The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1921-01-07
City of PaintsuilZe in
the Grip Of Oil Feuer

ing to stand in the broiling sun, un-
! aware of its heat, to await the last
stroke of the drill which then was
punching through the shale 1865 feet
below the surface. Everyone is inter-
ested intensely in evoryones' well. Re
suits are awaited with the tense ex-
citement that marks the mood of the
crowd at Churchill Downs when the
Kentucky Derby is being run.
-. Maps In Hotel Studied. ....
In the hotel Hobbies hang large maps
of a considerable portion of johnson
county showing each farm and its own
ership and whether 1t has been let on
lease to an oil company. Men stand
ing on chairs with their fingers on the
map commenting on the situation in
this and that part of the county are
discussing oil in the manner in which
the forty miners" must have discuss
ed gold. And when oil ia struck II is
quite as good as gold. 49,
i am told of n man who procured a
lease for $4,000 and was offered al
most Immediately 100000 for his
rights He refused the offer. .-,.
Johnson county was a steady pro-
Queer of high-grade domestic coal for
a good many years before the oil boom
began. The coal still is going out on a
basis of handsome profit to producers,
but oil here and in Magoffin county is
monopolizing everyone's attention.
!. 1t is pleasing to find that the native
opulation-Kentuckian who have
come here and Paintsville men who
have lived here all of their lives-are
getting profits out of oil. The farmers
of this oil region have not been as
easily persuaded TO let go their lands
without a real profit-as most KentuC-
ky owners of coal lands were years
ago when great coal tracts were &C
CURED by Eastern interests.
PaintsVilIe Feels Development.
Paintsville, already a city of brick
streets and numerous handsome homes,
including the residence which the late
John C, c. Mayo built when he had be-
come millionaire coal king, is feeling
III every kind OF business the Influence
of oil development \ bank y:h.@k 4 d
deposits of less thar 1000. 90 ~ t%e
end of the year 1919 now has deposits
VI ..Iilih SfVV1vUO' ltpl tStiillIE
mainly small deposits by business g.
Establishments and individuals Anoth-
er bank which carried in June s1.400,-
900 in round numbers. now has de-
posts of s1,650,O0O. Acreage which
used to sell at a very low agricultural
value. timbering being about over, now
is on basis of from $25 to $1,000.
Some investigators predict greater
results here than in the Lee county
field where acreage has gone as high
as $4,000 A lease on 65-acre farm
brought 100000 recently.
A year ago only one well had been
drilled.
Nowadays thore is traffic jam of
oil rig teams between Paintsville and
the oil Springs field. Fifty or sixty
wells are being drilled. There is a de-
mand for teams. laborers contractors
greater than the supply. All barns are
full and both cattle and horses are in
The various machines and
which enter into the COM
position of a drilling outfit are stack
ed high about the railroad station
awaiting delivery.
What Paintsville may become with |
IN ten years is easily foretold by oil |
1t will be another Tulsa.
Even a stranger within the gates, and
hot in an oil deal, can foresee a huge
development In this field