Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-07-17


along the Pacific coast.
That fortunes of many millions lie
scattered among the ocean deeps, in
the form of gold and jewels, is well
known, but that any man may build
a jetty running few feet out into the
sea, push down a pipe and bring up
thousands of dollars through it every
month is a fact which a few years ago
would have seemed incredible. But
today, 10 the people of the Pacific
slope, il occasions no surprise
At little out-of-the-way place on
the coast oil southern California called
Summerland, tiny sea hamlet of only
few houses, has suddenly sprung
into existence a city of submarine oil
wells. which are attracting the atten-
ton and speculative interests of at
least four governments.
How to invade the subterranean res
ervoirs lying beneath the sea-those
vast beds of marine sediments that go
to make up three-quarters of our globe.
and which scientists have proved con-
tain the richest deposits on earth of
that organic decomposition that makes
petroleum, has been the problem of
the last quarter of the nineteenth
century.
The Question Solved.
1t remains for an obscure California
mining engineer to solve the question.
Like the mountain canyons that in
single night sprung into busting
towns during the gold fever of '49,
Summerland within a few weeks be-
came the rendezvous of a different
and perhaps less eager sort of pros
pector. For miles on each side Of the
town cabins and tents dotted the white
sands OF the coast, and for mile from
shore the smiling Pacific was strung
with boats carrying pioneers, who
have raised city of no less than 400
derricks within a birdseye view of
Summerland.
AS far as prospecting is concerned
the floor of the ocean is free That
is what will draw thousands and tens
of thousands to Summerland 1t is as
free as the mountains were in 49, as
free as the western plains of half
century ago, as free as the air itself
At frequent intervals fortunes have
come with the first touch of the drill
in the oil sand. Many of the wells
are sending up 200 barrels a day, and
this brings dollar a barrel at the
well. At glance Summerland does
not look as if it was built to stay. but
each day the money is pouring into it.
Each month about 10000 barrels of oil
leaves the town, and this output is
increasing daily. The place is situated
beside the ocean, on the sides of steep
hills. Just before the land jumps off
into the sea, with sheer descent, the
forest of derricks begins, many of
them appearing conspicuously out Of
place a quarter of mile from shore.
Thrilling Explorations.
The first explorations of the bed of
the sea were thrilling and new in their
nature as the old prospecting days
when California was the pot of gold at
the end of the worlds rainbow, and
redskins were as plentiful around the
bonanZas of the mountains as moIlusks
at the potion Oh the racine.
They began on a small scale with the
startling, and, at the time, apparently
grotesque, theory that the remarkable
placidity which gives the name pa
cific" to the greatest division of the
worlds waters was caused by the
gradual leakage from vast submarine
oil deposits. This theory was ! ad-
vanced by several prominent engineers
few years ago. and has steadily
grown in favor with men of science.
The methods first pursued in deter
mining the mystery of the bottom of
the sea were as primitive in their way
as the placer mining of half a century
ago. In fact. it was placer mining OF
much more unique and exciting kind
than that which drew thousands of
crazed goldseekers to miserable end
in the unknown west, and it was fol-
lowed by quicker and better. results.
Pockets Under the Sea.
At first it was found that pockets"
of oil under-lay the sea sand, as pock
cts of yellow metal were hidden in the
mountain recesses and dried-up water
ways of long ago, and their discov-
cries undertook a process of banning"
to bring their find into the bar
rels of commerce. The crude
oil was usually in the sand
of the ocean bed, accompanied by
gaseous matter, and when released
would fly to the surface in volumes.
To release the contents of these peck
cts was a daring enterprise. First,
powerful explosives would be en-
bedded in the floor of the sea, nitro
glycerin cartridges generally, and it
was the adventurous prospector in a
divers suit whose duty it was to
handle these delicate agents of de-
struction. Then it vas the conclusion.
the tremendous squirt of the sea, and
finally the rush of the oil and gases
to the surface, where the former was
caught by men in boats with drip
pans.