The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-02-20
WAS HELD UP IN
TEXAS OIL TOWN

The following letter, descriptive Of
the Texas oil boom, is written to r. X.
Brown of the winnemucca Hotel, this
city. The author is S. t. Miller, well
known here. having formerly been
employed in the hotel, he having left
Winnemucca a short time ago for the
scene of Texas oil activities:
Fort Worth, Texas,
February /, 1919.
Mr.. r. X. Brown,
Winnemucca, New.
Dear Mr.. Brown:
Under the head of i'll luck
| might mention another unlocked for
experience. / have a room over a
corner drug store in a nice residence
part Of the town. Going down n
evening about 1880 l became the vic
tim of a holdup; intruded myself into
it, in fact. l noticed a mar at the
cash register, but his back was to-
ward the store and l assumed that it
was the proprietor until he turned
around and came outside of the show
case. Even then | didn't tumble to
what was up until he had told me sew
eral times to go back of the prescrip-
ton case, explained that he was rob
bling this drug store" and prodded me
in the side with an automatic.
My first impulse was to knock the
gun aside and hit him, as my posi-
ton was fine for both. But in the
meantime l had heard his e%onfeder-
voice. My brave impulse died
a-borning and | obeyed orders. Be
hind the prescription case were two
young men reaching for the ceiling;
the proprietor's wife opening safe
drawers, and the other robber with
another gat.
They got away with about SIS from
the drug store and $50 from me.
Now, as to the oil boom: It's the
biggest thing l have even known, and
| have seen most of the big mining
booms in the past twenty years. In
money being spent for acreage, in
drilling, for pipe lines and all kinds
of development and equipment in the
new fields, less than a year old, as
we'll as in production of wealth in the
form of crude oil, Goldield in its best
days was a piker's game.
The Standard Oil subsidiaries are
spending twelve millions and a score
of the largest Independent oil COM
and operators are each spend
ing millions. Leases sell as high as
$1,000 per acre. Hundreds of fortunes
have been made and are being made
in leases and royalties. Hundreds of
landowners who have heretofore eked
out a meager existence as farmers
become rich over night. It's the
promised land for both legitimate and
grating promoters.
Many small companies formed less
than six months ago on Burkburnette
acreage, which is a shallow field as
compared to Ranger, are paying % to
100 per cent monthly dividends now.
So you can imagine the play pro-
get from the public locally.
1t is estimated that Fort Worth
alone has put over six million dollars
into oil stocks. The early companies
got close-in, proven ground, but later
fotations are going father and farther
out. There will be weeping and wall
ing when well after well comes in
dry, as they surely will, because there
is a limit to an oil pool. This applies
particularly to Burkburnette, as pro-
motion activities have been greatest
there.
The most prominent and popular
fields at present are Burkburnette,
Ranger and Duke. The last-named
two seem to be the choice of big OPP
orators, though deep (2700 to $500
feet) the wells are more productive.
Many wells there yield from 1000 to
1000 barrels per day; the oil brings
1925 per barrel, nearly all net, as the
cost of production is insignificant.
New fields may be brought in any
time, as many test wells are going
down in new sections where geologi-
cal conditions are favorable.
The opportunities are without limit,
but some money is essential, as nearly
all transactions are cash. Options are
seldom granted; when given a sub
stantial cash payment is always re-
quired and the balance must usually
be paid in ten to sixty days. Nearly
all promoters employ agents to sell
stock and the town is full of stock
peddlers of a small-caliber type. The
state law limits promotion rake-off to
ner cent and stocks are soil at