The Snyder signal. (Snyder, Tex.) 1887-????, 1920-04-09

The northwest extension of the Burkburnett
field was brought in by wildcat company
The first gusher in the northwest extension
was the Burk-Waggoner well and the company
was promoted by VIII Sargent, real estate
broker of Fort Worth.
When Gordon, general manager Of the Texas
and Pacific Coal and Oil Company, had drilled
his fourth dry hole at Ranger he was almost
in DESPAIR but with the characteristic courage
of the wildcatter he drilled his fifth well-the
McClesky well-and it came in gushing oil over
the derrick. So the great Ranger oil field ana
its twin brother, the Breckenridge field, is the
result of the faith and perseverance of wild
cater.
The Hog Creek Oil Company at Desdemona,
2 local company met with many discourage
ments and finally failed but its stockholders
got together one day and decided to do some
thing. The company was reorganized and
contract let to drill the Duke well. The Duke
well. on the original 5,000-acre tract of the Hog
Creek Oil Company came in flowing over LOCO
barrels per day with a string of tools in the
hole How happy must have been the stock
holders of the little independent Hog Greek Oil
Company when they wildcatted into existence
one of the richest oil fields in Texas
The pioneers of our petroleum industry are
the wildcatters they blaze the way and en-
dure many hardShips in order to discover and
develop new oil fields. Without the wildcatter
the greatest oil producing state in the United
States The big companies seem Indifferent to
bringing in new oil fields. AS a rule they pre-
fer to let the little Independent company do the
prospecting 1t must be more profitable to
await the bringing in of good wildcat well by
an independent company than for big com
pany to bring in one. After pool of oil IS
discovered by wildcatter the big companies
get busy and try to buy acreage up as close as
possible to the wildcat well. As soon as the
big company acquires all the acreage it wants
around a well brought in by a wildcatter it
usually proceeds to plan and carry out large
drilling campaign. If the big companies, as
was the case in the northwestern Burkburnett
extension, do not always get the acreage they
want around wildcat, they remain aloof and
leave the little wildcatter alone with his well
and no pipe line connections. They then have
the wildcatter, in most instances at their
mercy, and he is either compelled to sell out to
them at their price or keep his well and acreage
at great disadvantage. The wise wildcatter
will usually sell to the bigger company rather
than run the risk of being frozen out"
The Widest Wildcat Territory.
Roughly estimated, there must be at least
1000 wildcat wells drilling in Texas at this
time. Such tremendous drilling campaign
will undoubtedly result in the discovery of
kany new oil fields this spring and summer.
new wildcat well-the Ira Bell well-about %
miles north of the town of Pecos, on the banks
of the Pecos River. This we'll at depth of
657 feet, is awaiting the installation of pump
to determine its real value. The potentialitv of
the well is estimated all the way from so to
1000 barrels. The well is 400 miles west of
Fort Worth and in the widest wildcat territory
possible. Oil experts have taken the well seri-
ously and are paying high prices for leases, not
only near the well but at considerable distance
from the well. Boom times have come to the
title frontier town of Pecos and the intensity
OF the boom is a reminder of the early days
OF Ranger, Burkburnett and Desdemona, when
oil was first struck near these small towns.
The Bell well was drilled by the DiXeland
Syndicate Company of which Mr.. Ira Bell is
GENERAL Manager The syndicate owns one sec
ton of land on which the well was drilled and
Bell and his associates own $4,000 acres in the
vicinity, of the well. Mr.. Bell is wdcatter