The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-02-03
Described by Commissioner Ferguson
In His Annual Report.
FLATHEAD THE BANNER COUNTY
Various Boreing Plants Which Have
Been Brought Into the State and
Are in Operation in the Northern
FIathead FieIds-Oil Exists in Pay
ing Quantities.

The area of the oil fields of Mon
tana is very large; in fact, unless
surface indications are all deceptive,
this state has greater extent of
probable oil territory than any in the
union. That no systematic develop
ment work has ever been undertaken
in these fields is not strange when
the conditions are considered. Mon
tana is new state; its population is
small; it's area immense. It's people.
since the earliest days, have found
wealth in mining gold, silver and
copper, or in sheep raising or cattle
raising They had neither the inclin-
alton or knowledge essential to sue
cessfu oil mining. Nor was there
until of late years, any market for
the oil had they mined it. For these
and other reasons, the great oil fields
of the state, though long known to
exist, have suffered continuous neg
lect at the hands of capital; and even
now, though some work has been
done, in haphaZard way, there is
nothing like the intelligent interest
and effort in these fields that their
importance and promise would JUS
tify.
Generall speaking the petroleums
found in the United States west of
the Mississippi, have the asphaltum
base and occur in cretaceous forma-
tion-shales and sandstones; that is.
this is true of the Montana field, so
far as known, with the single excep-
ton of narrow strip of oil bearing
formation lying between the North
Fork of the Flathead river and the
base of the Rocky mountains. The
petroleum Of this field. SO far as can
be ascertained by the presence of
numerous seepages of the crude oil,
is of paraftin base; and it is interest
ing to note that accompanying the
course of the Canadian Rockies and
projecting across the, boundary line
into Montana. is strip of Devonian
rocks-the rocks in which are found
the paratfin base petrOleums of Penn
sylvania. A careful and intelligent
consideration of the geological con-
ditions in this field would have pre-
vented some costly errors that have
been made there.
Development work was begun in
the Flathead field early in the sum
mer of 1901 by the Butte Oil COM
pany. This company built a wagon
road from Bolton. on the Great Nor
thern railway, to the foot of Lake
kintla, four miles south of the inter-
national boundary line; over this
they hauled, in the fall of 1901. ma
chinery. which was put in place on
the north shore of Kintla lake. With
the advent of the Butte company,
came other locators, who filed placer
claims on all the ground from the
boundary to the railway. some 700
square miles being thus taken 1t is
only proper to say that much of this
was utterly worthless as oil land and
was evidently taken for speculative
purposes only. The next boring plant
was brought in by the Kintla Oil
company, kalispcll corporation
and at the date of this writing a third
rig is on its way, the property OF
eastern operators. The mistakes ac
cidents and delays which always ac
company the, first development work
in a new field, have not been wanting
here, and in spite of much effort and
expense, no real test has yet beer
made. The deepest hole is but 1.3O(
feet. and that put down in formation
So extremely hard that it has taker
q year to attain this depth. Never
the less, it is reasonable certainty
that the Flathead field is a good dis
trict; AMI that it will ye. be the
scene of great and profitable indus
try. The physical characteristics are
as follows:
The surface aspect is billy. Tn