The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1913-12-03
TWENTY MILLIONS
OF OIL WEALTH
THIS SUM is INVOLVED IN THE
TRIAL OF RIPARIAN RIGHTS TO
RIVER BEDS IN OIL FIELDS.

Muskogee, Okla, Dec. 3-Accord,
ing to estimates made by biologists,
the supreme court of Oklahoma may
place twenty millions of wealth into
the treasury of the state or it may
place it IN the treasury of the Creek
nation Unless our court oyeTules
the supreme court Of Kansas, and the
supreme court of Arkansas, its d5ci-
sion will be in favor of The state of
Oklahoma.
This immense amount Of wealth
comes from the oil royalties on the
river bed lands of the Arkansas. and
Cimarron rivers in Oklahoma Some
idea of this vast wealth may be OBJ
tanned from figures taken from the
Sarah Rector allotment in the Gushing
field along the Cimarron river. This
allottee has a daily income now of
more than 1000 from the royalty,
The Cimarron river divides the al
lotment, and the river bed for half
a mile through the allotment, was
leased from the state by w. A. Led
better and former governor c. n.
Haskell A drilling contract was
made with the we'll known oil oper-
ators White & Sinclair. Offset wells
are now being drilled to the Rector
wells and when this portion of the
river bed is developed, the daily pro
duction should be about $4,000 bar
rels. An agreement has been enter
ed into by which the royalty will
be deposited in a special fund and
kept until the courts finally deter
mine the ownership of the beds. The
United States government represents
the Creek nation, and the commission
ers of the land office represent the
state of Oklahoma. This vast sum
represents but onehalf mile of this
river, while 40 miles of the Arkansas
river are in the Mid-Continent oil belt
and the termination of the suit now
pending means a great deal to the
party which the court decides to be
the riparian owners,
Another interesting feature which
was infected into the case came about
in the adoption of the Harris-Day
code. When the code was prepared
and was ready to be submitted to
the legislature for adoption, Cover
nor Cruce submitted a specil mes
sage TO the legislature, calling their
attention to a letter written him by
Judge Ledbetter in which it was
shown that the Harris-Day code made
the adjoining property owners the
owners of the riparian rights: Act
ing upon this suggestion the legisIa-
ture passed a bill making the state
the riparian owner before the code
was adopted.
Judge Ledbetter initiated the liti-
CATION on behalf of the state in de-
Tending title to a small island in the
river. and from this small beginning
he has broadened the contention of
the interests of the state to the entire
river bed and has made it one of the
biggest questions in the state from
basis Of revenue bearing proper
ty
At recent letting of leases on
river bed property by the state some
of the biggest oil producers, includ-
ing B. b. Jones, and others submitted
bids. The willingness of these men
to operate under title from the state,
shows the confidence the people have
in the rights of the state as ripar-
ian owner
The litigation is being watched
with much interest from every sec
ton of the state, for the reason that
i. means so much wealth to the win
ner of the litigation.