Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-09-28
next OIL FIELD
BE IN ARKANSAS,
SAYS GEO. BYRNE
Former Texas Newspaper Man
and Associates Invest Heav-
lily Here.

George Byrne, at one Time a rofI
Worth newspaper man, but now
resident of Baltimore, is in the city
looking up old friends and talking
over old times with those he finds
He worked here in the time of the old
Fort Worth Gazette, now so long
ago that he does not care much to
talk about it. In the days when
the town was struggling along with
10000 people or so, reaching out for
railroads, and keeping itself in the
public eye by means of the unex-
ampled enterprise that largely has
been effective in making it the great
city it has become. Mr.. Byne came
to Fort Worth from Camden, Arkan-
sas, where he has been awaiting the
development of what he believes will
be the next great oil field to be
brought in. He talked enthusiast.
cally Of the prospects Of Arkansas,
saying, among other things:
"The petroleum biologists who
have made examination Of the for
nations in Arkansas are unanimous
in the belief that oil will be found
there in large quantities. They say
some of the largest and most promis-
ing structures to be found anywhere
in the country exists there, and that
there can be no question of the pres
ence of oil in some of it. The same
structure found in the Homer field, in
which the largest two producers Of
high grade oil in all the country have
been brought in recently, PERSISTS
Immediately north. It is believed by
IL ,.oo~ %l.o% III, val will Lo
struck somewhere in that section.
The countries in which the greatest
activity is found at present are
Columbia, Union, Ouachita and Mar
vada. Especially in Ouachita is this
activity marked. A number of men
from West Virginia have come and
obtained leases on tremendous
amount Of acreage to which they are
still adding. They are so firmly con-
WINGED of the existence there of an
oil field that they are not offering
any of their holdings for sale, but on
the contrary are trying to get more.
Two wells are being drilled by the
group of men. acting through the
Humphreys Petroleum company, an
operating concern we'll known thru
out Oklahoma and other fields, and
the Straughan Petroleum company,
newly organized. These wells are
down approximately 2,40O feet, and
as the biologists who have examined
the territory believe, pay will be
struck at from $500 to 5000 feet,
results will be expected now pretty
soon. The Merritt Oil and Gas COM
pany. another concern we'll known in
Oklahoma and other fields, and the
Camden Oil and Gas company. newly
organized, will each begin drilling a
well within the next two weeks.
These companies are all dominated by
the same general group of West Vir-
voinia men, experienced in the oil
game, and full of confidence that
they are about to develop big field.
A number of wells. five, I believe
were drilled in Ouachita county some
five to eight years ago, and at
least three of them had showing of
oil. In one it was estimated to be
good for from Is to rs barrels but as
oil was then very cheap, and there
was no pipe line near, the owners
were not satisfied with anything so
small, and so kept on down until salt
water was struck, drowning out the
oil. The experienced oil men now in
the country say these wells were
drilled at the wrong place, and that
those located higher up on structure
will be found to produce much more
generously.
IS. S. Hunter of Shreveport is
drilling a well in the southern part
of Ouochita county.
I'm Union county a number OF
wells have been contracted for, and
at least one is now in progress OF
drilling. In Columbia county, con-
tracts for half dozen wells have
been made, and some of them will be
begun very soon.
II feel confident in the prediction
that the next oil field to be developed
in this country will be in the state OF
Arkansas, and that it will be big
one. The structure is there, and the
old must be in some of it. At any
rate some of the most successful oil
men in the country are spending hun.
dreds of thousands of dollars in the
belief that oil will be found in very
large quantities"