Charlevoix county herald., 1918-08-16
GOES 81 FEET IN.
AN 18-|NCH WELL
CONTRACTOR DAREs DEATH TO
OPEN DEEP SHAFT.
Makes First Trip In History Into Hole
After a Bit Which Had Stopped
the Work of Drilling.

the work OF Drilling.
Bliss. Okla.-Down $40 feet in an
18-inch oil well is the perilous trip
made by N. C. Essary. The trip, the
first of the kind ever made, was to
take drill bit out of the well which
had clogged it at the bottom and
stopped drilling operations.
Before finally securing the bit Es-
sary made eight trips into the well. 1t
was like trip across the River Styx,
according to Essary, who is a drilling
contractor.
"Of course, the fact within itself
that it has never been accomplished
before made me little creepy" Es-
sary said, land when one of the drill
ers cried and anothers voice got trem-
bly, as they pleaded with me not to un-
dertake the feat, l became little
more trembly. but none the less de-
termined.
"As started on my first trip down
the well all those present told me
goodby. Their voices trembled and
their eyes didn't look just right And
! must confess that that was the most
trying time of the whole deal, but
had my heart set on the trip and want
ed to hurry and get myself where
would not be moved by sentiment, so
l gave the order, Let 'er go, or I'll cut
the rope
"As l moved slowly down into the
well / kept wondering If it would get
any tighter, for a 185-pound man fits
an 18-inch hole pretty tight. But after
j had descended about forty feet be-
low the 20-inch pipe / discovered l was
going to have plenty of room, except
in places where the formations were
hard. AS l passed through the tight
places into large roomy yawning cav
ems it would make me scringe, for
would dangle around on the table and
could not touch anything for support,
and they looked like large, red mouths
prepared to swallow me up.
"Then / went into another tight
place which proved to be pure white
lime, with faint traces of blue streaks,
like a checkered pavement which /
once saw on the ground floor of a tenn
pie, but down, down, down, went. 1t
was a new and strange world to me,
and by the time was half way down
/ began to look for bottom. l had to
feel the walls when the light was out,
to determine whether l was going up
or down.
"You can imagine my surprise when
reached the depth of $40 feet and
could no longer hear the voices on the
surface and could not yell loud enough
to be heard myself, for had expected
to talk to the boys at the top. felt
lost in way, for | realized that we
had made a mistake by not arranging
a signal code by means of the flask
light which / carried. However, the
boys on top were lost more so than l
was, for knew where they were, and
they didn't know just where l was. for
when l was within about ten feet of
the bottom they stopped and talked
the matter over and hurriedly decided
to pull me out and run the bailer. yell
ed as loud as / could to lower away,
but they just pulled me out anyway,
to see If they had caught any fish.
They were using me for bait, they
said.
when reached the surface a crowd
of about twenty-five had gathered to
greet me. They looked upon me as
though l were a newborn babe. They
all tried to talk to me at once.
1.-THE air is bad as far down as $40
feet, where there is a seepage of gas,
but lower than that it is just cool and
damp, and has an odor Of fresh earth.
1t also had mist of rain falling con-
tinuously, and small pebbles falling
from far above would sound like dis
tant thunder, and as they came nearer
would crash louder and louder as they
struck the sides of the hole, and by
the time they reached the bottom
would gather other loose rocks and
rain promiscously on and around
me- At one time I saw flashes of light
ming and stars all at the same time,
and heard loud crashes of thunder.
The well was caving worse than usual.
ION my last trip succeeded in ty-
ing a chain around the lost bit, which
weighed 1000 pounds, and pulled 1t
out, which was saving of $4,000.
II made eight trips altogether, and
no one trip was any less interesting
than the others. If it wasn't for the
danger involved, l would be glad for
some geologist to make the trip with
me, and explain those. beautiful strata
of white checkered, blue, red and mix
ed colors of rock as we pass through"