La Junta tribune., 1910-04-23

at night. the sky is red with a lurld
glare reaching high into the sky a
resounding Of the violence OF the
mighty peni up force as 1t shfx.rs
the earth and rents the air and a RE-
Election OF the hellish. maddening
flames as they leap fifty feet or more
into the sky and whirl and swecp far
out upon the water and roll back
as II the very water WAS on fire. THIS
crater is about three acres in extegi
more than one-quarter OF milo
around It. and forty or fifty iees
deep. This is filled with salt wa'ar.
which at first Is thrown high into
the air by the continuous expIos IONS
OF the gas. deluge here, now thee.
and then n dozen In every directl1l.
In violent succession. or all at ono,
then. by this constant churning and
the intense heat, the water eva pJ-
rates. becoming thicker and a II ck-
er mud. until the mud Is so stiff that
In falling back. the gas IL monrn-
tarily shu, OF! and the flame pu, out
The gas continues to belch up
through the mud bringing the salt
water with IL. until the mud soon
becomes liquid and the crater is
filled and becomes lake of sllt
water, hurled into the air and las he'd
In violent fury. rolling great biii1ws
against the edge of the crater and
about like a river. The heat. when
afire, Is so intense one can not ap-
proach very near II except for q
moment only. Here is a wonderiuI
waste OF gas. Could this wasting gas
be plped into La Junta 1t would warm
every house. cook every meal and
make steam for every boiler REQ u.r.
ed for all the people and all the n DDS
and all the shops at La Junta. But
there seems TO be no way to pain
control OF these wells. They mus
II seems, continue to waste and burn
until they are exhausted. II & a
pity and shame. for there Is no
fuel. In convenience. usefulness and
cleanliness. equal to natural gas
All wells In this territory proc lf-
gas. many produce gas only while rEe
greater part produce oil also. Gas
Is generally found at depth OF only
500 or 900 feet and is often 10 olGi
at much greater depth. OIL Is
found In three different strata. The
first below the first gas. at about
! 900 feet: the second at somewhary
about 800 to 500 feet and The
third at from $500 to 200 or 500
feet The latest and best wells are
about 1900 feet. ! saw one of tho
greatest wells bored a couple OF year
ago. and which at that time pourrI
forth 200 barrels per day. yleld.Hg
today less than one hundred barrels
per day. I, had yielded. ho~cv~. .
mint OF money. This oil is vory low
priced. bringing but sixty cents to
sixty.two cents per barrel The rea.
son is plain-,here Is but one mar
ket. practically. the STANDARD aud It's
allied corporations. These wells are
all gushers when first bored, but
they fall off rapidly. as a general rule
and later have 10 be pumped Iany
wells which once paid handsoma prof
Its are barely profitable nov Iany
wells throw out salt water N.fl the
oil This oil requires trestmru. The
oil and water are run into a series OF
reservoirs. the water being piped
from the bottom OF each aud ron off.
while the oil Is run off from fsf top
into the succeeding reservoir until
the oil Is quite free from water but
this last oil stlll contains mall
per cent Of water and the water Is
finally cyaporated by means gt q
system OF steam pipes laid u the
~ihuAHk bpush hhi'h~u NAANa wv
oil runs. until II reaches lar-s pans
connected by pipe. from the last
OF which the oil Is pumped into \
grea, iron tank. purified and rcady
for the pipe line and the market The
oil In this field Is generally free rom
water and IL merchantabie as II
comes from the we'll
| rode ou, from Vivian one day 10
look nj several pieces OF land offered
Tor sale. In the direction OF the lat.
est oil development | was offered .
tarm Of one hundred and twenty acre
about onc-half or = lille more improv.
ed. At ten dollars per acre The
land was fenced into fields. There
vas = small house Of three rooms. q
i :