The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1919-08-07
Local Merchant, Interested in
Resources of Mother
Earth.
9WELLSON l6OACRES
Expensive to Start in Oil Game
Money Comes Rapidly
When Wells Flow.

IN a recent letter to friends j.
Frank Sims, who left here a couple Of
weeks ago for the oil fields Of Ok
lahoma, gives his views of the in
dustry in very interesting manner.
Mr. Sims is now at Okmulgee near
which place a number of Moscow peo-
ple are heavily interested in oil, among
them being Edgar, Hunter, who in com
.pany with his father, William Hun.
ter visited this section few weeks
ago While the Hunters were here
Mr. Sims became interested and de-
cided to make trip to the fields His
letter reads in part as follows:
"The Miller Hunter Co. sure runs
under high pressure. Have eight Of
fee rooms at Okmulgee which they are
Just fitting up: also have offices at
Kansas City where they employ six
or eight people, and at San Antonio,
Texas, which is conducted by a Miss
Laine who recently experienced an
automobile accident The company Is
sending her to Mayo Bros at an ex-
pense of $1,000. One of their drill rigs
recently burned causing loss Of $4,000
another well lost their string of tools
when down about 220O feet, and after
fishing for them for several months
he. start
ed all over again, the operation cost
ing them between twenty and theirty
thousand dollars. This is just to show
how the money goes, and when you add
a string Of trucks hauling iron pipe
from 2 to u inches in size, block
of cabins for their workmen, eight or
ten steel tanks about as large as
house, twenty derricks, costing $32OC
each, and boilers and engines every.
where, the expenses appear alarming
The surprise to me is how these fell
lows ever get started.
well here is the other side of the
game: They now have eight or nine
wells flowing oil and three gas
Another well is now coming in. With
oil at $3.50 barrel their sales are
now running from $4,000 to $f50,00O
a month, from this particular quarter
section, which is called the Loman
lease. They will have thirty-two wells
going on this quarter section this year,
and they have some 1900 acres besides
In the Turman company. Their new
company, the Sanhomo, has 1000 acres,
1t is almost impossible to grasp the
highness Of their possibilities. On the
Loman lease every well so far is flow
ing oil or gas-not a dry hole. They
come in from 800 to 1900 barrels per
day. Then after a week or so they
Slow down and only flow once an hour
OF SO. Then when they get too slow
they put in little gas engine and
pump, which will probably produce
from 200 to 900 barrels per day for
from five to tenty years.
i met Mr.. Black from Tulsa, who
was connected with q big oil com
pany. He states they would give the
Milier-Hunter company $3,000,0OO fol
the Loman quarter section. Mr.. Hunter
said he had refused $4,000,000 for 1t
wouldn't surprise me If they. sold that
much oil from it in twelve months
ihis gentleman took arf S0-acre lease
near the Loman and paid $150,O00 with
NOT a well started. Figure out foI
Yourself how you would get started In
'he oil business. / haven't solved the
problem, but there is always way
some, of course, get these leases and
%ii stock to put down their wells
purely wildcat Of course--and IL OF
y struck In the first well and the com
,~hy is on the square, then all is fine
out II wildcat company gets a DIR,
n0'e then l suppose those who put II
'eir money lose 1t. But II has bis
l'Sslpiiities and affords quick actor
ana looks as though IL was going to b.
aoie business for years to come. They
nave big refineries here and at Tulsa
a'so several pipe line running to tn,
h' also to Chicago and TO whiting