Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-22
MYSTERY In REALTY DEAL
Large Tract Of Land Between City and
Lake Manawa Changes Hands.
RUM0R HAS IT A STANDARD OIL PROJECT
Anonymous Letter only Foundation
for This-Purchaser Refuses
TO Say What His
object IL.
RUMoR HAS IT A STANDARD OIL PROJECT


ural gas in the immediate vicinity Of Coun-
Gil Bluffs? Is the recent purchase Of a big
tract Of land between the city limits and
Lake Manawa in the interest Of the Stand
ard Oil company? are questions which are
agitating the real estate dealers at pres
ent Real estate dealers and owners of
property in Council BLUFFS have In the last
few days received typewrttten letters
signed Justice" and purporting TO be writ
ten by a man who was in the employ Of
the Standard Oil company until about
month ago. The letter states that secret
agents OF the Standard OIL company have
recently reported that extensive deposits
Of Oil and gas exist in this vicinity and
that a company Is being formed to ac-
quire by purchase a large tract Of land
here These letters ernanate from Phila-
delphia and are as follows:
1 wish to call the attention Of the people Of
, Council Bluffs and vicinity through the pub
! lie press to a private report that Is here on
! file at the head office of the Standard Oh
company, and which 1t Is not their inten-
| ton to make public until their object is
| accomplished The report comes from their
secret agents in the field and Is to the
| effect that ON the east side of the Missouri
/ river beginning at a point south of Mis-
souri, valley and extending southwark to-
ward the Missouri line y a rich bed Of oil
| and natural gas and that the richest part
| Of this bed is under the city of Council
Bluffs and extends about two miles south.
The report further says that this land can
| now be bought at q very low figure and
! company Is being organized to buy all they
The report further speaks of Council
Bluffs as having the best prospects before
! II of any city in the union, and that in less
! than five years 1t will be of the most
important cities west Of Chicago. My OBJ
| iect in writing to you is to urge upon peo-
! pie not to sell their holdings to any par
| ties whatsoever, for in less than one year
! this deposit must be found by someone,
| and then the people can get right price
! Tor their land, ana n9t nave every every I .tls
| is already overwhelmed with wealth.
Henderson Man the Purchaser.
The fact that within the last few days
| tract comprising 400 acres between the city
limits and Manawa has been purchased at
| high figures by an Out-of-town party is
| believed to lend color to the statements
made in the letters signed Justice" NJ s.
| Sturgeon of Henderson, Ia, is the party
credited with having made the purchases
of the land in question. Although the
closest secrecy has been maintained re-
garding the purchases, it leaked out yester-
day that Mr.. Sturgeon had purchased
| Wednesday 100 acres from William Flynn
Of this city, paying for 1t 500 an acre. The
balance of the 400 acres said to have
been purchased by Mr. Sturgeon is made up
| OF Small parcels SOME not eACeeulnB ten
acres. For the smaller parcels Mr.. stur-
geon is said to have paid above 500 an
acre.
Mr.. Sturgeon, whose mission here was
unknown at the time, has been in Council
Bluffs several times during the last month
and while in the city stopped at the Grand
hotel. Asked over the long distance tele-
phone whether his purchases were for
Omaha or local people, Mr.. Sturgeon re-
piled that he was not at liberty to say.
He said: IT had to pay these high prices
in order to get the land. l was instructed
to secure the land and I could not obtain
it for less than the amount paid. I do not
know what use 1t is intended to put this
land to, but it may be made public in
short time. Some of the land is being
leased back to the original owners"
A few years ago a resident of Fourth
street south of Twelfth avenue, thought he
had discovered oil underlying his lot and
he spent considerable money boring for it.
He finally abandoned the experiment, be-
lieving he was throwing good money after
bad.
The land between the city and Manawa Is
known as excellent alfalfa land and it is
thought possible that the recent purchaNes
were for the Alfalfa Meal company, whi>
is preparing to increase the capacity of It's
plant on this side of the river. This
= however was emphatically denied yester-
day by an officer of the company.
Another report current yesterday in rea
Q estate circles was that the recent pur
chases was for a railroad, but this Is moi
3 credited, although 1t was stated a few
months ago thaS the Wabash planned ex
tensive additions to its storage tracks and
yards. The land purchased, however, by
Mr. Sturgeon is said to be too far soutf
for such purpose.
In the meantime until the mystery Il
solved real estate men are wondering wha
AS In the air.