The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1901-12-18

the morning and early in the after
noon has thrown giant shadows over
the valley. making the days short and
fatigue makes us thankful that such
is the case.
OF course there are other routes
which could be followed in going in
to the country. One over the Grave
creek trail from Tobacco Plains.
Another from Columbia Falls, fol
lowing the coal trail, and still an
other entering from Canada over the
Mcleod trail. More of them. how
ever. offer the advantages which the
road from Bolton does. Anyone at
tempting to go into the country I'M
til the open season next year, how
ever. will find that they must un-
dergo the hardest kind of a trip,
ana snow shoes must be used a
great part Of the time. When
spring comes melting snow in the
mountains cause simple creeks to
become raging torrents, and it is
not until late in June that the trip
can be taken with any degree of
comfort.
During the past year the prelimin-
airy work taken up and completed in
the oil field has been of vast ma
ture. Almost 10000 claims, of 20
acres each. have been filed on and
the prospect work which was neces-
sary to hold them is almost beyond
belief. The 1900 claims represent
1900 filings. which cover almost $780,
900 acres. Some idea of the labor
necessary to represent the 1900
claims, covered. can be had from the
fact that on each claim the locator
had to excavate 24O cubic feet. or
what is equal to a hole 10 feet long,
four feet wide and six feet deep. If
all these prospect holes were placed
in continuous line they would rep
resent a ditch 10000 feet long-more
than three miles. The boundary lines
on each claim had to be blazed. the
corners marked and notices of loca-
ton posted. TO blaze and run these
lines the locatoTs must have walked
$500 miles. and as it is certainty
that they must have walked at least
four miles for every actual mile of
boundary line run. we have dis
lance travelled of % 900 miles. A dis
lance equal to III" circumference of
theearth. Should one man have at
tempted to do the work, it would
have taken him three years to cover
the ground. providing he walked 20
miles each day during the entire
time.
| During the year the Butte Oil com
pany have solved the problem of
transporting a complete sawmill,
two boilers. an engine. all the heavy
machinery. thousands of pounds of
Ieight and ten inch tubing and casing.
and pipe fittings. An oil rig has been
placed and the huge drill is rapidly
pounding toward the oil bearing
strata.
Another derrick has been erected
by the company about mile from
the site of the first we'll and the ac-
tive work of drilling the second we'll
will soon be commenced.
To make this work possible the
company was compelled to build a
wagon road almost so miles through
an almost impossible country for
other than a simple pack trail. The
ldiilculties which We're overcome can
be understood when it is known that
Icivil engineers and contractors who
figured on doing the work would not
think of attempting the construction
for less than $4,000. and were not
lanXions to take the work at that
price. 1t finally became necessary
for the company to build the road
without contracting. Jack Reuter-
who knew every foot of the ground in
the district through which the road
must run. was elected as the proper
person to map out the route to be
followed and to superintend the con
|slruction. To Mr.. Reuter- belongs the
credit of having successfully com
pletel the work at a price much less
than the figure estimated by the en-
gineers. In fact the completing OF
the road marked new era in the
history of the Flathead county pc
troleum fields.
1t has opened up the district to the
outside world and has been the mos,
important work of the year 1t makes
possible the transportation of oil
rigs and supplies which are being pre-
pared for service in the field SIX
companies are now arranging to com
mence drilling as soon as the neceS
sary machinery can be taken in ant
| IL Is assured that before the coming
summer work on large number o.
wells will have commenced.
There has been scramble to Sc
cure what were thought to be prom
) Using locations. Representatives o.
California. Washington. Pennsyl
vania, New York. in fact ever!
) known oil field in the country ha.
contributed experts and capitalists
; who have become largely interested
i" field. Montana people were
not slow to see the value OF the dis
/ trict and it's possibilities. and organ
izations of Kalispell. Helena. Grea
Falls. Butte and Anaconda capital
| lists have had their representatives il
the field and are rapidly perfectins
organization of companies to worl
, the field in a systematic manner.
| One Of the earliest organizations IL
the field was the kintla Lake OF
t company. organized by some of thu
e leading business men OF Kalispell
: The officers of the company are al
S follows: President Hon. w. II. Grit
fin MAYOR of KaliSnell and chairma,