the bunch grass and graz
ing lands, where by no possible chance
can oil be.