The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-03-09

big fortunes in oil have been made in
the Corsicana district. A German
butcher who owned a small tract of
land near town when the strike was
made, now receives a monthly net in
come of $1,000 from the oil wells on the
place.
Although fortunes have been made
and are still being made in the Cor
slcana district, no such big advances
IN land values occurred at Corsicana as
have taken place in the new Beaumont
district Previous to the bringing in
OF the Lucas gusher, raw lands in this
part of the state were worth from Sc
TO $40 an acre; and, cultivated and i'm
proved lands could be purchased for
SO to $50 an acre. These same lands
are now valued at 800 to $500 an acre
and considerable acreage property in
this vicinity has been sold at the lat
ter figure since the oil discovery. Lands
in the immediate vicinity of the Lucas
gusher cannot be purchased at any
price. Some of II is leased at so an
acre a month, with a percentage of the
oil TO go to the owner of the land.
should oil be struck. Oil experts and in
VestorS here say that $4,000 an acre
would be a low price for the land adj
Joining the Lucas gusher, in view of
the fact that it is considered prac-
tcally certain that d number of other
WeLs with flows equally as great as
the Lucas well will be brought in in
that Immediate vicinity On lands To-
Gated few miles distant in any di-
rectlon from the Lucas well. the re-
suit of boring is regarded as problem
a1cal, but Notwithstanding this fact
big prices are being paid for such
lands.
Many northern people had become in
terested in the rice industry in the
section around Beaumont in the last
few years and large tracts of pros
pective oil lands belong to rice COM
panies and to individual rice planters.
These owners OF rice lands find their
fortunes suddenly doubled several
times over by the increase in the value
Of their land since the great Lucas
oil strike. Some of the owners of
these rice lands have sold out for big
prices and are here awaiting the re-
suits of other oil wells that are boring
in this district. If it should be found
that the oil district is large and of
great productiveness as is indicated by
the Lucas gusher they will invest in
other lands and engage in the oil bust
ness themselves. Some remarkable for
tunes have been made out of these
prospective oil lands
"A few months ago young man
named John H. Ganler came here from
Kansas City. Mo, and bought fifty
acres of land situated about seven
miles south of Beaumont He removed
his family TO the place and was pre-
pairing to engage in the cultivation of
rice. when news of the great Lucas oil
strike reached him Mr.. GanIer re-
manned at his home and talked to the
agents when they visited him. He
first fixed the price of his land at 5000
an acre. but his wife induced him to
raise it to $500 an acre. AS the excite
ment grew the agents became more nu-
merous and increased the demand for
stood on $500 an acre, and before the
week had expired he had found a pur-
chaser at that figure; or. more proper
" speaking, the purchaser had found
him, and he had closed the deal for
forty acres of the fifty-acre tract. The
$40, 600 was paid Mr.. Ganler in cash
and a few days later Ganler and his
family left on a tour Of Europe