Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-13
IOWANS SEE BIC FORTUNE
Declared to Have Found Asphaltum
Lake in Canada.
CORPORATION TO DEVELOP IT
Alleged Find is the Result Of
Five Years of Constant Search
Along the AthRbasca
River.

MARSHALLTOwN, Ia, Jan. 12.-(Spe-
cial)-Owning 2,620 acres Of land in Atha-
basca Province, Canada, on which are i'm
mensely valuable deposits Of asphaitum.
oil, gold, silver. copper and ion, G. II.
Ruth and L. r. Willard, owners Of the
Marshall Oil company OF this city which
has branches in Lincoln, Neb.; Fargo,
N. D.; Pierre, s., D.; Albert Lea, Mimi,
and other places, together with other men
OF the orthwestern states, nave launched
at Winnipeg a $5,OO,O0 corporation to
promote and develop the find.
Associated with them are T. w. Taylor,
state agent for the Union Central Insur-
ance company OF Minneapolis. Robert
Jones, president OF the Drexel State bank
OF Chicago, James Wiser, president OF the
First National bank Of Fargo, N. D.. and
Alfred Won Hammerstein, the geologist,
who located the deposits and a group Of
Winnipeg and Saskatoon, Canada, business
men.
Five Yenrs ON the Hunt.
For five years Won Hammerstein has
been living with the Indians, while
prospecting In the Athabasca river valley,
about $50 miles north of Edmundson, near
the site of Fort Mckay. a Canadian police
post. During those five years Ruth and
Willard, who rave developed an immense
oil business from their headquarters here,
have been stalking Won Hammerstein, and
pouring money into what at times seemed
a bottomless hole. That their persistency
won, was made certain today by the tele-
gram willard received from his partner,
which says the property, now 1t has be-
come the holding OF the corporation, is
worth millions.
Messrs. Ruth and Willard, and the three
other men of the states named above own
a one-third interest in the corporation.
Won HammeTstsin as the locator owns one
fifth, and the rest has been taken BY
Canadians.
Keep A~sphaItum a Secret.
For more than two years Won Hammer
stein, the local men and their associates
in the states have been e~ndeavoring to gel
title to the land from the Dominion, which
zealously guards its public domain. 1t was
freely admitted and reported that the land
contained rich deposits Of oil and minerals
but the lake OF asphaltum. which Vor
Hammerstein found was kept a secret and
never made public until today.
Won Hammerstein has m tina
there is 500, 900, 900 tons Of asphaltum in this
lake, which in places is thick and Of a
sticky consistency resembling gumbo, OF
thick clay. In other places it is much
thinner and more plastic. The entire de-
post is mixed with silica. which in a GER
tain form is the basis principal of glass.
ROad Now Being Built.
The immense cost of the Preliminary de.
velopment which the property he's received
today may be judged by the fact that II
cost 5000 for transportation charges alone
to move an oil well drill outfit from Ed
monitor over land to Fort Mckay. Eight
wells have been put down on the property
and every one Of them have proved to havt
struck rich subteranean channels and
lakes Of oil. q w
A contract has already been let for the
building Of a line of railroad to Fort Nc.
Kay to be completed during 1911. Thirty
miles of the grading has been completed
The corporation, which owns the property
hopes to have its oil wells in operation
and a refinery erected at Fort Mckay BY
the time the road is finished to that point
In the meantime 1t is considering the
laying of a pipe line from Fort Mckay t.
Edmonton.
Some Of the Winnipeg men who are as.
ISOLATED with the local men in the cor
p~oration are w. ]. Christie, w. c.. Lesti.
kow, E. f. Hutching. John Gait, Thomas
Kelly, Arthur Fraser, w. M. Mulock Of
Winnipeg and Fred Engen OF Saskatoon
Canada.