The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1918-03-15

In these days of oil and gas de-
velopments in Kentucky, with the at
tendant alternating hopes and fears,
discouragements and encouragements
the following from the Rocky Noun
tain Magazine may be of interest to
Paris people The big well described
in one of the many owned by Mr.. Ed.
Simms, recently of Paris:
"At last Goose Creek has come into
its own. The big stratum of oil which
oil men have declared lay at Goose
Creek, far down below the first few
strata touched by the drill in that
field, has at last been found. and the
widest prophecies of the man who
said that there was deep oil at
Goose Creek have come true.
"Simms-Sinclair No. IL Sweet
which came in Friday afternoon
making 500 barrels, has developed
into a we'll variously estimated from
$4,000 to $4,000 barrels. Old timers
who saw the we'll, men who were at
Spindle Top in the days of the IA
nous Lucas we'll, say that it is good
for $4,000 barrels.
Saturday morning the we'll was
under control, pouring thousands of
barrels of oil into the flow tanks
hastily thrown up for it, But about
II o'clock in the morning it cut it's
connections and began running wild.
There was a strong south breeze
blowing and soon the spraying petro-
leum was drifting nOrthward, oil COW.
ering the trees of the section north
of the well, laying the dust on the
roads and paths just as though a
gentle shower had fallen.
"The fire under the boilers in the
Simms-Sinclair powerhouse nearby
were at once extinguished and the
fires under all boilers north of and
in the immediate vicinity of the we'll
1.-THE other companies at Goose
Creek at once volunteered their SER
vices in helping the Simms-Sinclair
force, directed by officers of E. F.
Simms & Co., in the work of subdu-
ing the runaway gusher. Late Sat
urday evening the work had not been
accomplished and the roar of the we'll
could be heard for some distance, the
sharp 'clack, clack' of rocks from the
bosom of the earth as they were
hurled against the top of the derrick
breaking the monotOny of the not
unmusical roar of the well. For by
Saturday evening the strainer which
had been set in the we'll had been
cut out and a pile of sand had col
lected around the derrick as deep as
five feet in some places.
THE whole territory north of the
we'll was soaked in petroleum. Goose
Creek housewives who Saturday
morning hung out their washings to
dry were amazed to go out about
noon and find them sprinkled with
petroleum-and the town Of Goose
Creek at least half a mile from the
we'll. The gusher could be seen eight
miles away on the Laporte road and
the drifting spray Of oil looked like
smoke.
1.-THE land Immediately around the
well looked like lake of oil. Men
soaked to the skin with petroleum:
waded thigh-deep in some places and
lay the lines through which the oil
is to be pumped into storage tanks
A levee has been thrown up to hold
the oil and every effort that can be
made to save the precious fluid is be-
ing undertaken. For it must be re-
membered that if the we'll is making
$4,000 barrels of oil per day it is
producing at the rate of 1850 barrels
per hour, which at $1.35 per barrel
the latest price at which Goose
Greek crude has been contracted-it
is flowing better than $33 worth of
oil per minute, more than 1900 per
hour, about $42,250 per day, and
more than $1,400,00O per month";
it should hold up that long.
However, with the amount OF
sand and rocks it was beginning to
show Saturday afternoon it is doubt
full if it will flow for very long
period, as the chances of it choking
up are great.
THE well is $3.50 feet deep, and
although it is not the first well to tap
the 5000 feet sand, it is by far the
biggest, the second in size being the
Gulf Production Company's No. 4
State land, which came in making
$4,000 barrels last Sunday, and it is
still holding up at that rate. The
Cuffs we'll ran wild for short
time last Saturday, but is now under
control.
"a thing of peculiar interest re-
garding the Simms-Sinclair gusher is
that it is in the territory which had
been considered as drilled dry The