Show OIL IN WYOMING developments in uinta county the occurrence of oil in southwestern wyoming has been known for foi nearly three fourths of a century many of the early trappers and fur traders who built fort bonneville and the trading post at fort bridger knew the location of oil springs in this region and visited them in their annual trapping tours the first published account of oil in southwestern wyoming was the result of an examination made by the mormons cormons in 1847 on their journey across the plains mr W clayton who accompanied this expedition published in 1848 a little book which was known for years as the mormons cormons Mor mons guide book containing the following account about a mile from this place the crossing of the road over sulphur creek in a southwest course is a tar or oil spring covering a surface of several rods of t ground round A wagon trail runs within a short distance of it when the oil can be obtained free from sand it is useful to oil wagons it gives a nice polish to gun tocks and has been proved to be highly beneficial when applied to sores on horses cattle etc it is reported that brigham young caused a shallow well to be dug at this point and the locality is now known as the brigham young oil well or spring the oil was skimmed off the surface of the water in this well sold to emigrants and carried in small quantities to salt lake city A full discussion of the oil discovery in the vicinity of sprint spring valley and of the developments in southern uinta county from 1900 to 1905 appears in the report of mr A C veatch of the united states geological survey soon to be issued as professional paper no 56 of the survey since 1905 prospecting and development work have continued in this region and the outlook is very promising for work the coming summer north of kemmerer no prospecting for oil was carried on during the oil excitement in southern southern uinta county although oil discoveries had been reported at various times from several localities along the east front of ridge and from green river basin east of meridian ridge and thompson plateau the discovery of oil east of labarge ridge in central uinta county in the summer of 1907 however caused considerable excitement numerous placer claims were soon staked out over the country between the ridge and green river and plans were outlined to prospect the region by churn and diamond drill borings bolings during the season of 1908 in september 1907 mr A R schultz one of the geologists of the survey visited the locality made a rather hurried examination of the field and collected a sample of the oil from one of the shallow prospect pits mr report which includes the results of observations made by him during the field seasons of 1905 and 1906 while examining the coal fields of central and southern uinta county has just been published by the survey in an advance chapter from bulletin no which forms part I 1 of contribute Contri contributions but ons to economic geology |