The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-02-08
OIL BOOM IN CALIFORNIA

| New York Evening fost
Every few days there Is news about how
So-and-so has leaped from compaTstlVe
poverty 10 affuence by an investment
in the Hlfallutlng Oil company, or In
some Big Pay OIL Development associa-
ton. People who didn't know thing
about crude oil or we'll drilling last sum
mer now talk learnedly about aneiclinals.
blue shales. oil bearing sands, and a long
catalogue OF facts connected with WEI
drilling operations. Two years ago the
annual produc lion OF crude oil In Cali
fornia was 100000 barrels. The esti-
mat ed annual production nowadays is
over 100000 barrels. Fields where
crude oil deposits were scarcely sas-
pected three years ago are producing
monthly thousands of barrels each, and
the extension OF the oil fields is going
forward by leaps and bounds. y
| Roughly estimated. about $16,oO0,oOO
mas been invested in crude oil develop
menjs in California, and the larger part
of this sum has been invested during the
| last two years, especially in the last ten
months. Thece seems to be a perfect
] furors in the Gil excitement In Southern
/ California. There are rallr-ad mems oil
companies, women's oil companies, BANK
ers oil companies, merchan S oil COM
panie., draNmens oil companies, a dozen
| Eureka oil companies, seventeen that
uee the word Pacific, and as many more
that use the word golden in their titEs.
One merchant has been giving away
blocks of fifty and one hundred shares
Of oil stock with each purchase OF goods
TO The value OF 50. lot OF oil com
panios have capitalized for s3,000,000, but
with only $4,000 and $1,000 paid in. Some
companies have incorporated with cap
ltal Ct $1,000, 900 and with but $4,000 paid
| in, while most companies have half a
million shares at a par value OF 81 each,
but selling at 10 and 90 cents each. Al
this, too, generally before dollar has
been spent to secure land for the oil
development operations and, anyhow.
before an hours labor has been spent in
drilling an oil we'll. over go wells TO-
devo ping crude oil are in course OF
| drilling throughout Southern and Cen
| trail California. Thousands of dollars
have been spent in drilling wells 500
and 1000 feet deep that have never shown
| a drop Of petroleum. On the other hand,
a score Of Californians who were day
laborers or were earning bare livings a
] few years ago are enriched for life by
i lucky strikes of oil deposits A half
dozen oil operators in Southern Cali
fornia have made upward of a million
dollars from a few thousand in three
years.
In the summer OF 1898 Garfield and
Chanslor. at a depth of 100 feet. got
Wei which gushed 1900 barrels a day. 1t
is the greatest oil producer ever struck
on his coast. Very quickly three more
wells, producing 300 and 400 barrels
4 day, were struck in localities remote
from the established petroleum districts.
Public excitement ran high The present
boom dates from that time. Prospec ing
for crude oil IN other nsuspected To-
calities began Hundreds Of oil develop
ment companies rushed into incorpcra-
tion California capitalists began 10 take
! Interest in the development OF the oil
resources of the State, and drillers and
oil operators from Pennsylvanla, Ohio
and West Virginia fiocked TO California.
IhaS year scores OF petroleum wells have
been found that produce from seventy 10
100 barrels day, and twice as many
more wells with capacity OF fifty barrels
a day Fnom San Diego TO San Francisco
the canyons and foothills are being
searched over for indications Of oil de-
posits. The crude oil production has
been Increased some 100000 barrels in
California in fourteen months, and it
seems likely that it will be as largely in
IL believer" said A. S. Cooper. the
veteran State mineralogist in California,
recently, 'fthat in ten years the Pacific
coast will have the heaviest and most
permanent oil producing wells in the
Union. ! am convinced that in four years
the annual oil production in California
VIII be equal to the gold production
here--thait is, about $1,000. 900. The re-
troleum resources of this State have only
been scratched. See what wonderful
wells have been found in the dry sandy
wastes of the San Joaquin valley, whore
no one suspected the presence OF oil two
years ago. There's vast areas Of similar
teFrMory in California. Some day 1000
and 30O0-barrel wells are going to be
struck in this State The oil lands are
very thick in California In many spots
the oil sand stratum is 100 feet thick,
and in few II is over $50 feet thick
rms Is unusual and it shows the per-
manency of the wells drilled into 1t.
mere are two wells in the Newhall dis
yrlct OF Los Angeles county that have
each produced an average Of twelve bar-
res day for twenty-four years.
one OF the wonders OF the crude cal
excitement in California is the great ad
vance in values OF lands in the vicinity
oil newly found oil deposits A year ago
any one might have bought several thous-
and acres Of worthless lands-sandv.
PaTehed and stony-in Kern county (near
Bakersheld) for 81 AMI $3.50 an acre. oil
wells producing $50 and 200 barrels a dav
nave been found there since and MANY
wells that pump sixty barrel. a dav Ev.
cited oil operators and oil company pr,-
motors nave hoeked there by the hun.
dreds' and today that same land is snan.
ped up at prices ranging from $1,000 N
even $1,000 an acre. Old CAPTAIN lone.
Went about In EATERS and an EMMY
stomach for long time. asking peon,e
10 ouy his rocky, sunbaked acres AZ tbs
mouth OF Brea Canon at IS an acre II
was dear at that price then, but last JuiS
s1S- captain cap sold twenty acres there foy
S tSI' ~ inat was after a flowing well