The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-22

from one to ten thousand dollars per
acre.
a good many fortunes have been made
( in the Kern River field within the past
twelvemonth and some of the richest
men In that section to-day are men who
worked In dry goods shops and grocery
stores for thirty dollars a month no
longer ago than last year. For instance,
the biggest firm in Bakersfield district is
Chanslor a. Garfield and the head of
the firm, Joe" Chanslor, now the most
prominent figure in California oil oper-
atoms, is a young man about twenty
eight or twenty-nine years old, I'ho has
made a modest fortune OF something like
fifteen million dollars within the past
year and half. II IS said that Chanslor
was working as a clerk in a Los Angeles
grocery store when he became interested
in the oil fields in the Venture county
district about two years ago He had no
money with which to take up land and
sink wells, but he managed to raise three
thousand dollars on a note promising to
give the lender one-half of the proceeds.
The three thousand sufticed to put down
three wells. two of which were profitably
productive while the third was a gush-
err 1t is said that within year of the
time he borrowed the money Chanslor
paid the man who loaned it to him $l78,-
600, which represents a very good rate
of interest even for California.
Chanslor and his partner were among
the first prospectors of the Kern River
district They bought up as much land
as they could secure and were among
those who obtained land from the South
ern Pacific at $3.50 an acre. which they
would not part with for less than $4,000
per acre. Chanslor owns some of. the
finest wells in the Kern River district,
and is in a fair way to become one of
the richest men in the country.
There are hundreds of stories less re-
markable than this only in degree 60
ing the rounds in Bakersfield and the
town is mad with oil excitement II is
a lively town nowadays I'm which every
kind of a gambling game is run wide
open. Day laborers are receiving ten and
twelve dollars for ten hours work. and
hotel prices make the Waldorf Astoria
seem cheap by comparison Nobody in
Bakersfield believes that the oil lands
have reached the limit Of their value as
yet, and a great deal Of land speculation
is going on. So we'll informed man as
Mr.. C. A. Garfield said recently that
$50, 900 per acre was a conservative esti-
mate for the real value of the land with
in the proved district. Should the pro-
duction of the wells come up to the
estimates of the oil experts who have
examined them, the value of the terri
tory already exploited Will amount to
something like $500 100000
There is side to the California oil
discoveries which renders them of wide
spread Importance. This is the probability
of the future development of oil as fuel
None of the oil taken from the California
( fields is refined for Illuminating pur-
poses, but wide field of usefulness is
| being found for it as a substitute for
coal, for heating. and steam making pur-
poses. Already the Southern Pacific and
Sante Fe Railroads are using 1t nearly
all their locomotives IN California as
! fuel. These two companies alone are use
ing hundred thousand barrels of oil a
month for this purpose and the Sante
Fe road recently placed an advance or
der for l.250,000 barrels for future delivery
In addition to this the sugar beet fac
tories and other manufacturing plants of
California are rapidly replacing coal with
oil. and its uses for this purpose are
likely to create steady and strong de-
mend for all the oil that can be pro-
duced in the California fields for many
years to come. The great difficulty that
has heretofore retarded the industrial
developments of California has been the
| high price of fuel. Coal costs on the aver
/ age about $3.50 ton. Under present con-
dtions oil sells at from S1.00 to SIPS per
barrel. and $3.50 worth of oil will do the
work of ton of coal, and in the opinion