The Monte Vista journal., 1917-12-22
... The San Luis Valley
WHY NOT?

= All geologfsts who In the past
have examined the Valley agree on
one point and that is: That the val
ley at one time was great lake o.
water. and that the lake has been fll.
ed up by erosion from the surround
ing mountains. The formation Of
the Sangre de Christie range OF noun
tains which joins the eastern side of
the valley Is composed of many and
various classes of rock. Along their
ly OF mammoth shale dykes and lime
stone with considerable broken down
sandstone replacing the other forma-
lions where the assuring has occur
red. The beds of all streams that
course down through the mountains
to the valley consist of shale and
lime and after the streams reach the
valley their beds consist of a very
pervious sand which is susceptible of
retaining gas and oil when concen-
trated into big bodies at depth. TAX
Ing into consideration the well
known fact that the biggest per cent
OF oil that is now being produced
comes from the shales and that lime
stone has always played an import
ant part in the forming Of oil pools.
Combining these features with the
vegetable matter. and the fossils
which must exist in the lake bed and
we have all of the component parts
that go to make oil and gas. There
fore. 1t stands to reason that at some
point between the now surface of
the valley and the bottom of the old
lake bed the concentration of all OF
the above factors has taken place and
formed large pools OF oil and gas.
The Alamosa formation that crosses
the valley east and west towards the
southern end is nonpervious which
acts as n retaining wall so no loss by
seepage can occur.
Development OF the field to date
consists of the Holbrook well and
the Layne well put down seven miles
southeast of Mosca and small we'll
put to depth OF S75 feet on the
Kinney lanch by the Moffat Oil &
Gas Company. The log of these
three wells goes to show that the for
nation which they passed through
would strongly indicate that oil and
gas does exist. Taking into consid-
Grafton the fact that 1t has taken sew
eral wells in every known producing
field before the first successful we'll
was discovered. being because the
first drillers in new field is going it
blind as they have nothing to guide
them. but after the first flow of oil
is discovered all drillers know where
to set their casing to bring in the oil.
Therefore we have no reason to ex-
pect the San Luis Valley oil pools to
be any exception to the well estab-
lished rule and the people should
not look at the past but turn their
attention to what is going to be done
In the near future to develop the
valley into q big commercial oil and
gas field.
The writer has in the past year
drilled total of 5000 feet on the
Baca Grant in bringing in Artesian
wells. Three of these wells brought
In artesian flows at depths ranging
from $40 feet to $50 feet with no
gas showing. Another one of these
wells passed through three stratas of
dry gas in reaching a depth of 500
feet. This well was continued thru
shale to depth of S27 feet at which
point the gas became too strong for
the light drill rig to go any deeper
TWO other wells after passing
through several hundred feet of
shale entered heavy sand stratas and
brought in artesian flows with heavy
gas at depths of 1853 feet. These
wells with several hundred others
scattered over big area OF the gas
belt proves beyond all shadows of a
doubt that the gas in the valley is
confined below the cap rock and the
formation that will confine below It
the heavy gas pressure will likewise
conhne the oil