The daily tribune., 1904-06-02
TIE vLoRsHcB OIL FIELD.

Mr,phv % Fosr Mile ossak. senF
Rish4 Mile park. Murphy scccped
~ swslI holes in and along this crcek
-, oil In snail qapt,tiss seepsd there.
A.. and whenever few gallons -.
szuuIsssd he would dip IL ost with .
tin dippsr. For . number Of Year,
Murphy seemed to have the exQonsive
pesopoly Of the oil output a this
district. Il was not until the year
$50 that . company was formed by
Jamss A McCandless. A. N. Casscdy
md Isaao Canneld to systematically
exploit this territory The efforts Of
this hrst company were not crowned
Wtsh suooess. the lumber purchased
by the company to build dsrrioks with
Fotted on the ground; nothing WAS
accomplished BY them. No oil was
brought to the surface in pay ing
quantities until the year 1882. when
the second oil company Of the Florence
Geld was organized by D. g. Peabody.
Edwin Lobanh. e. T. Allen and
othcrs. This company secured leases
on 5000 acrea Of land IN and abont
F1ore,sce, commenced boring thereon
and on April l4th, 1882, the fist pay
well was struck ny them on the farm
Of Edwin Lobach At . depth Of less
than 1000 feet. The wells struck by
this company were shallow ones Of
twelve to fifteen barrels.
u 80 not until the year 1887 upon
tho organization Of the United Oil
company thst this territory began to
be systematically developed. plan
was devised by Mr.. j. Wallace. the
present general manager of the United
Oil company, to amalgamAts the in
terests Of the various companies oper-
ating in this territory into one large
concern. This WAS accomplished and
the United Oil company is the result
Of his efforts. Since this time the
exploiting for oil has steadily increased
until today II IL estimated that there
are about 1856 producing oil wells
with daily output Of more than 3, 600
barrels.
In the sarlv days Of the industry
1t was held that the proportion of
producing wells to barren ones was
about ono in ten. Subsequently
this ratio became much reduced, or
about one In fonr. Within compara.
tive recent years this proportion has
been still further reduced until today
the proportion Of producing wells to
barren ones is three in five. The
.Keystone company claim they have
not had dry hole, five holes having
been drilled by them. all of which
were producers. The Columbia Crude
has drilled four holes. three Of which
were good preduoers. Several other
independent companies have had
equally ~ good luck. Thus It can
b seen that the Florence oil field is
~ good ~ any in the United States.
By investigating the oil development
In other fields than the Florence. it
10 found that the per cent Of dry holes
to producing wells is as great. and in
many instances greater than in our
territory.
A. to the life Of these wells, some
are OF comparative short duration,
while others in the immediate vicinity
have been pumping from ten to fifteen
years. Well No. 10 Of the Rocky
Mountain Oil company has produced
over ono million barrels Of oil. 80
likewise has we'll No. 40 of the United
and No. 16 Of the Florence Oil and
Refining company. Well No. 10
pumped over Eve hundred barrels of
oil per day for several years. Nos.
III and Of the Triumph pumped over
three hundred barrels per day for
nearly i've yean. A number Of other
W. lis have pumped from one hund.
red to two h, ndred and fifty barrel
per day during the last i've to ten
years- Thus there has been produced
from the whole Florence field from
the dass Of the disoovery Of the same
up 70 the present time over twelve
nilIioo barrels Of crude oil. This
vaet smount Of oil has been taken
from Len than hvs Thousand acres Of