The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-04-13
Byron Cooney Writes Hills Impressions of Oil Field

. up to get leases or acreage; some
/ groups are made up in that way ant
have made money. | met perfectly
strange doctor-told him I was sicE
4 got prescription and pint o.
fine bonded whiskey for $3.50 (keeI
this confidential from Joe Pope).
i Ninety Blocks of Sidewalks
/ Shelby has concrete sidewalks on
Main street, built in it's first flush OF
prosperity years ago. The city is now
advertising for contracts to build 80
blocks of concrete sidewalks. In
every direction it is staked like a
cemetery. Some Main street prop
erty is selling for 5000 front foot.
Little box-car shacks have been
thrown up and are renting for $50 a
month. A real estate man took me
| for an hours spin. He told me he
| had made 956 sales since the first of
the year. At distance of half or
| three-quarters of a mile from the
center of town, corner lots were be-
ing sold at s125, and inside lots at
s75. If fellow could guess in which
direction the town was going to grow,
he might do well on purchase, but
it cannot grow in every direction.
There are eight active real estate
firms doing business in Shelby; if
the town grows in every direction in
which it is plated, it will be much
larger than an oil town could normal
ly grow in many years. A new brick
hotel with 80 rooms has just been
built; it is the New Rainbow" and
should be open by this time. Such a
hotel will accommodate about 100
persons, which isn't much to relieve
the present and coming congestion
was told that hundred structures
were in the process of construction.
True, many of them were not very
pretentious, but building there is be-
ing done in hurry and expert labor
is not in demand. Shelby does not
need carpenters, because I asked. |
Much of the building is being done by
unskilled labor.
A Big Oil Field
The oil fields of Sunburst and
Kelvin are about a dozen miles from
Shelby, on the line which runs to
Sweet Grass. The field is large being
about ~ miles from edge to edge.
Of 1877 wells drilled or being drilled,
81 are producing, and some have
come in since l was there. A pipe
line runs to Coutts, Canada, and
through this about 1000 barrels are
being pumped daily. A great quanti-
" of oil, possibly 500 barrels a day
s being used for fuel. Many of the !.
wells which came in, have been
capped with concrete, to wait until
he feeders of the pipe can be run to
hem. There is natural gas in Shell
,y,piped in six miles. Shelby folks
ay that this gas will, in time, make ,
Shelby great manufacturing center.
The oil wells are not gushers; there
s normal flow, but the great area
nd great distances between pro- I
ucing wells augurs well for the mag :
itude of the fields, which / am told L
5 the largest producing area in the
United States. The Standard Oil is r
n the field; that is, subsidiaries,
yhich are picking up and which have =
licked up a great amount of acreage
nd these companies have some of the =
reducing wells. This speaks well :
Dr. the entire district, if the big fell :
,ws haven't grabbed all the good =
round. I did not go to the Kelvin
unburst field. All oil wells look
like to me-
Hand-Me-Down Homes L
Houses are being hauled in all the -
me from the dry land farms some NJ
8 miles distance. The secretary of
lie chamber of commerce, Sam Jo-
'phson, was living with his wife and
'veral children in one room, but A.
ouse had just arrived for him-a
lree-room affair for which he had
'ntracted to pay $50 month. Bob NJ
Ills had rented a basement under
70 postoffice where he was plan "
ng to install SO army cots with
my blankets to rent at $1.00 per
t per night. An elderly man named
utch, who lived in Butte 25 years :
%, was selling portable houses and NJ;
ID his models with him.
Colonel A. A. White of St. Paul,
It best known in Montana for his NJ
injection with the Great Northern
q the villa sites on Flathead lake,
Is in Shelby. The Colonel is op-I