Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-08-28
THE GREATEST NEWS
IN FIFTEEN YEARS

No item of news in the rs years of this
organization has been as important to us
as the report last week of the discovery
of oil in the DevOnian at Moose dome
In Alberta.
Oil field history everywhere has led us
TO believe that the real oil history OF
Montana would be written on the record
of production from formations BELOW
THE MADISON LIME.
Practically every important oil well Of
the MidcOntinent has had an early his
tory quite like KeVin-Sunburst and Pom
dera: with some production at the TOP
of the lime. Many fields were, like
spindIetOp, practically abandoned before
some wildcatter drilled THROUGH the
lime into formations as deep as the Or
dOvician, where the great Wilcox sand
is found. Except for deep drilling and
discovery of the Wilcox sand, there
would likely be an oil shortage in the
United States today.
Yet here in Montana, we still consider
the top of the Madison lime as the stop
ping place for oil wells. We know of the
existence of oil BELOW the Madison
lime but it is a fact disregarded except
by people who have studied the history
of other oil fields such as MeXia, which
would today be an abandoned shallow
gas field, except for deep drilling.
Discovery of commercial oil in the
DevOnian in Alberta means just as much
TO US as If it were In northern Montana.
When the Maker Laid down these fOrma-
tiOns in the North Rocky Mountain re-
giOn, he did not respect the possibility
of geographical lines. No geographical
boundary limits the formation or migra-
ton of petroleum although there are
people in this world who seem to think
that even a barbed wire fence can pre-
vent the presence of oil under an adjo1n-
ing tract. However, every thinking per-
son knows better. Those who said that
there could be no important oil fields In
Alberta were just as ridiculous as those
who said that while Wyoming was a great
oil state, they would be willing to drink
all the oil ever produced In the State of
Montana
Now we must say that there is no
reason why there should be Devontan
oil in Alberta and not in Montana. In
Eastern Montana, hundreds of miles from
the nearest commercial oil field, oil was
found IN THE DEVONIAgNs Because it
is too deep to be highly commercial, the
Baker discovery I'm the DevOnian has
caused no stir. If that Baker discovery
were at 1900 feet, like Moose mountain,
rather than 1000 feet, there would have
been a great rush for DevOnian production
I'm Montana.
Oil has been found BELOW THE MAD
ISON LIME I'm various places in Northern
Montana but nowhere in commercial
quantities. Until flood of oil baptizes
an S4-fOOt derrick, the average oil man
will refuse to recognize new prOduc-
ing horizon. That was the case aE Ont
Bank which was left alOne'' for year
after Oil was actually discovered just
because the oil was coming from a new
and unfamiliar horizon.
With Moose Dome producing from the
DevOnian, we cannot see how Montana
operators can longer waste their money
by stopping any well at the top of the
Madison lime. 1t is just as reasonable
to stop at the top OF the red beds or i'm
the Cat Creek horizon, as has been the
common practice i'm Central Montana.
AS soon as we heard of the DevOnian
production i'm Alberta we looked up all
the data we could find on Devonian rocks
i'm Montana Collier (U. s. G. s. Bull.
S12) related that there was 1000 feet
of unidentified rocks I'm the old POtlatch
deep test, drilled in the early days Of
Kevin-Sumburst, in Sec. 21-S4-1W. This
was dry hole from top to bottom aI-
though 4,51O feet deep.
Devonian fossils taken from the core
uFAl Oh CAqS well WcrS ex&&n&MCN tA1N
reported on by g. III. Girty of the U.
s. Geological survey, says tin Collier re-
port ''The formation is believed by J.
p. GerIough COMPANY geOlOgfst) to be
1913 feet thick and may include repre-
sentatives of both the Three Forks shale
and the Jefferson limestone. In the Cali
fOrnia Co.'S well i'm Sec. rs, I. 28W., r..
5W., after DevOnian is reported by H l..
Burchfield, company geOIOgist, to be only
215 feet thick. The top of the formation
can not be definitely placed In either
well, and If the anhydrite is q product
OF alteration OF limestone it's bottom
can not be surely located I'm the re-
port the LATHE Belt Mountains the
Three Forks shale is described as thin
bedded shaly limestone Containing much