Omaha daily bee., 1906-11-04
WYOMING A BIG OIL FIELD
. Eject Of the Withdrawal Of His.rul Lapd
frSm Entry.
KEY TO The PETROLEUM SITUATION
Present Development Of the state ava
What f. Expected Of the Futurs-
one small Heanery AZ
Casper

Whether the railroads or the STANDARD
Oil company find the most reason for dia-
katisfaction with the recent order Of secre-
Dry Hitchcock acting under President
Eoosovelts instructions, withdrawing $780,
FOO acres Of government mineral LAND IN
The western states from entry, It would DO
hard 10 tell. As an instance Of the manner
/ In which the blow caught the railroads Il
may be mentioned that in Routt county.
Colorado. 622o acres OF valuable coal land
have been withdrawn from entry. II this
coal land can be operated, the newly con-
structed Denver Northwestern & Pacine
railroad Che "Motfst road") will control
an Immensely profitable trsfio, but N the
coal cannot be mined ana marketed, an
important source Of expected income viii
be cut OF. The Standard oil interests have
been caught in a somewhat different but
no less Calling manner. They already con-
troll thousand OF acres 81 Wyoming oil
lands; and, as Is their custom. have counted
considerably upon their ability 20 gain con-
troll of the balance whenever II should
seem advisable. And just a. the moment
when it seemed as n tho time had arrived
comes Hitchoocks order shutting on some
OF the most desirable OF these lands from
private acquisition on any terms.
The purpose Of the order IL said 90 be
to prevent the monpolization OF the coal
and oil lands of the west BY the big cor
poratiOns; but what the government will
do with them 10 probiematical Should Il
be the intention 20 hold them indefinitely,
II would retard the development OF portions
OF the west, and there will certainly be
popular outcry. Advocates OF govern.
ment ownership hope that the government
Itself is getting ready to go into the coal
ana oil business; but the wish is no doubt
Ines co fba a
constitutional obstacles IA the way may be
sufficient to prevent that dream from ever
/ coming true. In any event congress is
u entitled to the last guess and when the
lawmakers get through Il Is probable that
the railroads and the oil octopus will have
about what they want. Nevertheless, the
situation IL such as to give them a bad
half hour at least. II the 100000 acres
withdrawn from entry were all that was
involved, IL would not be so bad: but no
one knows when another order Of similar
purport may be issued.
T Great OIL Field.
1t is agreed by experts that 1t IL in
wyoming that the sensational oil strikes
Of the future viii be made Kept out of
the race by lack Of transportation ia
cilities and distance from the great mar
kets. that state contains more proven
but undevelOped oil territory than any
sther state in the union. II is the ma
IONS oil reserve, whose resources will
ne drawn uDon when those OF Pennsyl-
vania, Indian Territory. Kansas, Texas
and California have been exhausted The
known oil fields are distributed from the
extreme northeast TO the extreme south
west OF the state. in productive regions
that have been located, but whose limits
Nlave never been defined Most of the
proven territory Is included In the vacant
public domain, although from 10000 TO
5000 acres have been taken UP and
patented by Standard Oil interests and
by the Belgo-Amerlean OH company tan
English syndicate). With the completion
OF the Chicago & Northwestern railroad 9
extension from Casper TO Lander on the
edge OF the Shoshone Indian reservation,
Il was the intention Of the STANDARD OIL
and BelEo-American interests TO increase
their holdings to such an extent that they
would control the situation In wyoming
With this program Secretary Hitchcock
thousands OF acres of oil land in Wyoming
order has seriously, If only temporarily
iuterfered
Placer Claims tor OH.
However. there are still hundreds OF