The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-05
A new GAS FIELD
The Territory Around Elmdale
Continues to Grow.
Wells Are Not Deep But Have a
Strong Flow.
GIVES A FINE LIGHT.
A Chanute Expert Who Made a
Special Examination
Says 1t Is in Every Way Su-
GIVES A FINE LIGHT.
Says 1t Is in Every Way Su-
peri0r to Their Gas.

| Elmdale, Kan, March 5.-Wells are
still being sunk in this vicinity for
gas with good results. G. w. Shaw
and c. S. Jennings have leased much
| of the land here and around hatfield
| Green. Their leases include some
$4,000 acres They now have the caps
on eight active wells and propose to
develop a much larger field.
| The proven territory now covers an
area three by four miles.
These wells are on the Cottonwood
| bottom, which is something more than
a mile in width.
The wells will average a depth of
| about two hundred feet and because of
| this so-called shallowness there is
much of skepticism and criticism of
| the field by those knowing nothing of
| it and who have made no attempt to
| get at the facts.
| One well a mile south of town is but
a few hundred yards from the river on
the south bank of which the hills for
miles rise almost perpendicularly to a
| height of nearly two hundred feet.
ues to gradually increase for many
| miles south, southeast and southwest.
The slope to the north in reaching a
height equal to that south of the river
| is more gradual.
| One Of the first wells drilled was
that of Holmes and Giger. It is To-
Gated in Elmdale and is now supply
ing fuel and lights for thirty-five
houses ana the engine OF a mill. Inc
pipe leading from the main shaft of
the well is less than two inches in
diameter, and is turned on one-half
The cap was recently removed from
the same pipe SO that the gas not in
use as above mentioned might escape.
1t came with a great force and loud
Kissing noise; indicating Enthusiastically
great reserve force and plainly de-
veloping the fact that this well
would easily supply all the residences
business in ia la wit n
all the gas they might require for
heating and lighting purposes.
When one of these wells is turned
on the roar is not unlike that caused
by the passing of steam from an over
heated boiler. 1t is, however, a much
shriller noise and men standing at a
distance of forty feet from the well
cannot carry on a conversation with
out standing very close to each other
and speaking in a loud tone. When
quite close to the wells the sound is so
shrill and intense that it seriously af-
fects the hearing.
Under favorable conditions the
noise of the escaping gas can be heard
for five miles While the five wells
were on, a Santa Fe passenger train
passed and the-noise it made at a
quarter of a mile from the wells was
| entirely drowned out by the noise Of
the scaping gas.
1t comes from dry gas sand bed
twenty-five feet in depth, found be-
heath a InlCk stratum OF very thard
rock that serves as a cover for it.
| This gas possesses an odor but it is
not unpleasant nor nauSeating. It is a
purely dry gas. The force is so great
that a man cannot with his hand shut
it off. One can hold his hand in the
flow for any length of time but no
moisture accumulates from it.
From the wells now drilled and
capped there flows enough gas to sup
ply fuel and light for several towns
the size of Emporia
A prominent stockholder In an indie
pendent oil refinery at Chanute which
uses the gas of that territory for heat
ing and lighting purposes. recently in
spected the gas here. He says it is
more abundant. has much greater
force and is in every way superior to
the gas now in use in Chanute or that
from any of the wells in southeast
Kansas now supplying Topeka and
Kansas City, Kansas, as we'll as many
smaller towns. It gives a pure white
| light and fuel is delight forever
The wells out of town are on the
farms of Stephen Wood. A. M Breese
John Murphy. w A. Wood and the
Mcintosh farm. On the Breese farm
there arc two wells; on the Stephen
! Wood farm, three: the Murphy farm
one; the w. A. Wood farm, one. and
on the Mcintosh farm one. The next
will be drilled on the Davis farm west
of town three miles.