Imperial Valley press., 1921-01-08
TRIP TO WELL
IS MADE BY
PRESS MAN
READ THIS
Plain Unvarnished Facts
About the Brawley Well
AS Found by The Press
After a Personal Investi-
CATION; Oil Is Brought Up

Editors Note.-There have been
so many wild rumOrs aJOut the
Brawley well that representative
of The Press visited the we'll yester-
day. Here are the plain, unvarnished
facts as he found them.)
Preparedness seems to be the key
note CT hundreds of Imperial Valley
folks, provided this county is on the
eve of genuine oil strike. Talk is
rife en- the streets as 20 the possbili
ties Of producing petroleum in paying
quantities and is the chief topic of
conversation wherever group of men
are found on a street corner.
Since the reported strike of a gush-
er at the Brawley we'll yesterday the
very atmosphere has been permeated
with oil or more correctly, perhaps,
gas. The rumor last evening that
special train from Los Angeles, load
ed with oil men from that city would
arrive shortly only served to further
cnthuse those who had already con-
tracted the 'fever."
But, we are wandering from the
story. To go on with the prepared
ness idea," let it be said that yester-
day and today have been some of the
busiest days that the local land office
ever has experienced. People from
everywhere have besieged the land Of
flee in droves, every available record
of filings previously made, laws per-
tanning to filings, advice as to how to
proceed to file and hundreds of other
requests are only few of the things
that have been sought from the land
registrar. Indications are that if the
professional 'land locator" is here, he
can very shortly build up very lucra-
tive business.
The records show that up to and in
Guiding 10 o'clock this morning the
following local citizens entered appli-
cations for permits to drill oil wells
yesterday and today, and incidentally
the women seem to predominate: Mrs.
Jennie E. Wynans, Mrs. Florence R.
Edwards, Mrs. Mary 'Mellise Byrne,
Lulu Olive Penn, Estelle Stephens,
Olive Edwards, Thomas Hageman,
Dwight d. Bell. Marion Barham, Will
bur Randall. Hazel and Catherine
Scheffler, John Johnson, Jr., Chas. c.
Barbhart, Alpha M. Gregg, Rupert T..
Malurin, Bernce R. Modem, John Jen-
kins, Otis B. Tout, Jasper Coleman.
Fred C. Erickson, Ray Edgar, Harry
A. Hays, Howard R. Brooks. Jessie
Helms, Estelle Stephens, and Clarence
f. Gage.
A Press representative yesterday
visited the Brawley prospect well; was
on the ground and saw everything
that it was possible to see. Candidly
speaking. Imperial Valley has no oil
well at this time; there has been no
gu5her and reports to that effect have
proven untrue.
The reporter and party left FL Cen
tro yesterday morning about 1880 a.
m. Stopped for lunch at Brawley and
also obtained a permit from Howagd
Shores, a director of the company, to
visit the derrick and talk with the
men on the job, to the end that the
facts about the prospective well could
be obtained.
The Brawley camp was reached at
about ? o'clock. Parking our car we
started for the gate, where we were
met by the guard, to whom we pre-
sented our credentials for admission
to the works. He received us with
rather skeptical eye, but neverthc-,
less he kindly consented to take our
pass to the boss to see if we could
be admitted After time he re-
turned, handed back our pass" say
ing that II. II. Clask, vice president
of the company was there and that he
said our pass was no good, that we
could not be admitted, that the COM
rany wanted no publicity, and that
Howard Shores. director Of the COM
pany, had absolutely no authority to
issue pass in the first place"
4 NCnplused for the moment we de-
cided to start back to civilization, but
not until We had taken a walk around