Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-11-26

average yield per acre, eliminating guess
work to a large degree. Our members
HAVE these figures or can get them
from us. on the various fields.
And that brings up the further fact
that everyone KNOWS the amount OF
money paid to royalty owners We do
not GUESS on the amount of money paid
on each 1 per cent royalty on each and
every producing lease for we have Off
cial public records in the office of the
Montana State Board Equalization which
shows these figures, to the penny we
know the names of the persons who have
received these royalties, and the amounts
We know that royalty owners have thus
far received OVER TEN MILLION ($1O,-
0O,00O.0O) dollars.
Off hand, we know no commercial
enterprise or industry in the State Of
Montana that has any such dividend
record Certainly there has been moth
ing to compare with this record in the
last Is years, when we consider the
comparative amount of money invested
There are few landowners who did not
sell some of their royalty bfore pro-
duction was found Many more have
sold royalty AFTER production was
found, in emergencies such as the pre-
sent year when market conditions caused
the wells to be shut in.
Needless to say. no investor ever
bought a royalty KNOWING that there
was gusher production beneath the land
such as the Byrne, the Stannard or other
famous tracts. None can tell, save the
drill. So every investor who buys royalty
within the proven producing area has an
equal chance today, just as he had an
equal chance five, ten or Is years ago
to participate in the TEN MILLION
DOLLARS that has already been dis
tributed among royalty owners
We glance at the map of Kelvin
Sunburst and see Section 16-35N-2W,
as a white area between the great Baker
closely drilled Helmericks pool on the
south Because it is undrilled, is there
any reason to believe that it will not
produce On the contrary we know
that it WILL produce: that it is likely
one of the most valuable tracts in
Kevin-Sunburst field The proof If this
is the Mcknight we'll on the extreme
northwest corner of this section and the
wells drilled by Continental along the
extreme east line, including the north
east and southeast corner Continental
developed a NEW HORIZON last year,
while experimenting with acidization.
Through acid this tract may become one
of the greatest in the field, yet the roy
atty investor might regard such blank
space, between producing groups as
being undesirable, especially If he had
been holding royalty on this tract for
years past
In this instance the royalty all belongs
to the school Riddles of the state of
Montana, the state retaining the land
owners 1215 per cent of the oil But
the same principle applies to any unde-
veloped tract in Kevin-Sunburst field.
Yet, oddly enough, the factor for
which we can feel most thankful, is the
thing that keeps some from investing
Were it possible the intelligent investor
would CREATE conditions just as they
are, if he started out to make his for
tune in royalties Yet some will not
buy at a time like this-when prices are
at rock bottom
1t is fact that none of us recognize
our greatest opportunities when they
appear before u.s. Many of us become
discouraged. Some of us become "over-
ly smart" The story has been
the rounds lately of Mark Twain and
his investments Whether his losses
we're heavy, we do not know, but Twain
made a greater howl about his bad in
vestments than is customary It was