The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1919-08-24

S@AAy VI bhAAS was DeRuH IN ina
state.
Sees Great Future.
Later this man went to Wyomins
and discovered oil, but his discoveriei
there were the result of finding OF
seepage. He declares the greatest OF
fields in America are yet to be dis
covered, and believes he knows theil
location, although he is not now in
the oil business, and says he intends
to let the other fellow" discover the
new oil bonanza
In these days, when probably half
the population of any city is in some
way interested in oil, the word may
bring visions only of drill rigs,
pumps, refineries and bank ac-
counts-the latter sometimes grow
ing by leaps and bounds but more
often vanishing.
There is, however, another angle
to the industry, one that brings fact
and theory together in an attempt
to solve the origin of oil. The theory
of oil carries one back through the
geologic ages ranging all the way
AAOiA VIC FAINAcCll W Vic y,
and passing through such ages as
the Silurian, Devonian, Carbonic and
Cretaceous.
While the knowledge apparently is
not necessary to successful oil oper-
alton. and on the whole the variance
of opinion indicates more theory
than knowledge, oil operators have
devoted much time. in an attempt to
explain by geological science the
origin of oil. In some measure per-
haps, it aids them in locating wells.
Their theories vary widely, and each
is inclined to scout the opposing
theory.
Two theories advanced by Kansas
City men are extreme opposites.
Each theory may have defenders and
opponents; biologists. have taken
neutral ground.
A Kansas City man, who holds the
gold medal of the Chicago worlds
fair for the finest grade of oil ex-
hibited, gets entirely away from
beaten paths in theorizing the origin
of oil. This man pioneered the oil
industry in Wyoming, travelled by
wogan train over the state and at
one time held under lease $4,000
acres of oil lands in the famous Pow
der River field in that state. His
operations brought into association
with him the greatest independent
oil interests in the nation, and in the
early days of the oil industry in this
section he was scout for the con-
trolling enterprise of the oil industry
and located oil in many of the middle
west fields. His theory of the origin
of OIL
coil is sulphur and salt under heat
and pressure. 1t is geologic fact
that all the country west of here
was at one time, perhaps millions of
years ago, under sea. This sea ex-
tended from the Ozark uplift to the
Rockies, perhaps on out to the Pa
cific The Rockies may have been
the western boundary of the sea, or
may have been thrown up later.
Down through the ages the eros
ion from the mountains washing to
the sea gradually filled it, great de-
posits of salt being left as the water
vanished The sulphur in these de-
posits from the mountains combined
in many places with the salt, and un-
der the pressure of the thousands of
feet of new earth laid over them, and
under the terrific heat of the inte-
rior of the earth was transformed
into OIL To locate oil, find the salt,
then gea away from it, The presence
of salt indicates the presence in a
locality. in past ages Of a sea. The
presence of salt indicates an absence
of oil there for the salt has not COM
bined with other elements. But some
where near oil is likely to be found.
The presence of salt indicates the
former sea. Where the formr, sea ex-
isted oil now exists in places. Oil
in paying quantities cannot be found
in the Ozark uplift or east of it until
the Mississippi is reached. East of
there was a sea or bay of other ages,
and the oil fields of Indiana, Ohio
and Pennsylvania are the result"