The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-03
ToPEHA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC j. RAsKIN. Direesos.
wsshtneton, p. c.
ONE MORE OIL STRIKE.
washinEton. .. C.

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oil boom, and what is more, large
unexpected addition to the depleted
national oil supply. have recently de-
veloped in Texas. Experts of the geo
logical survey have confirmed the i'm
portance Of the new oil belt.
The price of land in this central
Texan region has shot up from rev
dollars an acre to rates that rival bust
ness sections of New York City. Ex-
cited prospectors are digging wells,
and more wells. Texas has become the
center of interest for every investor
that ever played with oil and succeed
ed in getting his fingers greasy
Development of the central Texas
oil fields comes just at time when
oil is scarce ard more in demand than
ever before The national oil barrel
Is being drained more rapidly than
fresh oil is poured into it. In 1918
the United States produced over 1884,
900 barrels of petroleum, valued
at over five hundred million dollars
At the same time. 5S,000,OO0 more
barrels were needed, and to supply the
deficit we had to get 100000 from
Mexico and draw on our storage OF
$50, 100000 barrels for the remaining
27,000.0O0.
barrels of oil in the form of lubricants
and fuel for battleships. trucks and
machinery One representative reg1-
mept overseas carried los motorcycles,
seventy-five trucks and 100 tractors
All of our heavy guns are drawn on
motor trucks.
War Communicated the bulk of the
petroleum. supply for itself. and the
nation economical. But now that war
restrictions are removed, affairs OF
peace will use UP all the oil we can
produce. and in all probability will eat
more rapidly than last year into the
diminishing storage supply. This is
the prospect, taking into account the
newly exploited wells of central Texas.
and barring the discovery of any new
giant gushers Of oil.
Farmers who have been saving up
until the war ended to buy tractors.
and every American citizen who has
been waiting for the return of peace
in order to acquire an automobile is
a prospective heavy oil consumer. And
there are many of these prospective
consumers to be added to the present
ranks of steady users of gasoline and
other forms of petroleum. There is
the budding merchant marine, which
must be furnished with oil for fuel,
and all the other enterprises of pea, e
which will be pushed forward rapidly
since the restraint of war demands is
removed.
gion is always dramatic. There are
always stupendous fortunes made and
lost, and there is always in evidence
some luckless prophet who knew the
oil was there but could not get it out
The stories of oil are as many and as
romantic as the tales of tho gold fields.
There are in the Texas belt laborers,
i'm 10ie
sunk their fortunes in oil and lost and
! won alternately in a bigger, more vital
| gamble than Monte Carlo ever offered
The Gulf coast lands have, until the
past three years, been the only oil
| fields in Texas. The first discovery
Three years ago. the Texas Pacific
| Coal company was drilling to locate
| further coal deposits, when gas was
noticed coming from some of the shall
low holes dug by workmen. Further
| exploration located oil. The interest
deposits we're forgotten while the COM
pany plunged into the absorbing bust
ness of looking for big wells.
| Other prospectors followed them,
| believing that all the oil was not in
| one restricted area. But the difficult
| ties of finding the desired steady flow,
| of oil were so many that the land was
looked upon by some as a hoodoo
Still, wildcat projects continued, the
prospectors digging at random.
The main trouble then. as now, was
the character of the Texas geologic
formations. The layers of rock and
oil in this section follow no regular
strata arrangements Even below the
level lands the formation is irregular
as if upheaved and broken. Layers
of one kind of rock appear on the sur
face here, and a few miles, or ever
rods away, the same rock is far below
the soil. This makes it almost i'm
possible for geologist to study the
ground and advise the probability OF
oil existing in any definite area.
When the element of chance so en-.
tirely controls a situation, the ignor.
ant and the persistent adventurer:
most often succeed. One prospecto1
sunk his drill two thousand feet int,
the ground at a point where he fell
confident of striking oil. Then his as
sistants and laborers grew discoura geo
and refused to go on. Today tina
well, finished by group of men who
knew next to nothing of digging fol
oil, is the center of the most prolific
oil area in the central Texas belt. NJ
A level-headed engineer would have dus
J further, but the adventurous prospec
tors who took over the land dug to Z
depth of $3.50 feet and sturck oil
Now, it is a well established fac
that the oil fields of Texas must b,
; pursued thru several thousand feet o
soil, especially in the north. Foul
thousand feet is practically the deptI
limit for oil well digging, tho a few
cases of deeper oil wells are cited
Digging a we'll three thousand feet re
quires an outlay of some thirty thou
sand dollars, fact which explain
: why SO many enthusiastic prospector
! stop at two thousand feet or less
Once oil is struck. however, stead.
, flow of oil-the investment is so prof
! liable that the fortune hunter Otter
INDUCES in an orgy of we'll digging
5 which leaves him either a multi mil
, lionaire or, more often, a pauper.
The geological survey has recent
sent some of it's men into the TeXa
oil field 10 study the geology of tn