Evening star., 1924-11-04
OIL FIELD FOUND
BY QUAIL HUNTER
Louisiana Man Led to Rich
Discovery by Negro Re-
cIuse in SWamps.
Bv the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
LAKE CHARLES, La, November A.
Tradition having IL that a burro once
kicked up gold mine in the Rocky
Mountains. and that the copper deposits
in the Southwest were found in n similar
manner, folks in this section were not so
greatly surprised when it developed that
Louisianas newest oil field was dis
covered by a quail hunter.
w. w. 1emoine, local business man,
who during the open season spends as
much time in the fields as he does in his
Office. for years has been an inveterate
prospector for oil, and about half his
time on hunting trips was wasted ex-
ploring woods and marshes for races Of
the black gold
Offer to Recluse.
Lemoine went hunting along Bagdad
Bayou near here one fine day three years
ago and came upon one Tillman, a negro
recluse. The usual topic OF conversation
with Lemoine was Oil, and he soon
reached the subject Tillman knew of
no oil. but he did know where there was
gas. The upehot was that Lemoine
agreed to give Tilman an annuity of
$1.800 a year if he would show him
where it was and if anything came of it.
Tillman led Lemoine straight across
the country to Indian Bayou, only a few
miles from here, and there, in the edge
of the marsh. was the negro's gas"
Iemoine touched a match to it and it
burned Back to Lake Charles he hur-
ried. and his first step was to take in his
partner II. NJ. Henshaw. Then the two
set out to get leases. They tied up 1000
acres of land without expending penny,
agreeing only to pay the owners from
81 to 50 an acre provided they interest
baf aft
ploration and development Fellow citi-
zens of the pair here knew what they
were about, but they did not set Lake
Charles afire with their enthusiasm, else
the leases would have been more diff
cult to obtain.
Struggle For Backer..
There followed struggle to find some
oil concern to tackle the proposition.
After geologists- and other experts had
gone over the ground company became
interested and agreed to test the. field
throughout. The money to bind the
leases was in hand, and IAmoine and
Henshaw were to get q forty-eighth
royalty as their share of what was pro-
duced.
Drilling began IS months ago. and still
Lake Charles sailed along on an even
keel. Lock Moore well No. | was fiiv-
ver 50 was No. . Then the company
jumped SO acres south and started sink
ing the Miller well. There's a rumor
that the So-acre jump was made be-
cause the question of title loomed in the
intervening plot of ground Anyway. the
drilling was resumed They had moved
out OF the pine woods, out Of what ap-
peared to be p natural oil dome and en-
tered the low marsh land. The first
5000 feet were easy. AS the engineer
said: THE pipe almost went down Of it's
own weight" Then came gumbo, shale
and sand for 900 feet and then-the
gusher.
The usual horde Of proven oil field
workers, wildcatters and what not has
moved in, machinery and material for
more wells and tanks is being transport
ed to the field by the trainload, and
Lemoine Is oiling his shotgun and exer-
cising his dog preparatory to the OPEN
ing of the 1924 hunting season.