Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-04-26

whittier he went to investigate the
stories of the richness of the Califor-
MA oil fields Mr.. Rowland talks in
a very entertaining manner of the
prospects for both the producer and
the driller in the region where he
spent week.
The prices paid for labor in the
field range from s. to So per day and
the center Of the oil industry in west
ern California is Bakersfield, 150
miles from Los Angles.
Mr.. Rowland expects to return to
Los Angles in about a month, taking
his wife with, him.
Next to gold discovery there is
nothing that can cause such stam-
pede as the finding of oil. The oil few
er is sort Of mental germ disease,
and when the bacillus gets into a
mans mind, he casts his steady-going
business habits to the winds and
rushes off on search that terminates
only when he has struck it rich, or has
worn himself out In a fruitless chase
after this will-o'- '-the-wisp.
This is the situation in large part
of Southern California today. There
has been an influx of boomers, oil
prospectors and adventurers of all
kinds that cutdoes the record of Klen-
dyke or Cape Nome. Towns have
sprung up on the bare sand hills and
have advanced in few months to the
rank of cities. All over the region be-
tween the coast range and the Sierra
Madre mountains and from Sisklvou to
San Bernadino, thousands of outfits
are at work putting down wells, while
the men who have used up their avail
able cash in acquiring claims, are busy
with pick and shovel trying to dig
down to the oil-bearing sand, or are
looking for somebody to stake them to
car fare back east so they can float
company on the strength of their
few acres of sage brush. Men who
valued their entire worldly possessions
few months ago at few hundred
dollars are now rated at hundreds of
thousands; over the whole movement
there is the glamour of oil that is wor-
| thy to be ranked with the fuel of AL
addin's lamp in it's fortune-giving po.
tentialities.
The oil excitement has made some
big changes in Southern California
within the past year or so. 1t has
transformed Los Angeles from a quiet
pleasant residence town into a city O
derricks, with the smell of coal oil il
the air, and with a big petroleum ex
change in which fortunes can be wor
and lost as readily as they can in Wal
street Los Angeles is the only par
of the region in which the develop
ment has reached anything like its
maximum point and this restricted
district is flowing more than a millioI
barrels year.
The man who left Los Angeles ter
years ago and returns there today will
find it impossible to recognize tht
town. The riclest finds in this dis
trict have been made within the city
limits. The boom was started by two
men who dug a well with pick an(
shovel at the corner of Patton ant
State streets, near the Second Stree
Park. When their strike was follow
ed by others on the other side of thu
city everybody who owned lot in thu
proved district decided to take tr!
at oil hunting. Men who owned
houses in the residence portion of thu
city caught the fever and proceeded Il
disfigure their lawns with derricks ant
lengths of oil pipe. On some of thu
streets of Los Angeles one will see al
ugly black derrick in front of ever.
house, while at least every othe
house has a second derrick in the bacl
yard. AS a consequence of the fac
that the land in the city is split up in
to many small holdings no territor.
ever had a more rapid development
e thtih ohi0 iAOo <ah6OiCo soCSIiOh' "Sii
have been put down in some cases no
more than fifty or seventy-fiye fee
apart. This naturally followed from
the fact that every man was eager t,
develop his land as far as possible
and when his neighbor drilled tw,
wells within the space of an ordinar,
city lot, he was compelled to do like
wise in self-defense The result o
this is that the oil sand is being rapid
ly drained of its brown fluid, and th
life of the local industry has undoubt
ediy been shortened. 1t will make ;
great record while it lasts, however
for down to the present time Los An
geles district has to its credit NOR
tan seven million barrels of oil, ant
the city has firmly established itsel
as Headquarters of the industry II
Southern California, having a flourish