| Show J THE OIL BOOM AT FALLON by A J moore fallon nev jan 8 every mining or oil boom has to go through experiences of failures knocks of all sorts and setbacks due largely to inexperience on the part of the early operators the fallon fallen oil district has gone through all of these but has now assumed goodly proportions and developed about thirty five oil companies most of which are now well financed some of the biggest oil men and companies of california colorado wyoming and texas are now interested te rested in the district the town of fallon is crowded with newcomers hotel accommodations have to be engaged days ahead and furnished rooms are rented at a premium even the little city jail is filled every night not with drunks or other lawbreakers but with good substantial citizens who are glad to seek its hospitality for a night or until a more respectable address may be had the streets are crowded and every other person met has with him that high sign of an oil boom a bundle of blue prints the existence of gas it is a fact that for thirty three years yeara gas has been escaping from one artesian well and from several others a lesser number bir of years in 1886 gas developed in a well put down on the freeman ranch about twenty miles from the town of fallon the only use this was ever put to was that the farm hands found it convenient to touch a match to it and warm the water for washing their hands and in the winter sometimes the water was warmed for the stock in 1911 chas lindner put down an artesian well that gave a heavy flow of gas an attempt was made to utilize it to run a small gas engine but the pressure was too great about two years later another such well was developed on the douglass ranch about twelve miles south of fallon fallen A wooden tank was built to store the gas but that the tank the pressure was so great ended the matter other blew up and that gas wells were developed on the dark clark ranch the williams ranch and the proprietor of the stillwater hotel secured a flow of hot water used to heat his hotel these wells stretch out in a semicircle semi circle about twenty five miles long in addition to the flow of gas at all these wells there is also an oil seepage so strong in many instances as to render the water unfit for drinking purposes no attempt was ever made to developed these wells foreith for either eroil oil or gas however several a attempts were made by outsiders to drill for oil at other points but none were financed to go down more than a few hundred feet As these failed it put a damper on local activities in way of investing in oil stocks an oil bearing field I 1 E P osgood employed as an engineer by the U S government on the lahontan reclamation plan became interested in the geological formation and after an examination extending over a period of years he came out with a very strong report recommending the field as an oil bearing one about that time the log of a well drilled by the U S geological survey was published in bulletin no this well was drilled for potash work beginning in 1911 1911 and ending in 1912 this report says that cc oil spots rise in the sludge watery water at depths of and feet As the government engineers were drilling for potash these oil sands were shut off as soon as encountered and the well abandond as potash was not encountered in commercial quantities charles lindner not discouraged the one man who has through all dis courage ments stuck to his faith in oil at fallon fallen is charles lindner it was he who brought A E wiley to the field to make a report mr wiley is an engineer of wide reputation achieving worldwide world wide ren renown ownby by his report that made inspiration copper company the big producer that it now is his report was in opposition to all other engineers but fortunately the stockholders 0 of f the company followed hi his recommendations with great profit to themselves his report on the fallon fallen field was even stronger than the first of E P osgood and seemed to cinch matters from that day on there has been increased field activities and an influx of capital and oil operators ten companies financed today about ten companies are fully financed and many more more than half so and fifteen or more are in the early stages stage land that could be secured by location a few months ago now is in demand at from to 30 an ail acre what is considered inside properties are held at even higher while leases are bought and sold at rising figures the recent drawback to the field is the almost impossibility to secure casing and machinery three carloads of standard rig machinery now in the freight yards at fallon falion are three months behind delivery while casing paid for eight weeks ago has just arrived secondhand second hand machinery is almost out of the question as the texas boom has taken all available from california and wyoming fallon fallen oil operators are on the still hunt for casing and drilling tools |
