The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1920-04-15
NO TRUTH TO
RUMORS OF
OIL SHOWINGS
Nothing Secret About Drilling
Walla Walla Oil Company's
Well No. Three
DRILLING IN SOLID ROCK
Drill is Now Down 600 Feet and Gas
is Expected at 700 Feet
Other. Rigs at Work

During the last few days there have
appeared in the. Spokane and other
newspapers, reports to the effect that
the Walla Walla Oil, Gas & Pipe Line
company was due at any moment to
bring, in their well No. 3. These re-
ports which have been added to and
augmented by verbal rumors, have
caused considerable excitement and
resulted in the boosting Of price of
some companies stocks who have hold
ings in the field;
Believing that the readers of the
Courier Reporter would be interested
to know the facts regarding the drill
ing operations, the editor, in company
with Clark v. Savidge, state land COM
missioner, visited the gas field We'd
nesday as guests of Henry D. James,
manager of the Walla Walla company.
From such informtion as the editor
has been able to gather, he is of the
opinion that these published reports
and rumors have absolutely no foun-
dation in fact.
In it's issue of April IA the Spokane
Chronicle quotes a letter from Pros
ser as follows: "Prosser folks have
been on the qui vive for the last week
in the expectation that oil would be
struck on the north side Of the hills
about 18 miles northeast of Prosser,
ETC." In the same issue Herbert G..
Harris, president of the Spokane-Ben-
ton County Natural Gas company, is
quoted as saying, "For some time tht
progress of drilling on well No. 8 by
the Walla Walla Oil, Gas & Pipe Line
company has been kept profound
secret. Until the correspondent of the
Chronicle at Prosser wired his state
ment last week, small stockholders
and others had no information as to
just what was occurring.
If there is anything secretive about
the operations Of the Walla Walla
company in their well No. 8, the editor
of this paper don't know what it is.
He spent most Of Wednesday after
noon at the well. He was told by the
driller that the drill was pounding
away in solid basalt rock. And even
a novice after watching the pounding
for an hour or more could satisfy
himself that the drill wasn't getting
anywhere very fast. During the af-
ternoon it went down about foot and
the driller reported that he had been
making from 2h to feet day. The
writer saw the drilling tools brought
up, the bailer lowered, and the bail
ings emptied into the sluice box. If
there was any trace of gas or oil
sands in the bailings he failed to dis
cover them. An observer could but
have been impressed with the lack of
secrecy on the part of the Walla Wal
la people. The well was bailed out
in the presence of no less than 15
people, among whom was C. w. Tram
nell, field manager for the Texas
Syndicate Oil company and other men,
who, like Mr.. Trammell, have had
years of drilling experience in the
Texas fields.
AS nearly as this paper can ascer-
tain them the facts regarding this
we'll are: It is being drilled about a
mile northwest of the two producing
gas wells. 1t is now down to depth
OF about 613 feet. The log of this well
corresponds very closely to those OF
the two gas wells and drillers believe
that within short time the solid ba-
salt rock will be penetrated into the
gas sand strata and that the gas will
De struck here at approximately the
same depth as in the other two wells,
or at about the 700 foot level. When
the gas is brought in it is the COM
pany's intention to case it off and
continue the drilling for oil which they
hope will be found anywhere from
1900 to 100 feet. i-.r.sr r
Down the slope about a mile east
OF the gas wells the Walla Walla COM
pany have erected their big standard
rig and expect within the next few
days to begin drilling well No. a. A
short distance south of this location
are the rigs of the Seattle-Inland and