The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-01-22
HE MIGHT STRIKE OIL
John H. Camp of Lima, Ohio, Says 1t
Can Be Found.
And Right in Vicinity Of kankato at
That, He Ayers.
An Interesting Letter Written BY Him
to Jay H. leng.
Declares This Is a Very Good Section
to Work In.
From Thursdays Daily.

From Thursdays Daily.
John III. Camp of Lima. Ohio, an eX
pert on the oil question who is in the
employ of many corporations dealing in
the product of that commodity, has
been interesting himself particularly
about Mankato and its neighborhood
Forty years ago he lived in Mankato and
has such knowledge of the lay of the
land and the geological nature of The
place as give the data for good judy
ment ON the oil question.
Some time ago Mr. Camp opened III.
a correspondence on the subject with
Attorney Jay Henry Long and the two
are still exchanging letters. The oil
men of Ohio are looking for new fields.
Mr.. Camp himself is particularly in
terested in this search, being himself
not only an expert on the subject but
also a stakeholder in several of the
largest oil corporations in the state
of Ohio. He has written several books
on the subject. In one of his letters
to Mr.. Long he says:
Il am most highly impressed with
Blue Earth county as very productive
future oil field. This may at first seem
strange to you and your people but at
Mankato and in the vicinity you have
three of the best indications extant for
not only oil but for large amounts of
it and possible two grades. The theor-
les which l have at command have been
obtained by close watching and con-
tinuous studies in Europe, Africa and
America and are reliable six times out of
seven. The Lima, Ohia, oil field about
us is very illustrative of this fact and
in nearly every instance even the amount
of oil could be approximated. But there
are cases of failure although few. To
delineate approximately would say that
you have several bodies of oil in your
vicinity. The best and apparently the
largest lies nearly and very probably
under Mankato and extends southeast to
the LIE Sueur river. Another lies south
of Ottawa. Another is some distance
north of Mankato and extends likely up
to and under Swan lake and for some
distance north but the western trend is
light. There also may be good amounts
west and south of Mankato. In fact
there may be many pools of large size
which cannot be discovered by surface
indications and which necessarily have
to be located by the drill. The above
are simply what I read from geographic
cal indications and from the knowledge
have gained by studying the question.
I would advise selecting a spot in or
near Mankato to drill and six other
points in the neighborhood"
The correspondence recalls to mind the
fact that ten years ago the city drilled
a well 2,700 feet deep for water at Bun
ker hill in the hope of getting a higher
pressure than could be obtained from
the wells in the heart of the city. The
scheme, however, was failure. The
water would rise no higher in the well
on the high land than in those on the
low land. No oil was struck in this
process so far as anybody knows.
Mr.. Camp says that in the oil fields
in Ohio men have sometimes drilled
wells right through oil without knowing
it. Drillers not knowing the indications
of the presence of oil cannot tell when
they do strike it unless they strike a
gusher. In some parts of Ohio they
drill new wells right in amongst the
oil fields and still make failures to strike
oil. He does not think the city well
on Bunker hill throws any light on the
subject at all.
A dozen years or so ago, the whole
sale grocery firm of Patterson, Halfhill
& Zimmerman drilled a well for gas
at Minneopa. They went down 1000
feet and quit. They struck nothing but
water.
NIL camp say you Cdu leII uuIll' yOu
strike salt water whether you have gone
down deep enough or not. When you
strike salt water it is time to quit.
Prospecting for oil, he says, is like
looking for needle in haystack unless
the locations are selected by experts and
unless you have driller that knows how
to smell oil. Mr.. Camp attributes the
failure in the Texas oil fields to the fact
that the quality of the oil is poor. It is
good enough only for fuel. The farther
north you ogo the better the oil. As soon
as the Texas wells ceased to gush there
was not enough money in the oil to pay
for pumping it out of the ground.
Mr.. Camp makes this proposition to
the people of Mankato. If they have suf-
fcient faith in this neighborhood that
they desire to organize company, he
will give his time and locate three drill
ing points and give the company the
benefit of his knowledge and experience,
for a percentage of the profits, provided
the company will pay his expenses. If
any people here want to take him up at
that he will come here as soon as spring
opens.
The National Association of beauty
seekers will never acknowledge that any
beauty ills are incurable as long as they