The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-26
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC }. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, D. G.
OUR LAST on BOOM.

the scientists say is the last known
great oil field in the United States
will be thrown open to the public, I'M
der the oil leasing act, on June 10.
All preparations for that event, which
is expected to put thousands of new
made by the Department of Interior
here.
The field in question is the Salt
Creek Oil Field, near Douglas, Wyo-
| ming. The leases, on tracts of not
| more than $40 acres each, will be
ginning on the above date and con-
tinuing until all are sold.
Under the oil-leasing act of 1920,
it is provided that proven oil lands
in the public domain shall be disposed
of in this way. The lease on a given
tract will be sold to the individual or
company offering the highest amount
for it In addition to this bonus. the
individual must give the government
25 to SO 1-3 per cent of the oil which
he extracts as a royalty. The fee title
to the lands remains in the govern
ment.
ment receives from the sale of the
leases and from royalties. 81 II per
cent must go into the general reclama-
ton fund which is used in placing the
arid lands of the public domain I'M
der irrigation; 37h per cent of the
money goes to the state of wyoming
for use in the development of schools
and roads, and the remaining 10 per
cent goes into the treasury of the
United States.
This opening of the Salt Creek Field
may be regarded as the part of the
last act in the drama of oil production
here in the United States. Ever since
the great value of petroleum began to
be realized, oil booms have been one
Of he aoI1Io foot Of nIIT
national life. The history of them is
rich in sensational incidents of for
tunes made in a day, of fierce strug-
giles over titles, of rgushers worth mil
lions.
The opening of the Salt Creek Field
will not repeat any of that history.
There will be no "Coal-oil Johnnies,"
no unexpected gushers, no sudden and
easy fortunes. and above all none of
that waste of a precious substance
which characterized the early booms.
Seiece, business and government will
cooperate to make the development
of the Salt Creek Field an orderly and
conservative affair. It will produce
less melodrama and more oil than the
older fields.
A Model Field.
For one thing. the scientists say
that this field is an almost ideal
specimen-that it, it follows the laws
which usually control the occurrence
of oil almost without exception. In
he old days, boring an oil well was
great speculation. But science has
been constantly learning more about
the nature of oil deposits, and it has
learned SO much about this oil field in
particular that it has made maps and
diagrams showing exactly where the
OIL IS and howl it may be reached.
When a man buys lease on a section
of this land, he will know about how
much oil he is buying, and how deep
he will have to bore to get it. As a
result there will be no speculative eX-
citemen* about the undertaking. 1t is
not improbable that there will be some
brisk trading on Wall street in the
stocks of these companies, for the very
reason that to an unusual extent they
represent known values
The undeveloped character of this
fleld may be gagged from the fact
that 1t IS estimated to have a capacity
of 5000 wells, but that only 200 wells
are now in operation. 1t is expected
to produce in all about one-third of
billion barrels of oil from the two
upper oil sands which have already
been tapped. Below these are three
other oil sands which can be reached.
The whole product of the field is ex-
pected to be not far from a billion
barrels of oil, and it will take about
quarter of a century to exhaust it.
incidentally, when that quarter of a
century is over, almost the entire oil
supply within the United States will
probably have been exhausted, and
that struggle for oil which has become
the leading feature of the worlds in
dustrial life and the leading motive of
it's international politics, will have
shifted forever to other scenes.
The field is described as affording
good opportunity for those who wish
to enter the oil business but it should
be fully understood that this is an in
vestment for capital and affords no
opportunities for the man with no
money or little money. The prospec-
tive operator must be prepared to pay
down one-fifth of the amount he
| agrees to pay the government for
lease. 1t is impossible to say what
the leases will sell for, but it is sug-
gested that 100000 might be the
bonus on tract of $40 acres. In adj
dition to this. the bidder must be pre-
pared to sink wells and the present
cost of sinking a well in the Salt Creek
| field is about $4,000.
An orderly Development.
The prospect, therefore, is for an
orderly development by we'll organized
busy and respectable future. But its
past is not without a touch of TO
nance. The government investigators,
who have been examining the titles to
various tracts, nave uncovered many
! interesting stories.
The value of the field has been
known for 40 years or more, and. all
of it has been taken up by prospectors,
some of it many times. The law re-
quires that a certain amount of work
must be done on such a claim If the
claim is to be valid These claimants
were for the most part poor men. The
| field is so miles from a railroad.
! Boring for oil is expensive They were
able to hold mineral claims by dig
ging shafts with their own hands, but
they were not able to bore oil wells,
| for the most part.
| In 1909, when the approaching
/ shortage of ofT-was realized, the gov
eminent withdrew it's oil lands from
entry. and there was no provision for
developing oil deposits on government
lands until the passing of the leasing
| bill in 1920. Now that these lands
are to be leased, the government must
pass upon the titles of all these small