The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-04-30
FLAMING GAS ROARS UP
NEAR BRIGHAM CITY
KnudSOn Bros, in Boring for Water, Strike ALLOW
Of Another Kind Which Surprises Them
Lighted Match Causes Pillar Fire to Rise 100 Feet and TO
Continue Burning FierceIy

3 u. c. told me that enough gas has
already escap ped through the bore, had
he been able to tank it. to provide
Brigham City with light and fuel for
the next twenty years. He is at a
loss TO know what to do. He does not
know how TO stop it, and wants me to
find out down here, if l can, what he
can do. That is what is bothering me
just now. We have the gas, but do not
know how to control it or put out the
flame
I've own about 1900 acres of land
at Brigham City. We have suspected
for years that there was both gas and
oil under some sections of it. We had
no idea, however. that we would strike
either when we started to bore
Wednesday afternoon for water.
Gas Struck Years Ago.
About twenty years ago when the
old salt works at Brigham City We're
working, when the lake was so very
high. the people who owned the plant
bored for fresh water They struck "A
flow of gas similar to this. 1t came
out with such force as TO tear the
ground up where the drill was insert
ed. There is "A hole there now marking
the spot which is thirty feet across.
Gas still continues TO come up out Of
it. 1t has been the same for the past
eighteen years.
In several places on our farm the
water is coated with a film of oil.
which OOzes up out of the ground. That
shows there must be a bed Of oil under
us up there. Some time ago eastern
parties wrote us about our land, evil
IDENTIFY being Of the same opinion as we
are, that oil is TO be found in that val
ley. They wanted to bore for oil. l
did not pay much attention to the mat
ter. as my brother always attends to
such matters. The letter was ad-
dressed 10 the county recorder, who
turned il over to J. c.
4 am at a loss to account for the
gas in such quantities without any oil
The only solution 1 have is that the
earthquake which we had some years
ago must have so disturbed the ground
away down deep as to separate the
gas from the oil lake, and that the
bore started Wednesday for water, en-
countered the chamber in which the
gas had been segregated.
May Bore For Oil.
I II have always felt perfectly conf
dent that if bOres were made for gas
and oil in that valley that they would
be found in large quantities. I am I'M
able 10 even guess the extent of the gas
chamber struck by the bore, or how
me that it does not show any signs of
diminishing. and Is coming up with
such force Is to enlarge the size of the
bore. What we viii do with the white
elephant ] can't say. J. G. wants me to
come nome at once and talk the matter
over with him. / viii probably go up
tomorrow. The strike may mean the
sinking Of other boreS for oil and gas.
1t may make a new era for that sec
ton of the state, and then again it
may only be a small chamber, which
will soon burn itself out There is no
/ telling. We viii have to wait and see. -
/ People who came down on the train
I from Logan said they were told at the
depot that the gas was forcing up
considerable water with it. The water,
after being thrown up. flowed away.
forming a pool beside the bore. 1t is
so heavily charged with gas, ii is said.
! that it hollis and bubbles up all around
the bore as though il were actually on
{ fire itself
( The blaze was plainly seen from the
] depot, lighting up that section Of the
city distinctly.