The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1920-01-06
OIL DISTRICT
REPORT FAVORABLE

oil in the Illipah basin country, has
created no little excitement among
investors throughout the state, and
the following article taken from the
White Pine News (Ely) is explanatory
of the new strike:
The Illipah Basin Oil & Cas- Com
pany, incorporated for the purpose
of drilling for oil in the Illipah Ba-
sin. located about t~hirty-fve miles
west of Ely, and on the Lincoln high
way. is busy moving a drill to the
property.
Through the efforts of J.. Z. Amen
da, the president of the company, the
board of county commissioners con-
sented to rent the county tractor foI
the purpose of transporting the drill.
rom Kimberly to the scene of opera
ions. The start was made early this
week and the drill has been placed i'll
position ready for the first hole.
The section of the country neal
the Norman ranch at Illipah has fol
several years past attracted the at
tention of several eminent geolo
gists. Indications throughout the
entire basin are Identical with thos.
Of the Wyoming fields and in tn
opinion of c. l.. Harkins, a Nevadi
engineer. a gusher will be en-
countered at NJ greath depth.
Ira MacFarland, deputy state en-
gineer, was in Ely during the week
and is very optimistic about the
prospects of tapping oil in this sec
ton. Mr.. MacFarland is not a boomer
and is known throughout the state
a very conservative man, and when
he makes the statement that he con-
siders the stock of the Illipah Basin
one of the best specula-
tions in the world, it is not strange
that the people of Ely are strong in
their support of the company.
The majority of the most conserv-
men in the district are purchas-
ing stock, which is being sold at ten
cents a share.
j.. F. Shaughnessy, chairman of the
public service commission, is inter-
in the project and gives his
opinion as a result of conferences
with practical oil men that the bring
ing in of one fifty-barrel oil well will
turn the attention of the oil investing
public this way and put Nevada on
the map as an oil-producing field,
thus quickly increasing the value of
oil stocks TO the basis
Of a handsome profit.
The Illipah Basin lies a little north
Of west of Ely, at a distance of about
miles. The general direc-
ton of the basin is north and south,
with Cottonwood creek flowing from
near its northern end, turning east
erly through a canyon.
The higher formation is massive
limestone, several hundred feet in
thickness, containing practically all
he fossils of the Eocene Pleocene
periods, particularly near its lowest
strata, where these fossils occur in
almost solid masses. The massive
limestone is well exposed on both the
49, ~ Soot otQCo VI liz UdSlIl,
With a dip to the west and the east,
forming a w~ell-defned
lnticlinal running north and south.
The apex of the anticline would
appear to run north and south on a
inc somewhat nearer to the western
'ide that the eastern, with a gentle
Hope to the north of perhaps ten to
welve degrees. This slope exposes
he oil formation, one stratum after
mother. as a person goes over /,
rom north to south. The dip of tn.
strata is a little east of nortr
it is this easterly tendency that
hrows the apex of the anticline
the western side of the BASH
han to the eastern, and which will.
elevate the southern end of the anti.
line.
Below the massive limestone the
is dark shale, limestone
n alternate layers. Much of this
strata has not been measured. but
hey are all strong. uniform, and the
lip is exposed in many places. At
place has a fold or fault been
'ound. Identification of the shale
las been determined by Engineer
to be Jurassis, dark in
color. with a considerable h~ydrocar-
content. and experiments have
proven that oil has been extracted
rom it in small quantities by earlier
i~iscoverers. The Morrison forma-
ion of the same age has been iden-
ified in the stratum of variegated
sandstone lying below a massive
stratum of shale. Indications of an
extinct seepage have been discovered
1t a point on the south slope of a
and came out from beneath