Show J HY hydrocarbons HYDRO DRO CARBONS OF UINTAH COUNTY js contributed BY HERBERT S 0 t SV X 6 M MX ERNAL january 6 for the past two or three weeks the interest and attention of the mining fraternity of this section has been directed towards the gilsonite fields to the almost absolute exclusion of all other mining interests this fact is due to the acrivi activity aty of several big syndicates who are sparring for the control 0 of f tb the e gilsonite industry wh which ich P promises to expand with rapid strides when the cost of mining and transporting can be materially redu reduced e a by the application of modern mining knowledge backed by practically unlimited capital which now seems assured for this branch of the mining industry which is of so much importance to eastern utah and western colorado when the old reservation was opened to settlement congress 3 established a pr precedent le by reserving the gilsonite lands for future disposition regardless of this provision of the act the gilsonite lands were covered b by y locations on the day fol following lowin 1 a I its passage the I 1 government at first ejected all these orinal original or inal locators and tore down the monuments containing the location notices since that time several questions have been raised concerning the action of congress in reserving these lands and efforts have been made to test the matter in the supreme court the outcome of the matter has been that of late years these deposits have been located in the regulation way way and assessments have been performed without any interference from the federal authorities no attempt has been made however to transport any of the ore as this would have immediately resulted in a permanent patrol of these lands by federal authority the general intention seems to have bave be been on to locate and hold the ground around by a general compliance with the mineral laws trusting that congress by some future action when the ground is released will recognize the rights of the prior locators acting upon tb this is hypothesis these deposits have been pretty generally located and thousands of dollars have been expended in assessment work annually with the sooner or later these conclusions would be justified the original locators were nearly all local parties and many deals were made which involved trifling amounts owing to the uncertainty of the situation outside parties were finally drawn toward these deposits because of their alluring possibilities among these ilive investors was uncle jesse knight of tintic gintic fame and others of lesser note in the mining ifield field the advent of men with capital behind them upon the scene had a tendency to increase the interest in these great deposits and encourage those who had been holding on for years with hope of ultimate reward in the meantime the gilson asphaltum company was operating its mines near fort duchesne e supplying a demand that was gradually being r increased by the continued efforts of the company to introduce the material wherever opportunity offered it is related by president baxter of the company that in many ins instances lances the material was furnished consumers consumers free of charge in order to introduce it and establish it in the market as a commercial article the company at first viewed with indifference i the trend of events over on the reservation feeling secure in its monopoly of the business until such time as co congress no ress released these great deposits which seemed rather remote upon the advent of outside capital the company woke up to the fact that there was competition brewing over on white river and quietly went to work in its own interest the first move was to present a proposition to the locators of the ground which was in effect that they all sign an agreement with the company in which for a certain interest the latter agreed to use its influence for tile release of the gilS gilsonite ODite lands lands later experience demonstrated to the locators that the company had played a very sharp game and had simply extended its monopoly indefinitely by using its influence against rather than for the release of these I 1 lands ands which would mean a decided loss to them unless delayed until such time as they could secure a controlling 11 interest in the white river deposits which they set about to obtain for the past two years the company has been quietly taking in claims wherever opportunity offered up till six weeks ago ago the company had practically no opposition when there suddenly appeared in the field two eastern syndicates who through local representatives senta tives began bidding for these properties C 0 baxter of the gilson asphalt company was in vernal in the midst of several deals involving probably thirty thousand dollars when the first intimation of serious opposition appeared one morning local mining 11 men were startled by snellen johnson the local representative senta tive of the consolidated implement company outbidding bidding out the st louis outfit in a deal and securing a group of claims johnson stated that he was in the field for business and immediately began 11 negotiations t with several claim owners he finally succeeded in in closing several deals and several more are now under way it has been learned that a new york syndicate is the power behind mr johnson and that they are in the field to stay mr johnson made the statement last week that his company would begin shipments within six weeks regardless of the federal restrictions which the company would ignore it is learned that a third company a den ver concern has quietly taked in some aroun i dt also and now have twenty five men ena enga gedL in the construction of a wagon road to fruita fr ulta colorado to which point shipments will be made these developments have caused quite a stir among holders of gilsonite ground and vernal has been lively with claim owners for several weeks A number of deals have hav e been consummated ranging from 1000 to and a number of prospectors are jingling the big round dollars the big owners have been found hard traders and have as yet not loosened their grip one of these a loea local 1 l owner has refused for his interest another uncle jesse knight can take a handsome sum for his interests but he shows a disinclination cli nation to let go judge A C hatch of heber is another big holder of this class of property along with local associates this outfit can also take a neat sum for a quit claim deed to some ome fine claims but they are still holding on the big syndicates seem to be in earnest earnesty and there is no doubt but that there will be some heavy transactions in hydro carbon carboa properties before next summer vernal is feeling the stimulus 0 the gilsonite boom and there is every prospect of lively times next summer A E hyde the bullion beck operator wa was a vernal visitor last la week air hydes came in in on business connected with the sand asphalt deposits that lie on the south and west weft of vernal these deposits were formerly owned by john beek beck who spent thousands of dollars in s assessment work upon the ground they later late r came into the possession of hyde who w ho is still holding them there ara are some fifty odd claims all allot of which contain extensive deposits of this class of material which is said to be the best of its kind in the west vernal has miles of pavement lad laid from this material that is first class in in every particular and demonstrates the value of these deposits wm oneil the indefatigable jesse ewing operator op orator has succeeded in directing direction n the attention of eastern capitalists to that promising el district which owing to its distance from the railroad has been handicapped in the past mr oneil expects to go go east on business bu biness of interest to the camp in the near future county recorder holdaway has been fairly swamped with location notices since the beginning of the year indications point to con coa sid erable litigation resulting 11 from ju jumping aping t in the white river country sam bassett of browns park sent in a placer location from that region last week in a letter he states that lie he has struck gold old in paying quantities |