Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1913-12-11
The Oil fields Of
Northeastern
Kentucky
A Paper Prepared by Dr.. S. R. COL
lier, Of West Liberty, and
Read at the Kentucky
Mining Institute.

~N"Ao P"PSA Woo "AAI
ten by our fellow townsman, DR..
S. R. Collier, and read at the
mid-winter meeting of the Ken
lucky Mining Institute, held at
Lexington Monday, Dec. 8:
The surface rocks of these
fields are composed of sand
stone, shales, coal and clay, on
top of a conglomerate sandstone
from twenty-five to fifty feet in
thickness, are of the Pennsyl-
yania age and belong to the
lower Pottsville group, accord
ing to Prof. M. j. Mum. This
conglomerate sandstone is ex-
posed at the following points in
Kentucky: At Torrent, in Wolfe
county; at the mouth of Black
water creek, in Morgan county;
near the Menifee line; along the
Yocum valley, Morgan county,
and on Paint creek in Johnson
county. These formations dip
in a Southeasterly direction (pos-
sibly more South than East)
about thirty feet to the mile.
By drawing a line on your map
from the exposed conglomerate
sands shown at Torrent, Black
water, Yoeum valley and Paint
creek yod will have almost a
semi-circle- "a West and North
rim of what is shown to be a
basin. Through this basin, rum
ming, generally speaking, in a
Northeast and Southwest direc-
tion, is a large fold or anti-cline,
in width from two and one-half
to four miles. Parallel to this
main anti,cline. or fold ara
numerous local anti-clines. but.
running in different directions.
giving a width to the oil-bearing
stratas of fifty milses or more,
comprizing the territory between
the Ragland oil field in Bath and
Rowan counties and the Beaver
field in Floyd county. On this
anti-cline are located the Camp
ton and Saltwater oil fields in
Wolfe county, the Camel City
oil fields in Morgan county, and
the Bussyville field in Lawrence
county. While there is little doubt
that the Bussyville oil field is on
the main anti-cline, it seems to
the writer that it is a little North
and outside of the basin of the
other oil fields mentioned herein.
However, this opinion may be
shown to be incorrect by future
d developments.
There exists in the minds of
many operators in other states
that Kentucky is freaky and has
no persistent oil-bearing sands,
and the greater part of the de-
velopment that has been done in
this state has been done by local
people and men with small
means, and for this reason many
wells nave been drilled without
any real reason why they should
have been drilled at the places
located. s..S
There also existed in the past
a prejudice against the geolo-
gists who persisted in being 80
technical that they..allowed them
selves to be misunderstood in
many ways by the operators and
producers, when really there is a
practical part to geology that no
operator can afford to overlook
in this field, and that is that the
most favorable locations should
be selected. Had this been done
many dollars would have been
saved and Kentucky today would
have been one among the great
est oil producing states.
Why is Kentucky condemned
as an oil producing state, es-
pecially the Northeastern part?
The Ragland oil field is about
fourteen years old and.owned, as l
understand, by the New Domain
Oil & Gas Company, and has
been pumping oil all these years,
and is making a nice production
today. The Campton oil field is
eleven or twelve years old and is
operated by the Mountain Oil
Company, which 10 now drilling