Salt Lake Mining Review | 1920-01-30 | Page 19 | The Labarge, Big Piney and Dry Piney Oil Fields

the labarge big piney and dry piney oil fields BY HENRY F crittenden early in the spring of 1919 a recently discharged army officer was returning to his home in the north after a number of months spent in texas the smoking compartment part ment of the pullman was well crowded with oil men after the train passed wichita falls one was from mexico two from denver and another from wyoming the latter produced a small glass vial from his pocket containing what looked to be a refined oil of excellent lubricating quality and the army officer was confident that it resembled the same grade which he had been purchasing for his camp at 42 cents a gallon when told by the man from wyoming that it was crude oil recently discovered in the western part of that state and showed a newspaper account confirming the facts the ex army man decided that he wanted to know more about the country that would produce such oil just one month from that day that he was given his first view of the field saw the oil dipped from the well and saw the same sixty miles north of kemmerer the county seat of lincoln county wyoming what the unsophisticated army man wanted to know was why it was possible to still secure land in such a promising ile he had to learn that people to believe must first see that faith in what cannot be recognized by the naked eye is not always an attribute of modern commerce location of the fields 4 T 0 I 1 T v 77 I 1 I 1 A Z rig of big piney oil refining company oil used in place of gasoline in the jitney that had brought the party to the well he realized that texas was not the only state that was due for an oil boom the oil was piney crude the well was the lincoln idaho no 1 the location at an elevation of almost feet and some terri territory tork why every inhabitant of the county grabbed at least a twenty acre filing when so many were still available why had this country been undeveloped by the bigger companies when there was such a worlds shortage of petroleum you see this man was new at the oil game 21 what are known as the la barge dry piney and big piney oil fields are to be found in lincoln c county 0 u n t y wyoming the southern limits of the la barge field are located about thirty five miles north of kemmerer the big coal mining town tow n of the western part of the state opal a small station on the oregon short line railroad is the shipping point for the field daily stage service being operated from that point heretofore ore the fields have borne separate names but from the amount of activity that has gone on in the past three months an and d from what is promised is ed during the coming season it will not be long until the entire r region extending for almost forty miles north and south and from the la barge B big ig piney anticline to the green river some fourteen miles east and west at its widest point will be one continuous oil field a field of greater magnitude than any heretofore opened up in the rocky mountain district the field bids fair to become one of the largest in the united states up to the present time the activity in the dry piney section has been confined to about one mile square five wells having been drilled in sections I 1 and 12 T 28 N R W all of which have reached the producing sands in less than 1000 feet history of the fields the first reference to the presence of oil in the section north of kemmerer was made by A C veatch of the united states geological survey in professional paper no 56 in which he states that considerable sid erable excitement was caused in 1907 by the discovery of oil seepages see pages near la barge mountain these oil seepages see pages had been known for years by the local ranch q xa 1 4 V 5 0 44 T 00 akk ing W lincoln idaho well no 1 1 lincoln idaho well no 2 rig at lincoln idaho well no 3 ers who used the product in its crude state for oiling their machinery the f first vigorous prospecting was done in 1911 in sec 33 T 27 N R W a few miles north of la barge creek a tributary of the green river joe bariani a driller from denver backed by new york capital and using a keystone rig drilled to a depth of 1303 feet at which point he encountered a strong flow of gas in doing so he damaged his rig so badly that no further work was possible and the well was abandoned in 1917 charles lackey of big piney started a well on the crest of the anticline a dozen miles north of the first attempt in what is known as the dry piney district A well was brought in october 14 1917 at a depth of feet and feet of oil stood in the casing according to mr lackeys statement when the sands were encountered the oil sand in this well was penetrated a distance of thirty two feet lincoln idaho well no I 1 was brought in in august of the following year at a depth of feet the oil sand was generated pene rated for a distance of eighty feet and an oil of exceptional quality was obtained in february of 1919 mr lackey brought in a third well about three quarters of a mile north of his first attempt in sec 1 T 28 N R W at a depth of feet this well known as the lackey well penetrated the bearing oil oll sands a distance of feet f and the oil encountered was the same high grade base oil as was found in the lincoln idaho no 1 gusher encountered in september regardless of all the favorable indications from the first three wells attention was not focused upon the field until september of the past year when at the phenomenally shallow depth of feet the lincoln idaho well no 2 was brought in as a gusher the oil shooting over the casing and rig to a height of feet the flow was controlled within forty eight hours and is credited with a production of at least barrels per day when it is put in shape for service this well is located about 1000 feet east and south of the companas comp anys first well further down on the dip of the anti dine cline and the pay sand was not productive in the first wells drilled the quality of oil is practically the same as from the other wells slightly greener in color but with a high gasoline content and of base the lincoln idaho oil company has studded in its third well but operations were stopped owing to severe weather conditions in that region during the winter geology rocks of the cretaceous system form the reservoirs of oil in this district in describing the locality schultz in U S G S bulletin says the labarge field lies along the east base of la barge ridge and extends from la barge creek northward to the vicinity of south piney creek T 28 N R W the greater portion of the area forms a plain sloping gently eastward toward green river the oil bearing shale of uinta county does not outcrop in the la bargo barge ridge locality the oil however as in uinta county is believed to come from the aspen formation of benton age bulletin no 5 of the wyoming state geologists office L W trumbull geologist says the oil springs in sec 34 T 27 ap N R W are in drift arif t and the oil saturated sandstone a few hundred feet south of the spring is tertiary the tertiary is nearly horizontal dipping from one to five degrees to the east at many places underlying the tertiary and exposed in tho the first hills to the west is the cretaceous series these hills are of the adaville formation with numerous coal seams in which many prospects have been made the cretaceous adaville rocks dip to the west varying from twenty five to thirty five degrees the structure of the cretaceous underneath the tertiary can only be inferred from the structure as seen at a few isolated points outside the area mapped in connection with the above it is interesting to note that one of these coal outcrops is found within a few hundred feet of the first well drilled in the dry piney region by charles lackey the cretaceous system comes to the surface at the crest of the anticline where the anticline has become eroded away tertiary deposits are in evidence practically throughout the field but at shallow depth the oil that has been discovered is found in the top members of the cretaceous system and from what prospecting has been done the sands are said to correspond to the shannon sands of other sections of the state commended by local geologist no other geologist has been closer identified with the field nor has anyone done more to introduce the field to prospective oil men than has A G burritt geologist of salt lake city mr burritt first became identified with the locality when he met in new york city the man who first drilled in that section joe bariani of denver mr burritt visited the field in 1911 at the instance of new york parties and was immediately impressed with the oil possibilities of the section he made preliminary reports submitted them to his eastern clients but at that time there was not the demand for oil that has arisen since the close of the war and the fields seemed too far from transportation facilities to warrant attention mr Du burritt who visited the burkburnett Burk burnett section of texas nine years before the first well was drilled there and who did everything in his power to interest new york and boston capital in what is now one of the most prolific fields ever discovered in this country returned again and again to the piney section confident that some day a field of immense possibilities would be developed there various companies were started but lack of proper financing and vision to see far enough into the future of the district postponed development the main anticline the work of tracing the main anticline from the point where work was stopped by the government geologists was undertaken by mr Du burritt he has followed this fold for thirty two miles further north to south horse creek finding an abundance of evidence that the field would eventually go to that limit he was the first to bring to the notice of interested oil men the presence of two parallel folds east of the main anticline ti and it is the work now being done in prospecting these other folds that will mean so much to the field in extending its limits practically to green river his judgment with regard to the parallel folds has been substantiated by all of the geologists of the larger companies who have recently visited the section and it only remains for the drill to prove the assertion of these more experienced professional men six oil bearing sands in a summary of a report by mr burritt made more than two years ago he says after summing up the data collected in mf my examination I 1 find conditions very favorable for a large and important oil field in the big piney basin and if the same causes produce the same results as in other parts of the state and there is no reason to expect otherwise the oil sands should be saturated to their fullest extent further because of the depth and unbroken character of the country there should be great gas pressure this should mean flowing wells it is claimed that the shannon equivalent was reached at a depth of about feet in the well drilled by the cretaceous oil company on see sec 1 T 28 N R W the shannon sand should be in the hilliard formation in the big piney district the most productive sands so far found in the state are in the frontier and aspen formations of the colorado group cretaceous series namely at graybull gray bull the torchlight and sandstones at basin the torchlight and mowry at salt creek douglas and powder river the wall creek and bowry the bear river or dakota sand is as under the colorado group contains oil at spring valley wyoming at greybull this formation is called the cloverly cleverly and contains oil and gas the dakota sandstone also is in the bear river member the bear river sand the bear river or dakota sand is as deep as we need consider in the big piney field and the sandstone beds are of greater thickness in the western part of the state than in the eastern part the thickness of the sands already prospected and the resultant gusher of the lin coln idaho companas comp anys second well bear out these contentions in the development work to date only two sands have been prospected both of which are found to be oil bearing the deeper sands which are the more prolific in their equivalents in the eastern part of the state have not as yet been reached by the drill an interesting feature pertaining to early predictions of the fields oil possibilities was the statement made by professor W F F knight state geologist for wyoming made in 1888 six years before the state was div en its first credited production of 2369 barrels for the year 1894 he predicted then that wyoming would prove to be one of the greatest oil states of the union and in visiting the section referred to in this article in company with F P julius anderson of midway who is now actively interested in the field stated that the field would be the largest and the best field in the entire state development of the fields the first company to actually get oil was the cretaceous oil company organized in 1916 by charles lackey a driller of big piney C P mcglashan banker in the same town and charles P budd of marble ton wyoming the company was incorporated under the laws of wyoming with a capital of and under the direction of mr lackay a well was brought in in 1917 mention of which has been made before in this article the company controls a large acreage close to the first well and has leased a large portion of its holdings to other companies the present directorate of the company is charles lackey charles budd mrs grace mcglashan and E L smith banker at kemmerer mrs sadie austin richardson of daniel wyoming and john budd of big piney four wells have been drilled by mr lackey the cretaceous the lackey no 1 the lin coln idaho no 1 and the baum well the lincoln idaho oil company organized under the laws of wyoming with a capitalization of secured a group of leases from the cretaceous company and has already completed two wells the second being the gusher brought in last september at such shallow depth A third well has been studded in by this company close to the other two wells and the lincoln idaho also has a well drilling at waterfall about six miles south of kemmerer the officers of the company are thomas clinton president and manager A L mcbrayer of buhl idaho vice president chas H mcquown of buhl idaho secretary and treasurer erea surer W H harvey B R tillery V R laird george dunn and russ W allred comprise the advisory board mr clinton maintains an office in kemmerer and is actively in charge of the work in both districts H E robinson is field man A salt lake enterprise the wyoming la barge and dry piney oil company was organized by george danley of salt lake city F julius anderson andersen of midway wyoming and john W haddenham of la barge wyoming in 1918 the company is capitalized for and originally igi nally controlled 1280 acres in the la barge and dry piney fields which amount has been increased to over acres of very choice land in both fields mr danley has worked untiringly for more than three years in an endeavor to interest capital in his venture and his work is now bearing fruit A large standard rig is now in the pyo process process cess of construction on see sec 2 28 8 T 2 28 8 N R W over feet of casing has been ordered and a deep test of the sands in that section of the field will be made as soon as the rig can be built in addition to the companas comp anys large acreage of prospective oil land the townsite of midway is one of their holdings this town is located on the main highway between the railroad and the fields close to green river and will come to be the business point for handling much of the trade for this country big piney oil refining six miles to the north of the location of the first producing wells a well is now being drilled by the big piney oil refining company this company is largely composed of salt lake and ogden parties A as capitalized for and controls 1440 acres of leased eased patented land and located t jot wo it z L T fr i rig of wyoming la barge S dry piney old allied