El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-07-28

oil from its refineries. They are on
their way TO the battlefields Of Eu-
rope As we look about US we can see
the tank farms Of oil companies. with
their mighty reservoirs standing out
against the blue sky like the domes
Of some half buried oriental city. II
We had X-ray eyes which could
pierce the earth. TO the north. south
and west we should see mighty pine
. lines which are carrying rivers Of Pc
. trOleum from the many oil fields Of
. the southwest TO the great refineries
located here and at Port Arthur.
winch Is only Few miles away on the
gulf.
Is Almost Exhausted.
The ladder like towers, so feet high.
which surround US stand over OH
wells This field is almost exhausted,
but they are still pumping out the
dregs OF the fluid which once burst
forth in such gigantic fountains that
it astounded the world.
Inc story OF every great OIL camp
IS OF 1--we human interest and there is
none more so than Spindle Top. on
which we are standing. The field is so
small that a soldier could stand in
the center, and. with his rifle shoot
FAR beyond any Of the wells that have
produced oil in large quantities. The
on came from a reservoir capped with
strata 1000 feet thick.
The first well that penetrated the
reservoir was drilled to a depth less
than twice the height Of the Wash
ington monument. and the result was
an explosion which threw up rocks
and sections Of a four inch pine TO a
height of many hundred feet with
them came the petroleum, which con-
tinued TO spout at the rate Of more
than 5000 barrels per hour. or at from
$4,000 TO 100000 barrels per day. No
preparations had been made to store
the oil. but an embankment was
thrown up around a tract OF 40 acres
This made great pit which held the
petroleum until II caught fire and
destroyed the derrick and the other
machinery connected with the we'll
The well was saved. having been pro
tected by sand. and it continued to
produce for some months thereafter.
story OF the Discovery.
This rs the story Of the discovery OF
oil at Spindle Top as ii was given me
the other day by capt A F. Lucas. the
well known geologist and mining en-
Eineer. who now lives I'm Washington.
n. @ Capt Lucas was the originator
OF the dome theory OF the coastal
plan. and he might also be called the
father Of the great oil developments
OF Louisiana and Texas which have
barrels Of petroleum He was looking
for oil in this region for some time
before he sunk the well on Spindle
Top. He had studied the geology Of
the low ulAlEs NnEu N-ELllEu NsLAulN-
which rise here and there out of the
flat marshy plains along the northern
and eastern coast Of the Gulf OF Mex
leo. He had found under these hills
beds OF sulphur and salt with iudi-
cations of oil and had concluded that
they might be the sites OF oil pools or
reservoirs far down under the ground
He concluded that the dOmes had been
created by subterranean springs which
had forced up the salt, sulphur and
other deposits in the form of solution
or gases. and that they had fallen
back. creating these curious forma-
tons.
Seven years before he drilled his
well at Spindle Top he had tried to
deepen a well for Joseph Jefferson,
the actor, on jefferson Island and had
struck salt not far from the surface.
He had bored down POO feet through
that salt without finding bottom. ana
later had gone down into the rocky
salt dome OF another mound to a depth
of 2I4O feet and had there found salt
and sulphur and some oil.
There were indications Of oil at the
surface of the Spindle Top mound, and
before Capt Lucas drilled there. he
took a lease on 5000 acres from Car