The Holbrook news., 1918-06-28
HOIbrook Scene of Big Boom
 CEl Paso Times)

(El Paso Timss)
 Arizona has an oil field! A That is, if the recommendation ]. of some of the eminent geologists who are on the staff of the really Big Fellows, means anything.
 Holbrook, Arizona. is 91 miles
 east of Flagstaff, and on tht
 main line of the Santa Fe rail
 road. This is the little city
 which recently has had the honol
 of dining groups of strange mer
 whose mission seemed to be of g
 most mysterious nature.
 Many of these men were geol-
 ogists they admitted the
 fact. The great mystery they
 were solving, so the natives say,
 lay in the great uncRowded public
 domain, both to the south and to the north of Holbrook, as we'll as in the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservation,
 The geOlogists mingled among the natives for weeks at a time this was months ago-but the mystery was solved. The Hol- brokers saw no reports for months later. These were real geologists. They were on the pay roll of the honest-to- good ness capitalists. So they worked with much secrecy.
 Even COW man of northern Arizona will tumble. A few weeks ago strange men were securing all Navajo county for deeded land. If you've ever been to Holbrook you will realize that these Hand grabbers were not going into the farming business. The prices commenced to raise. Deeded land prices doubled over night. The rush was on it's oil!
 Every. American citizen has the right to 20 acres as an oil or mineral claim, and without re- siding thereon. Hundreds of locations have been made. Here the COW man has held his own. He has located claims in the name of every member of his family. Some have been accused of using the names of their pet ponies. One old timer even ad- mitted that he made a location in the name of his mother-in-IaW.
 Just the other day Senator Ashurst from Arizona introduced a bill on the floor of the United States senate, asking to have the mineral rights of the lands in the Indian reservation of his state thrown open to the white man. Senator Ashurst, in intro ducing the bill, never mentioned oil; no just mineral. He never the Navajo Indian reservation in particular with it's 20, 900, 900 acres under which the | say are millions of | barrels of oil. This may be the biggest oil field in the world.
 Is there being something slip ped over? The natives of Arizona are all talking Holbrook. They've forgotten about the wealth of their mines and are making one grand rush for the oil fields.
 And they are justified. Most encouraging reports have been made by such prominent geolo- gists as Dorsey Hager of Tulsa, Okla, Charles T. Major of Sem ator Clark's staff; Dr. A. A. Johnson. president of the Uni versity of Wyoming; Arthur Eaton of the Midwest Refining company. and w. D. Blodgett and F. c. Ripley, who head the Santa Fe oil interests of Califor- nia. Within the past few weeks the University of Arizona, after an exhaustive study of the field, has recommended drilling. The geological survey of 10 years ago reports oil, and it was on this report that millions of acres of public land was then from location.
 Number of Companies Formed
 Anumber of companies already have been organized and several drilling outfits are on the ground. The Holbrook Oil company is headed by ex-Governor George D. Meiklejohn of Nebraska. h. cidentally. Governor MeikIejohn was one of the attorneys in the celebrated Harry K. Thaw case. Senator s. G. Mayfeld of South Carolina heads the Navajo Oil company. The Producers com- pany is an organization of local people, while the Apache Oil company and the Adamana Oil company represent outside in- terests.
 There are at least six rigs in operation or in the process of being erected. so that drilling will commence at once. Four other rigs are reported on the way to Holbrook, which are said | to be from the Doheny interests.
 a