Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1908-10-01
EVIDENCES OF OIL
Some Reasons for Believing in
a Producing Oil and Gas
Belt Near Edgeley.


The Edgeley Mail. Sept. 25th, says:
The fact that during the past few
days important discoveries have been
made in the district where the lands
have been leased for oil well pur-
poses, oil having been discovered in
springs almost on the surface Of the
ground, only tends to carry out the
first reports that oil is here and in
large quantities.
. One man who has paid a good deal
OF attention to the gas and oil ques-
tion, recently investigated the gas at
the Edgeley village well, where the
gas was taken to run the big engines
for the light plant, until the explo-
sion of the gas destroyed the tank,
bids now being called for new tank,
and he says the fact that gas supply
has been of such quantity for the
past fourteen years convinces him
that there must be oil in the neigh
borhood.
He bases his contention Oh the
fact, known to all who have investi-
gated the formation, that where
gas of the kind found here is discov
cred, oil has invariably been found.
A few years ago, within few miles
Of Edgeley, while an artesian we'll
was being put down, oil was struck,
| and the fact has been substantiated
! by eye witnesses-but the well was
plugged at the time because water
supply was what was being sought.
At this stage of the game a little
history relative to the oil discovery
near Edgeley would not come amiss.
Several years ago a well was put
down on the Eckels farm, now owned
by f. f. Balch, and at that time the
man who was drilling the well came
to Edgeley and reported that he had
struck flow of oil while attempting
to locate what was supposed to be
the second flow from the artesian ba-
sin. At that time he made no effort
to keep the discovery a secret and
went to Aberdeen, S. D, to see if he
could not organize company to bore
tor oil. His efforts did not meet with
the success he anticipated, conse-
quently telegram was sent to the
eastern papers denying the story, mot
withstanding that a telegram had
been previously sent from the same
city, stating that the oil had been
discovered. At that time it looked
peculiar to our citizens, but since
they have learned the methods of the
Standard Oil Co., to stifle competi
tion, they are beginning to wonder
if the octopus did not have some
thing to do with the denying of the
discovery Of the oil.
Experts who have been here from
time to time have all been a unit in
stating that the gas coming out Of
the ground comes from oil, and re-
cent developments go long way to-
ward bearing out this theory. One of
the most conservative oil experts in
the employ of the government stated
in the presence of the writer that
there was oil on the farm referred to
above, and the other expert who is
coming to develop the fields said the
same thing. If there was no oil here
it would be funny thing that two
experts who had never seen each 9TH
er, should locate it on the same
identical spot. Where there is SO
much gas, there must be oil land that
is the opinion of everyone who has
had anything to do with the oil
fields.
The first of the week we had the
pleasure of talking to man who was
on the farm when the oil was struck,
and he stated that it covered the
ground around the pipe. When it
first came to the surface, the boys
filed an apple can with the oil to see
if it would burn-they found out
that it would burn, and that was the
reason one of the men went to Aber-
deem to see If he could not get the
capital to develop the same.
Since then The Mail has learned
Of another well that was treated in
the same manner, and it can produce
the men who saw the oil taken from
both wells. This in itself ought to
be enough to prove to the most skep-
tical that something was done to re-
tard the development Of the oil i'm
dustry in this state as long as posi-
BILE. The same thing has been done
| in other states and there is no reason
to believe tht it has not been done in
North Dakota.
ENGINE FOR SALE.
/ Nearly new s h. p. gasoline engine.