The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1920-02-06
TOWN OF $4,000
IN SIX MONTHS
Neither Impossible Nor Improbable
With Oil at the Lake.

An interesting article appears in
the February number Of the Nation
al Geograhic Magazine, published by
the National Geographic Society, of
Washington, D. c., the subject of
which is where the World Gets Its
OIL" This is Cne of the most relia-
BILE, accurate and trustworthy maga-
zines published in America, and from
pages -1a0-191 we quote the follow
ing: ''The geclogist has lately come
into his own as a money saver in
the employ of oil companies. To-day
not less than seven hundred and fifty
biologists are in the employ of cor
porations large and small, selecting
the most promising fields for oil ex-
ploration and sites for new oil wells.
Where it costs from eight dollars to
twenty dollars a foot to drill well
and the oil sands are three thousand
to four thousand five hundred feet
beneath the surface, as in California;
or 450-t to 5000 feet as in Oklahoma;
or possibly as much as $500 feet, as
in the new Ranger field in Texas, the
the expense attending the drilling of
a single well is something to be con-
sidered in the economy of the bus
mess, especially when as the Bureau
of Mines states, oil wells, like every
thing else, cost about twice as much
as they did before the war. The ge-
ologist simply applies his science to
the problem of making as many wells
az possible successful and of pre-
venting drilling where oil can not
be found. Every "dry hole" is in
the last analysis tax on the con-
sumer, that patient Atlas of the
worlds ever-mounting load of high
costs. A recent study of the results
of extensive geologic examinations
on Usage Indian lands shows con-
clusively that in this region, which
rather favors the Government geol-
ogist in his effort to locate oil, his
geology was right 81 per cent of the
time, when tested by the drill. Bus
iness can ask of science no better
percentage of success than that, and
the money and labor and supplies
that can thus be saved to the ma
tion constitute no small item. The
foregoing statement is a splendid
tribute to the skill of modern geol
ogists, and since geology is right 81
times out of 100, and since several
biologists have pronounced Reelfoot
Lake an oil field, and since Caddo
Lake, almost an exact counterpart
of Reelfoot, is proven field, and
since the actual presence of oil and
gas is known to be at Reelfoot, it
begins to look to us as if big things
are about to happen.
An oil field at Reelfoot will make
a town of $4,000 people at Union
City in six months. Our bank de-
posits will run into the millions, re-
fneries will be everywhere, and |
teeming thousands will gather here
from all quarters of the earth.
Lands around Reelfoot Lake are
rapidly increasing in value, and in |
sixty days will be almost beyond the
reach of the average investor. At |
the first showing of oil and gas in
the new wells that are going down,
outside capital will rush in in large
quantities.
Mr.. Newberry places great faith
in Reelfoot. He claims that the ge
ologist who recommended Reelfoot to
him as an oil field has located Is
wells for him and that every well
was producer.
The West Tennessee Land Com
pany, owing to the general rise in
value of lands around Reelfoot Lake,
has advanced the price of its lots on
Grassy Island from $1,000 to $12.50.
This company is keeping in close
touch with the oil situation, and, we
intends to withdraw the
from the market at the
first showing of oil in any Of the
wells now going down.
There are six million pleasure cars
N tho TTnitad States