Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1905-08-22
Ira Myers of Great Falls, An tx
perienCed Oil Man Investigates
FERGUS County Fields.
COMPARES WITH SWIFT CURRANT
Every Indication That a Fine Quality
Of lubriCdting Oil Can Be Found
in Snowy Mountains.

Ira Myers of Great Falls spent last
week in this city, leaving for home
Friday, and during his stay here he
carefully investigated the oil fields ur
In the foothills OF the Snowy noun
tains, about twenty miles southeast of
LeWistown. Mr.. Myers is extensively
interested In the oil wells up in the
Swift Current and St Marias country
and his opinion is worth something on
the subject.
Myers was sent down here by l.. S.
Woodbury. of Milwaukee, c. NJ. Web.
ster of Great Falls and ut the solicita-
tion of David Hilger, Frank Moshner,
f. f.. Smith, l.. p. Slater, w. NJ No
Die and others in Fergus county who
are Interested in the proposition. lie
made most careful examination ana
Is prepared to render q first class ana
most encouraging report upon the
property.
The first oil excitement over the
snowy mountain country arose about
a year and half ago when w. nj. No
pie brought TO this city some rock
which was saturated with OIL When
a match was applied to the rock 1t
Wauld throw off an unmstakabla odot
of OIL
SO far as the public was concerned
nothing was done in the matter but "A
number of persons We're quietly work.
ing to get the ground all located and
to prepare for development work T..
$. Woodbury. and his son, formerly Of
Great Falls, We're interested in the pro
Ject. Later several Lewistown men
entered the proposition and 1t was lie.
cided to have Mr.. Myers make an ex-
animation of the ground.
When Mr.. Myers returned to Lew
istown after having been driven our
there by Frank Moshner, Wednesday,
he was seen by the Democrat and gave
out the following statement:
II do not wish to be quoted as beinr
overly enthusiastic over the propos,.
ton up in the foothills of the SNOWY
mountains In Fergus county. l would
much prefer to make the mistake OF
100 much conservatism than appear
more optimistic than the circum-
stances warrant. Nevertheless, am
most favorably impressed with tha
possibilities Of striking oil in payiua
quantities in that district and would
De willing to back my Judgment i'm n
substantial manner.
I'm the first place the district is d.
rectly in the line of the great oil bear
ing region which extends from the bor-
DER of Canada to the state of Kansas
In many respects it resembles tb,,
SWIFT Current district only, | NAV saw.
mat the prospects are even better
than they We're up around the Marias
When we first began to operate Ge.
oioSlcally, 1t Is exactly what one mus,
look Tor II trying to locate an oil well.
Inc shale, taken from the surface anl
thoroughly saturated with oil is Iack-
ing In gritty substance.
The Oil, of which / was able to Sc
cure sample, is of the finest lubri
eating quality. Lubricating oil wells
are very rare in the United States.
For that reason the product is neces-
sarlly valuable, the prevailing p..ice
being from six dollars to eight dollars
per barrel. We have one well un in
the Teton county fields which praduc-
es from go to 80 barrels Der day. and /,
requires but very small force of men
~iN i'i tiC iiodutt. Inc DfOftS
are something handsome once the oi,
is found
OF course, it costs something to de-
velop an oil well. 1t Is probable that
a depth of from 1000 to !, 500 feet would
nave 10 be obtained before the oil ia
struck. In order to go to this depth
some rather costly machinery is me- !
cessary. From my experience in the
business l judge that it would require |
about $4,000 to put a well down to q |
ie.th sufficient to strike the oil If it |
IS there
There are some good men behind |
his project and while l am not at
liberty to state exactly what will be
lone, l would not be surprised to see |
he product from real oil well
brought into Lewistown from the
snowy mountains before twelve
months are gone. This may be a little
'oon, but the proposition looks too
good to be permitted to lie there un-
developed and If the company. which
5 now practically organized, does not
AXE hold of it some other company
will do so.''