The Holbrook news., 1919-05-23
Caution Desirable in
 Purchasing Locations

The business of locating gov. : ernment land in. or adjacent to,
 prospective oil fields for the pri.
 mary purpose of sale in small claims is. it seems, inevitable. In the case of the Holbrook oil : field. the probable productive area has an approximate bound
 ary. and with those men who have located land within the
 boundaries of probable prpduc-
 tion, as understood now, and
 who. from time to time, sell or
 lease small portions of their hold 1 ings, we have no quarrel. l Neither is it possible to take is sue with those who sell or lease
 land in the district to parties liable and willing to undertake actual development.
 But there is feature of this location selling that is, in our opinion, not exactly according to Hoyle. Whenever land is To- cated in large areas without ref ence to the supposed productive area and sold upon the repre- sentation that it lies in the 'Hol- brook Oil Field, Dor where To- Ications are sold wherein the or IiRinal locators have not com piled with the well known legal Requirements for bona fide Ioca- sions, then, we claim, the vendor Is in the category of those who Iobtain money under false pre- lenses, and while there may be no legal remedy (we are not sure of this) as a moral proposition at least, the man who sells a brass watch for gold is entitled to full membership with the former in any club or organization which may bind together such kindred souls.
 Those. who purchase small claims should realize that the area of the HoIbrook oilfield will probably be something less than the northern half of the State of Arizona; also that certain legal methods of location must have been followed Tn the first in- stance and that the required as- sessment work must be accom- plished within a specified time. Consequently the payment of money to obtain a quit claim deed does not end the purchas- er's obligation in the matter.
 The business of selling claims or locations is of no benefit to the field whose endorsement has made such operations possible unless the money obtained from the sale of these lands is used for actual development and ex- ploration purposes to prove up the worth of the area in which the land is sold. It is not a diff cult deduction to believe that those who have located large areas for the purposes of sale are not concerned to any appreciable extent with selling the claim purchaser a cholce portion of theIr holdings, if indeed there be any choice. Their main object is not to help the field. neither are they inclined to phiIan- thropy.
 If you are offered claims or To- cations in any area which is be- ing exploited by penny-ante land sellers It might be interesting to ascertain just what proportion of ! the funds so received by them is to go into actual development of the area and also what guarantee may exist, if any, that the money so promised for exploration will be so expended.
 It has come to our attention that land which was represented to be in "The HoIbrook Field" and sold under this representa- tion. was. upon investigation afterward-found to be located in the Apache Indian reservation. Also that proper location meth ods are not strictly followed by some of those interested in ac- auiring large acreage for sale.
 It is not to be inferred from the foregoing that The News ad- vises against purchase of loca- tions as a concrete proposition, but we do advise prospective