The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1916-02-10
II not paid in advance add fifty
cents per year extra.
AN OPPORTUNITY
FOR THE DRllLER


FOR THE DRlLLER
Well drillers in the United States
may find an opportunity to discover
potash as a mere byproduct of drill
ing for other materials. This oppor-
tunity. which may be called duty
and which should not be unmiXed
with interest only requires that the
driller shall watch the drill cuttings
and salt waters brought up by his
outfit and thus cooperate with the
government in its search for potash.
The advance In price of potash
salts from normal rate Of about
$40 to over $500 ton since the out.
break of the war makes still more
evident than before the difficulty as
well as the duty Of finding this in.
dispensable commodity somewhere
within our own vast domain, while
the country waits. The United States
Geological Survey has devoted part
of its energies to the investigation OF
rocks and minerals containing large
percentages Of potash and to the
search by the drill for beds OF potash
salts that have been buried during
different geologic periods in the evap-
Grafton pans of certain dried up an
cient inland seas and lakes. The
work done has GUIDED testing of
brines and bitterns from many places
especially from salt producing fie' DIS,
and the examination of drill cuttings
from wells.
II is practically certain that beds
OF potash salts II they exist in bas-
ins In the United States other than
Searles Lake, California, were laid
down in geologic formations that in
clude beds OF common salt, gypsum,
anhydrite, and like minerals just
as they were in Germany and Spain,
though the beds may not be so thick.
The formations laid down in those
ancient seas and lakes, which by
their evaporation deposited thick
beds of salt and other minerals, there
fore probably AFFORD the best promise
OF yielding salts rich in potash.
Beds OF rock salt and gypsum &C.
cur In large areas in the United
States. They are found in the Sail
ma rocks OF New York and Pennsyl-
vania and in other formations of
about the same age, laid down in
Michigan and Ohio during periods Of
great aridity In southeastern Michi-
gan bed of rock salt 900 feet thick
is said to have been found by drill
holes. Dense bripes or salt depos-
its are found In Carboniferous strata
in West Virginia and other Eastern
States In the red beds OF the South.
west and the Rocky Mountains in the
Cretaceous deposits Of several OF
the Western States and in the Ter.
tiary strata OF the far Southwest. in
many OF these regions there may
have been areas where the evapora-
ton of the water bodies precipitated
potash salts as well as common salt.
though in most Of these areas, as in
most of the more recent. Western
lake beds, the potash was distracted
and jealousy secreted by the clays
of the muddy waters and so deposit
ed in the shales. In some OF these
salt depositing areas, however, the
conditions were no doubt at some
time favorable for the laying down
or blankets OF potash salts that were
later buried beneath other forma
tons. II Is unreasonable to believe
that in every one OF these evapora
ton pans the potash was diffused and
that nowhere throughout the wide
spread and diversified salt beds OF
different geologic periods In this
country was potash thrown down II
beds comparable In size to those II
the Old World.
The United States Is still youni
and large country and the search fol-
potash by the drill has but just be
gun. Drillers in private employ arr
borning In hundreds of places for oil
coal, water, and other minerals II
areas never before touched by thu
drill. and they have hundreds, posi-
bly, thousands. Of opportunities Il
find beds OF potash. The discover!
OF potash In commercial amounts oil
a claim. lease or farm might be ia
more valuable than the discovery o
an oil pool Or a mine.