, 1922-03-02
MAHONEY DOME ABANDONED IN
1913 AS A BARREN STRUCTURE
BY THE MIDW EST REFINING CO.

No mining or oil venture carries
OF late years any more interesting re-
~trospection than Mahoney Dome.
| The gods of luck seem to cuddle and
caress some men. Whether they are
more alert. keener in their perspect-
i've or keenly astute in their opera
tons is a decision which will be left
for some eminent philosopher to
tussle with. There is an adage,
"Unlucky in love. lucky at cards."
Mahoney Dome has shattered this
trite saying into a thousand effer-
vescent bubbles as all the men in
terested in that structure have wives
and families and seem to be content
ed and happy. The latter statement
can be modified on only one instance
and that one instance owns more in
terests in Mahoney DOM than any
other individual. Again, this n in
stance told the writer the other day
that a woman acted the"same or his
luck as a cross-eyed, black cat on a
moonlight night crossing his path on
Friday the thirteenth. The gods of
fate have willed it so why try to
move the Ferris Mountains with a
tooth-pick.
The history of the Mahoney Dome
shows that it was located and val;dat-
ed during the summer OF 1916. The
locators were Frank NJ. Johnston, NJ.
B. Johnson. John Mahoney. T. A.
Ready. y. Il. Greenfield Nee
Tierner. j. H. Walton. Geo. E. Bri l.
mer and others. During 1917 The
Midwest Refining Company took a
lease from the locators and drilled
a we'll on the SWM of the SWH ser-
fiN,, "a 0>npr.L;,> 90 " ID o w -
a depth of 1910 feet and got wa r
and abandoned it.
During the early summer of 1877
two scout oil biologists. Ben Ra l.
cliffe and A. T. Whitehead, camDsd
on .one of the lakes in the General
Petroleum District and after spent
ing many days working over the dif-
ferent folds in that vicinity moved 10
Big Sand Springs and there pitched
their tent. They decided that the
Mahoney Dome Gas the cream of
Separation Flats. but failed to state
this fact on the register of the ho'el
when they reached Rawlins for the
purpose of having repair work dore
on their car. Radcliffe went to
South America and Whitehead mlde
his Headquarters in Rawlins. During
the spring of 1918 Whitehead
associated himself with T. p. McOon-
aid and after the Midwest abandoned
their leases these men took the whole
of the structure over. The kasOming
Oil Co. took over 10 quarter sections
and a rig was erected on about the
center Of section ~34-26-S8. The Mid
west sent their chief geOlogist to in
vestigate the dips of the rocks which
had been exposed by digging shafts
and at once sought to lease so~,e
acreage from Mcdonald and Viii O.
head. The Midwest sub-leased six
teen Quarter sections from these mon
md leased large tracts OF land f"n:n
the Mahoney Dome CoNrany which
rnmnanv COMPRISES all the locltors of
that structure.
Sometime in August 1919 thu
kasoming Oil Company brought in a
gasser estimated at 5000, 900 ell. #.
with $50 pounds pressure. Dril1ers
found ii impossible to close this we'll
in and October st of the same year
it was struck by lightning which
caused it 10 ignite.
For twenty-seven days the flames
threw their fantastic tails two hun
dred and fifty feet ara after
cus efforts had beer made to ex-
tinguish this fire It was accomplish
ed by a battery of eight. boilers. mud
pumps and dynamite. Three other
gassers Of equal volume have been
brought in since that time. Two are