The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1919-10-02
Colorado oil
Shales Exploited

The State Bureau of Mines has Just
issued an attractive little booklet deal
ing with the oil shales of Northwest
ern Colorado which affords interest
ing and Illuminating reading to people
concerned in increasing the petroleum
output of the state from this source of
supply The booklet may be had on
application to the Colorado Bureau of
Mines, Denver.
The term "oil shale" is applied to
those clay rocks which will yield oil
when subjected to certain processes
of destructive distillation. The
term is not particularly appropriate
one, however. for the shales do not
contain mineral oil, or mineral paraf-
fin, as such, nor can oil be obtained
from them by any system of solvents,
or by pressure. Drilling in these
shales have not yielded any quantity
of oil or gas although very small
amounts of both have been met with,
and occasionally the layers of shale
are coated with thin film of oil
The refining of shales as a source
of oil was begun in this country about
1850, following similar development
in Scotland at somewhat earlier
date. Previous to the discovery of
petroleum in the United States, and
for Q few years afterwards, large
part of the coal OIL used in this
country was distilled from these
shales. There were between so and
so plants in operation in the states of
Maine, Massachusetts, New York,
West Virginia. Ohio. Indiana. Missis-
sippi and Michigan when the first
Pennsylvania kerosene was put on the
market. These plants were then either
abandoned or converted into refiner-
les for petroleum.
The interest in these latent reser-
voirs is again increasing with the
gradual approach of the exhaustion of
the supply of petroleum This ex-
haustion, as has been pointed out by
many experts, is but matter OF
limited number of years. To take the
place of this fuel there must be found
according r. ID. George. state geolo-
gist of Colorado. source of energy
for at least one-half the horse power
of this country, and that source of
power-that fuel-must be of like char
acter to that whose place II is to take
Otherwise enormously expensive read
justments must be made to adapt all
of these engines to fuel of different
character, different bulk. different
power and different handling. In
view of the present and probable fu-
ture, industrial conditions it is diff
cult to oyerestimate the Importance of
this fact. Prof George believes that
the substitute must be oil"-another
kind OF oil-but petroleum or rock
OIL and that the sources from which
this oil must be obtained are the
shales and oil-bearing Goals.
Up to the present time more than
100 companies have been organized in
this country for developing or selling
stock in oil shale enterprises mum
Der of commercial by-products are OBJ
tanned In connection with the dstiIla
ton of shale oil. of which ammonium
sulphate is the most valuable The
production of shale oil in the United
States in 1916 was 1866, 900 barrels
There are about 1000 square miles Of
oil shale lands in Colorado, but mus
OF II is SO remote from railrad a,
TO be unsuitable for exploitation a
the present time. 1t is located IL
Garfield. Mesa, Delta, Rio Blanco and
Moffat counties. There are also vas
deposits OF oil-yielding shales in Cali
fornia. Nevada, Montana, Eastern
Utah and Southwestern Wyoming.
Try q Record Wantad-they will pa,