The Cordova daily times., 1920-03-02

number Of years at kataalla, but is at present a resident of Anchorage, writes as follows of the oil fields:
 Having been over the Katalla field, from one end to the other, and To- cated and attempted to develop oil claims in this field, general survey of the extent and occurrence Of oil in this field may be of interest.
 The Katalla oil field in which may '<be~ included also the Yakataga field, extends from the delta of the Copper river, across from Cordova, to Mount St. Elias, where it is terminated by the great glaciers which cover the slope of the mountain. The distance along the coast line is approximately one hundred miles. The general tOpOg raphy of the country in which the oil seepages occur consists of a coastal plain, with timbered belts and open meadows, extending along the coast from the base of the mountain range to the sea- and averaging only a few miles in width.
 The mountain range, which follows generally the line of the coast, is broken in many places by valley open ings, through which emerge numerous rivers having their sources ten to thirty miles inland.
 te The oil seepages occur along the base of the mountains, and extened up the gulch and valley openings as far as ten miles in some instances.
 At Burls creek, east of Katalla, the seepages extend almost to the top of the range. At Mary's creek, which is within the drilled territory, the oil has so saturated the slopes of the noun tain along the creek that indications of oil may be found at almost any point. At Johnson's creek, sixteen miles east of Yakataga, the familiar odor of petroleum can be detected when within half mile of the stream, which carries a, film of oil on it's sur face, plain to be seen in every pool and eddy. There is lake of oil at the head of the stream. The seep- ages occur, generally speaking, along the entire distance, at the base of the mountains sometimes few hundred feet and sometimes a mile apart, but intercepted by the river valleys where the deposit of clay and silt appears to have excluded the oil. At Yakataga,, where I was mining gold from the V beach sands, we obtained oil from a seepage directly back of our camp. we used the heavy seepage oil for lubricating the sawmill and pumping machinery, and found it convenient for kindling fires.
 "A barrel sunk in the ground ac- cumulated sufficient supply so that we could draw out couple of coal oil cans full of oil whenever we want ed it. About two dozen wells have been drilled in the immediate Katalla section of the field, and oil has been found in many of them. The oil is usually encountered at a depth of five or six hundred feet, and ire. quently gushes when first struck. AS soon as the gas pressure is blown off pumping must be resorted to. Before the fuel resources of Alaska were conserved and the name of Pinchot became known in Alaska, the old English company drilled into A oil near Katalla, and secured patent to fractional claim, including about thirty-four acres. They started the ex- ploitation of the Katalla field, and ex- nanded about $5O0,00O in drilling and oil development Upon their applica- tions for patent to some fifty odd claims, the land office ruled that pat ent would not be granted unless they had secured oil in commercial quanti- ties. This necessitated a producing we'll on each claim, in order to- prove the character of land which was al ready listed and later withdrawn, as oil land, and the company, finding the conditions impossible, abandoned de- velopment and later sold out for traction of the money it had invested
 ''The live oil from the wells, before evaporation has taken out the gaso- line, is thin and of a brownish color, and has distinguishing odor It is one of the highest grade oils in the world, being surpassed only by an oil found in India. The gasoline content, secured by simple distillation, is about | one-third; another third is illuminat- ing oil, and the balance is worth more athan the other two, in high grade lu- bricating oils and other petroleum products. The oil as it comes from the we'll will work for time in the ordinary gas engine.
 "A number of wells upon the patent