The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-08-30
STAMPEDE TO OILF|ELDS
IN SOUTHWEST UTAH

stampede has recently occurred
and is still in progress to southwest
ern Utah, where it is said petroleum
oil in large amount has been struck
in wells sunk to prospect the rocks
of that region, says the American
Mining Review. 1t is also reported
from Kingman, AriZ., that the ex-
cited oil prospectors have crossed the
Colorado river into Arizona near the
Virgin river, and are locating large
areas in that territory for oil.
Just what the chances for oil may
be south and east of the Virgin river,
which is mostly within the state of
Utah, only about seventy-five miles
of the lower part of the stream being
in Nevada, we can not say positively,
but consider the probabilities eX-
tremely unpromising.
This is the region of the lower end
of the Grand Canyon, and includes
the lesser Black Canyon of the Colo
RADIO river. The rocks are, for the
most part, carboniferous limestone,
OVERLAPPING a relatively thin formation
of silurian quartzite, sandstones,
shales and dolomites, the whole rest
ing uncomfortably upon the upturned
pre-Cambrian schists. These latter
are never oil-bearing. The silurian
rocks of the west are equally desti-
tute of oil, and the carboniferous
limestones and sandstones of the
Great Basin and show nothing in the
way of hydrocarbons other than pos
sibly an occasional thin layer of bit
luminous shale or little ooZing btu
men-far from a reliable sign of a
profitable oil field.
In the Black Canyon and in the
Grand Canyon, for more than $50
miles, these rocks are continuously
exposed, the main canyons and lat
eral branches having cut down
through them to a depth ranging
from 1000 to 5000 feet, and no one
has ever heretofore announced the
presence of oil in any of these rocks.
1t is, then, to later rocks that the
oil prospector must turn in search
of his fortune. About ten miles north
of the quaint little Mormon village OF
Saint George, Utah, and extending
for many miles in a northerly direc-
ton, are cretaceous beds overlain by
tertiary. In either of these forma-
tions there may possibly be oil
Again, fifty miles northeasterly from
Saint George, the same cretaceous
and tertiary rocks occur, probably
everything an area of at least 10000
square miles. In these rocks, too
oil may also be found.
South of Saint George and south
of the Virgin river, however, the
chance for oil seems poor. The car
boniferous plateau extends for miles
in all directions. Here and there is
seen an isolated red butte of the
Permian or of the Triassic, but
neither cretaceous nor tertiary rocks
are found, the entire upper part Of
this extensive formation, which al
one time extended in a huge thick
blanket over the entire country, hav
ing been swept away by erosion
Aside from the few remnants o.
the Permian and Triassic rocks there
are some large hills composed o.
black basalt, of which Mount Trum
bull is the most conspicuous.
There is large area of cretaceou
rocks east of the Little Colorado riv
err, in Arizona, and possibly these
may contain oil, though so far al
known to us none has been reported
The oil prospectors of northwest
ern Arizona are far more likely tt
find valuable veins of gold, silver
copper, lead and other ores, than oil