The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-09
Gas Is Making lola a Manufac.
turing Town.
Nine Shelters, Cement Plants
and Many Brick Yards.
OVER 200 WELLS NOW.
Only Thirty-fiTe in Use, the
Others Are Plugged.
City Owns Its Own Water and
Electric Light Plants.


mers rich but gas builds up a manu-
featuring town. That is why lola has
outstripped its sister towns in growth
in recent years. The big development
of gas started here in 1892. At that
time lola was a town of 1,5OO popula-
ton. Today it has population of TO-
900 on the townsite and counting sub
urban towns, connected with it by
trolley it has close to 5000. Gas alone
is responsible for this big growth. For
had 1t not been for gas there would
have been no smelters, or cement
plants or brick factories or other big
institutions that give employment to
thousands of men. They would all be
over in the coal fields in Crawford
county.
This place makes no pretensions of
being an oil town although about
twenty-five. wells are located in the
vicinity. Most of the wells are located
along the Neosho river west of town.
Some others are located northeast
about three miles, and a few are found
southeast towards Moran. The trend
along the river is a continuation of the
one that produces so heavily at Cha
mute and Humboldt. The oil north
east and southeast lies in pools and
they are not well defined. The wells
in this locality are not connected with
the pipe line and therefore are not be-
ing pumped to any great extent. a
plan is on foot to build fiat boats ana
float the oil in tanks down the river to
Humboldt, the northern terminus OF
the pipe line.
But if lola is shy on oil it is long on
gas. This is the biggest gas field in the
world. Over 200 sas wells have been
drilled and more are drilling every day.
OF this number only about thirty-f1ve
are being used at this time. The rest
are plugged. To an outsider 1t would
seem ridiculous to continue to drill gas
wells when not over one-sixth of those
already brought in are utilized. But
there is a reason for it. They are not
being punched because the gas is needed
but because the operators want to hold
their gas leases. The gas boom struck
here in 1892. That and the following
year over 100 square miles of land
around lola was leased up. Under the
provisions of a lease well had to be
drilled within a year or the lessee would
have to put up 25 cents an acre rental.
If at the expiration of ten years no well
was drilled then the lease became null
and void. After the country was leased
up the operators failed to drill on all
the land When, the first year was up
they began paying the 25 cents an acre
rental now for ten years. This has net
ted the farmers many thousand dollars.
But it has now reached a point where
the operators must drill or the leases
lapse under the ten-year provision and
that is why they are drilling. They plug
the wells as fast as they drill them in.
In this way they can hold the leases for
an indefinite period And what hurts
the farmers most is that it cuts off the
25 cent rental a year. All the farmers
will now get out of it is gas to supply
their homes and $50 a year for each gas
well used by the operators. They don't
get the $50, however, unless the well is
used and a very few wells will be used
for some years to come.
Some idea of the capacity of the
wells here can be CLEANED from the
fact that the nine smelters, the two
big cement works and the seven brick
plants. all other factories and the town
combined only draw gas from 35 wells.
One well alone ran a big smelter for
over three years. The factories have
adopted a policy of hooking on several
wells to their pipe lines. It has been
demonstrated that a little gas from
several wells is better on the Wells
than to take all the gas from one
When a well is drawn upon heavily it
becomes clogged and won't Keep the
water back. BY taking a little out of
1 several wells this trouble is averted
This gives some of the farmers a little
pin money, but nowhere as much as
they received as rental for their lands.
The chief industry here is the smell
ter business. There are nine plants
here and they produce 20 per cent of
all the zinc products of the world. All
of the zinc ore in the Joplin-Galena
district is smelted here. Ore from Brit