The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-08-25
OIL; A STORY OF SPECTACULAR DEVELOPMENT;
THE RICHNESS OF CAT CREEK; BIG WELLS I'M THE SOUTH

w. W. Gail, the Billings public
ist, has written a cry excellent
story on the oil development in
Montana, which appeared in the
current issue of the National Maya
zine of Boston, which is here repro
duced in part:
Ever since oil was found in Wyom-
ing there had been persons, not pro-
fessiOnal petroleumOlogiSts, who were
as positive that there Was-rather is
oil under Montana as that there is
sky above it. Partly, of course, the
hope was paternal progenitor of the
cogitation. Yet, to logical thinkers,
as we'll as to myself, this conviction
had behind it a perfect chain of cir
cumstantial evidence. Speaking geo.
logically, the two states spring from
the same ancestral stock and were
born on the same pristine norm. Geo.
graphically, likewise, they are twin
sisters. In their facial characteristics
they bear striking resemblance. All
outward and visible signs seem to
indicate the same inward and spir-
itual grace, o~leaginously speaking.
And oil, coolies of oil of very high
SldOc, Was lOuuO SOult SIX years dSO
in the Elk Basin just below the state
line. It was one hundred per cent
absurd that oil would come SO far
north and then be stopped dead still
in its tracks by a mere political boun-
dairy line. In point of fact, nature
had spilled quite a bit of the Elk
Basin on the Montana side, SO the
state has been listed mon the pro-
ducers eve since. But nobody-at
any rate no loyal Montanan - ever
felt that oil had been found in Mon
tana, for this had plainly been plan
ned as a Wyoming field and her sister
state could claim no credit for an OBJ
vious accident.
So the quest began. Secretive
strangers, the Pearys of petroleum,
rcamed the country from the foot
hills of the Rockies to the Dakota
border, from the edge of the Elk
Basin to the Canadian line. Less
secretive home folks, frankly dream
ing of mollycoddle winters in south
ern California, joined in the chase;
ofttimes led it. 1t developed that
eastern Montana was completely
cootie with perfect structures" That
is to say, they were nine-reel feature
fields provided merely that there was
oil in them and reasonably far re-
moved from the center of the earth.
Sundry gentlemen who were geolo-
gists by their own admission pro-
nounced them such. So did some
others known as biologists by gen
eral consent. Which, of course, set
tied it. For had not the biologists
(and I draw no %inyidious distinc-
tions) branded as nc good divers
other structures in divers other states
which are now working overtime at
the merry task of making predatory
~p1utocrats out Of erstwhile members
of the down-trodden proletariat?
Theoretically, Montana was full of
oil.
Theoretically, too, finding it should
have been a simple matter. The field
of exploration comprised a mere trifle
of say seventy thousand square miles
and locating the structures in this
little tract and then locating the oil
in the structures was, of course, not
to be compared with the proverbial
task of finding the needle in the hay
stack, or with the contract taken on
some time since by Friend Hercules.
All you had to do was to start from
somewhere and head for the hills, if
indeed you were not already in their
midst. Then if, as was not unlikely,
you came to a place where the land
scape resolved itself into a vast bowl,
trimmed with "rimrocks," you simply
snapped your fingers and cried in a
ponderous voice, Eureka, Petrol
eumski-I have it!' +
If you were a geologist you attend
ed to a few minor details. Before
breakfast you took a bit of a hike |.
around the "dome," not over fifty or
hundred miles, noted the angles at ,
which its circumscribing "escarp-
ment" impinged upon Mother Earth, :
hypothecated the axis of the struct-
ure, scraped up an acquaintance with
the native rocks and sands, dug up a
handful of fossils and ct ~cetera, and
rough map indicating the linguistic,
genealogical, and other divisions of
particular mineral kingdom.
Whether you went to this trouble or
not, you proceeded to lease such land
had been pre-empted for more pro-
sale pursuits, such as dry-farming, +
and to file locations on such as was q
still on Uncle Sans hands. Then ;
you slipped out the first sunshiny
morning and raised a little purse 5
say fifty or se~venty-five thousand a
Ind then, after determining exactly a
where the oil would be found hiber- r
you proceeded to find it.
It's different down in the plains u