Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-30
OPENING AN OIL FIELD
How the Standard Gets Its
Crude oil.
GUSHERS AND BUSTERS
Nitroglyoerine as Means Of Shoot
ing" q Well.
THRILLING PHASE OF INDUSTRY
Argonauts Of otldom Incidents in
the Lives of wildcatters
and Shooters.
thrilling PHASE OF INDUSTRY

Written for The Star.
When a new oil field Of Importance Is
opened the rush to the scene resembles the
stampede OF gold miners to paying diggings.
In the petroleum Industry the prospector
is the venturesome "wiidcatter," who To-
Gates an OIL belt pool in territory re-
moved from other wells, hurriedly sinks his
first venture and taps ol-bsaring sand or
rock. For O quarter OF a century, per-
haps, he has been risking his own money
searching for crude petroleum and selling
It to the Standard OH Company for any
sum per barrel the trust condescends to
pay. and he knows every detail OF his
end of the business.
He, has wildcatted in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
West Virginia, Indiana Kansas, Texas,
Colorado. Oklahoma and Canada, has
solved the secrets Of many mystery wells
even when they were guarded with shot
guns, has made fortunes aud lost them, Is
thoroughly posted on law. geology and nu-
man nature. carries Zine of talk that
would make a Iightning-rod agent turn
green with envy, and Is such a good loser
that he can tell you without word OF
complaint OF the time when he missed a
million-dollar oil field by three hundred
feet.
Wildcatter's Judgment.
Despite his knowledge of the OIL business,
the ''wildcatters" Judgment proves to be
at fault in the majority of instances, and
more often than not he gets buster,
as a dry hole is called Time and money
have both been expended IN vain. NOW
and then he strikes ten, twenty or nfty
barrel well, and when he is especially IA
yored by tickle fortune he becomes the
iubilant owner of a sensational gusher.
If II produces at the rate Of from 100 TO
LOCO barrels per day the news nils ths
older country with intense excitement. Pro
It'll tool
teamsters and all the unemployed, as wei!
as the employed pour into the new neld
by the hundred. The producers hurry TO
the scene All are anxious TO De among
the first on the ground, that they may Sc
cure the best leases OF territory near the
gusher. The lucky wildcatter, OF course,
has been shrewd enough to lease large
tracts of land before he risked MS money
in his initial we'll but the boundaries OF
the new field are yet to be defined. and any
farm in the vicinity may prove to be
bonanza Under the terms OF tne osua.
lease the producer does all the work ana
pays all of the expenses, the farmer re-
ceiying an eighth of the oil and gas pro-
duced.
Busy Wilderness.
In the matority of cases the new well Is
located in the heart Of a wilderness. miles
from railroads, but the solitude speedily
becomes one of the busiest spots on earth
Developing and defining the field Is the
first business OF the uOuSicsS dkiiAy. IS0AihS
haulinp derrick timbers, boilers, engines,
small wooden tanks. great ropes and the
heavy machinery used In drilling. founder
along the wretched roads, the wagons huo
deep in the mud at times. The woods re-
sound with the shouts OF teamsters, the
creaking of hard-worked axles and the
staccato of busy hammers. Derricks seven
ty-two feet In height rear their LOFTY heads
among the pines and hemlocks, and the
creaking of walking beams the iabored
painting of engines. the musical ring or the
tool-dresser's sledge, as he puts an eoge
on the huge steel bit. the roar or the
bull-wheei as it allows the string of tools
to descend into the hole, and the various
noises attendant upon the drilling of MI
merous wells are added to the tumult In
the wilderness. Night and day, without
pause. the work at the wells goes on
Meanwhile the argonauts of all oildom
continue to pour into the new field from
every point Of the compass. Jones has
been drilling wells In the surf along the
coast of California. Brown is just back
from a wildcat venture in South America,
and there is Cape Nome hotel paster on
Robinson s suit case.
Grows Like Gourd.
Brush and trees are cleared from a prom
Using spot near the first WELL and, though
the new town does not grow to full size
In a single night, like Jonah's gourd, 1t gets
q remarkable start.
Tents and farmhouses at first shelter half
OF the inhabitants and the others sleep in
boiler houses or on the lap of mother earth
Then rough board shanties. unlathed and
upholstered. spring up like magic aliaround.
Mounds of earth, logs, rocks or convenient
ly placed stumps furnish the foundations.
Crooked streets lay themselves out
streets that follow the first wagon track
and turn out for unusually large stumps
or rocks Saloons and stores are opened
and the new town receives name In a
week a city OF shanties and derricks STANDS
upon the spot where. seven days before, the
partridge drummed upon a log and the
timid deer Stacked her thirst at spring.
In a month wells are being torpedoed every
few hours streams OF odorous. emerald pc
troleum are pouring into hastily erected
wooden tanks and at night the burning
gas at the wells fills the forest with a
weird light
In another month the place Is husthng
young city OF three or four thousand inhabl-
tants A theater and crude churcn or
two have been erected, a daily paper Is Is
sued by some enterprising editor. ana as the
town doesn't wear any 'no the pohce
force has plenty of work TO 90
The Garfield "Gusher."
One OF the most remarkable oil towns
that ever rose hourshed and declined
was GARFIELD in the famous Cherrygrove
field. Warren county. Pa In August 1882.
wIIdcatters located a well In the heart OF
about as desolats wilderness as the eye
miles from Warren. and was surrounded
by an almost impossible abattis of hemlock
timber that had been felled. stripped OF Its
ANoNc rrur nrCu prrrc