The Florence daily tribune., 1902-05-23

Inc on basin oil the Florence neld and
OF the area to the south and east. is
broadly basin shaped The rock furma-
tion is entirely different from that of the
Ontario oil field, where the oil occurs
usually in limestones of Devonian age.
The Florence oil is obtained from strata
of the Mesozuc period, in what are
known as Cretaceous shales, usually
styled the Pierre formation. In this re
spect it corresponds rather with the
rocks Of the Saskatchewan district,
where oil bearing strata are also known
to exist, and where efforts To find the
source of the oil have been carried ON by
the Dominion government for some years
both in what is known as the Athabaska
district, where there is great thickness
of what is styled the 'tar sands, and in
the vicinity of Victoria, about 80 miles
east of Edmondton. The obstacles en-
countered in these borings, owing to the
accumulation of tar in the holes at IA
depth of 1900 feet and over, became at
last SO great that it was found impos
sible, with the usual appliances, to reach
the bottom of the series and the sup.
posed source of the oil, so that further
operations in this area have for the pres
ent at least, been abandoned.
In the Florence field no difficulty of
this kind has been encountered. The
boring has been comparatively easy and
inexpensive, the rock throughout has
been shale with occasional layers or
bands of sandstone or lime, and the only
trouble arising from the presence occa-
sionally Of layers of conglomoratc, in
which hard pebbles sometimes tend to
defect the drill. As whole the struct
ure of the oil basin is apparently quite
simple. On the west and southwest it is
bounded by the oil rocks OF the Rocky
Mountain range which form very
prominent ridge in this direction,
Against this rest rocks of Cambrian
Silurian and Carboniferous systems,
and these in turn, in the more imme-
diate vicinity of the oil fields, are over
laid by red sandstones of Triassic age.
These are inclined against the eastern
slope of the foothills at an angle OF thirty
degrees, or in places even more. Against
these red beds repose greyish sandstones
with interstratified beds of shale and
thin bands Of limestone, and over these
again are the greyish beds known as
lead grey shales of the Pierre formation,
which contains also in places zones of
yellowish grey quartzose and sometimes
calcareous sandstone. This shaly char
acter is, however, maintained through
out the series, which in the Florence
field is stated to have thickness of
about 1900 feet. Near the center of this
great body Of shales is a parting of the
sandstone, though this is not always
found in the drillings. The shale is in
cluded in what is known as the Montana
group
Gaping the shales there is in places
a considerable thickness of greyish sand
stones which contain valuable beds of
excellent coal, some of the seams having
/ a thickness of at least six feet. This
coal has been extensively worked for
some years, and though not Of the COX
4 ing var ETY., has very wide market.
The coal mines of the district are locat-
ed in the Laramie formation, between
Florence and Canon City. The large
companies make no attempt to supply
the local market, the needs OF which are
met by the output of smaller companies.
| Il.
which this report more particularly re
fers, lie from six to eight miles to the
south and southeast Of the present + lor
ence area. They are at present sur
rounded by oil lands which have been
secured by several of the largest com
panies now operating in the Florence
field.
The rock formation is everywhere
productive portion of the Florence
basin, and consists of the lead grey
shales which are regarded by the United
States geological survey as the seat oi
where in nearly horizontal attitude,
but are affected by slight local dips in
several directions.
The shales in this southern erea have
only very recently begun to be develop
ed. The lands surrounding the propos-
ed investment are owned principally by
three large companies, viz: The Colum.
bia Oil, Mining and Development com
pany, the United Oil company and the
Fremont Oil company. Development
work was recently commenced by the
Fremont company, and well has been
sunk to a depth of about 100 feet in
the shales. At 100 feet from the surface
powerful flow Of excellent water was
struck, which is now discharged in II
large stream, the temperature Of the
water being about 80 degrees Fahrenheit