Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-06-04


ing in Alberta, north Of the Montana
line; working out possible structure.
for Canadian interests. In the pre-
ambles or wanderings in Mr.. Campbell'S
work, he became confused in the roads
and found himself across the border
in the United States, where he discov-
cred the cretaceouS formations ex-
posed, which is now called the Rocky
Ridge structure in Toole county, Mon
tana. No work was done at this time /;
simply notes taken of the condition, but
he went back to Canada and complet-
ed his work which was interrupted by
the late war coming on.
After the war came on and after
conditions were such in Canada that
a trip into the eastern part Of Mon
tana and made hurried examination
of north and central and eastern Mon
tana. He returned to California, his
native state and told some of his
friends what he thought regarding the
possible oil structures Of the country.
The outcome was that he came back
to Montana in 1915 and started to
make surveys in MUtSselshell county and
Fergus county After the survey and
the preliminary work was done, he re-
turned to California and made re-
port on Cat Greek, Yellow Water and
Devils Basin. He proceeded then to
ety e1Au AltS4SSb SaPALel " NAAA OAACoS
structures.
Californians Are Doubters
At that time in Cat Greek, there was
very little patented land and the propo- |
sition Of validating government land
did not appeal to the California friends, 7
as they had all become financially in /
volVed under the same proposition in /
California, and they did not take to
Montana as a possible oil country as
there had been several holes drilled
and all had been unsuccessful; but he
firmly believed that these structures
were geologicaly right-the formation
was Highland that these conditions
had produced oil in Wyoming and other
places, therefore, there was no reason
why these same conditions would not
produce oil in Montana
He came back TO Montana and in
tereSted some Butte people A company
was formed and work was commenced
to drill Devils Basin. 1t was q local
company and not very heavily financed
and the strike coming on in Butte at
that time changed their plans and I
made it difficult to raise money. They
went as far as to get a rig into this
field. In the meantime Mr.. Campbell
had leased Yellow Water for California
people and was still trying to get them I
to drill Yellow Water and Cat Greek.
After the. Butte company failed the. To-
company called the Roundup Oil g.
Gas Co.; took over the Butte COM :
0anys rig and started to drill. They
got down 600 feet and ran out of fl
1anceS. This was in 1917. There was
10 work done then until 1919 when they I
'e-financed the Roundup Oil 81 Gas
Co., in small way and started drill
ng again I
Interests Tri- City {
In the meantime Mr. Campbell had {
become acquainted with the Tri-City {
fuel manager and had been watching S
he operations in Woman'S Pocket be- t
ng drilled by the Tri-City company He c
inally got the Tri-City by cutting up o
he acreage again in the Devils Basin q
md taking half of the Roundup Oil g. v
Jas contracts; made contract with C
he Van Dusen Oil & Gas Co., to drill a
test well. Sixty-five days after the r
IAN Dusen company started work, they {
rought in commercial well on Sec e
ion "a, Twp. IL, Range "a, what Is Il
nown as the Van Dlsen discovery Il
lell. Mr.. Campbell made test for the n
Minnesota Blue Sky commission, which n
ras supposed to be an official report. Il
fter they had begun to pump, and this
Ieu produced IL barrels per hour on "
everal different tests on several diff "
erent days this was the first sand o.
cached at 1185 feet, and it showed q Il
reduction on the pumps of 200 to 24O W
arrels per day at this sand. 1t seems al
nat the company was not satisfied 81
18th this well and different biologists ia
ad different ideas of course, about tt
hat they would get by drilling deep nj
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