The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-28
WESTERN WYOMING'S GREAT OIL DEVEL OPMENT

erty. This is made possible by two
clauses in the federal land laws; one
or them designates oil as mineral, and
1t mas been sustained by numerous
rulings of the interior department. The
other exempts mineral rights from the
ownership Of lands held for grazing
and agricultural purposes unless they
are fully patented. and allows anyone
VINO discovers minerals of any kind on
such land to file an entry and obtain
title.
Now the unpatented lands held by
the Union Pacific in this part of Wyo-
ming, including the section at Spring
valley, where the well in dispute is
located, are designated as grazing and
Pacific officials learned that petroleum
had been found near Spring Valley they
knew that they had lots of trouble and
costly litigation before them unless the
news could be suppressed So when
Nebergall made his report he was eau
toned to keep his mouth shut and steps
were at once taken to suppress all
the facts. The well was capped and
abandoned and word was given out that
1t was a dry hole.
In some manner, however, news of
the discovery got out and the wen was
visited in a surreptitious way by the
agents Of capitalists who were inter-
ested in getting at the facts and de-
spite the plugging and other precau-
tons taken by the Union Pacific to
keep the oil down, lot of it seeped to
the top of the hole and samples were
obtained by those who wanted to con-
vince themselves that it was really
petroleum. With this evidence and
taking advantage of the fact that the
well had been abandoned, the Aneri-
can Consolidated Oil company filed an
= Il
land laws and claimed a title as discov-
erers. Then the big fight began that
has been waged for a year and a half.
The oil company tried to take posses
sion of the property but was driven
off and it is. said the Union Pacific put
armed guards at the well. AS a fur
Their Drecaution, the hole was sealed
with cement and shanty erected over
ii in which the guards were housed.
Battle For Oil Field.
The contention of the Union Pacific
was that there was no oil on the land,
at least not in paying quantities. and
that it was not, therefore, open to the
claim under the mineral laws. The
oil company on the other hand insisted
that it had discovered petroleum, that
the land was not patented, that the
title was still with the Unied States
government and that the discoverer
of the mineral deposits was therefore
entitled to file upon it, Under advice
of its attorneys the oil company Sc
cured a drilling outfit and began prep
arations to sink another well on the
section close to that put down by the
Union Pacific. Workmen employed by
the railway quietly dug three pits. in
each of which they placed six twenty
five-p pound charges of dynamite and the
whole connected with an electric bat
terry. Without telling how it was to
be done, word was then sent TO the oil
company that any effort to move in on
the land would result in the entire out
fit of machinery and men being blown
up and the project of sinking a new
well was abandoned, there being but
one road by which they could reach this
land from Spring Valley. Shortly aft
erward, one OF the WOrkmen who had
buried the dynamite incautiously told
about it and Frank James, sheriff of
Uinta county on plea that it was
a menace to human life and property,
was induced to get rid of it by touching
off the three charges The report of
the explosion could be heard for miles
and it tore a hole in the ground hun
dreds of feet in circumference and over
thirty feet deep. While this kind of
warfare was going on at the well, high
priced lawyers were fighting for both
sides in the courts and before the in
terror department Finally the litiga-
ton reached such stage that one of
the judges suggested that the dispute
might easily be settled by determining
whether the well contained petroleum
and whether it was in paying quanti-
ties. Under this quasi compromise,
Special Agent j. w. ZeveIy of the in
terror department was assigned to