Show TEXAS OIL FIELDS NOT EXHAUSTED the excitement and elation of the oil producers in eastland and stephens counties tex over the discovery of the ranger and caddo fields some years ago was followed by depression and gloom as it became apparent that these fields would be short lived companies that had made great investments and prepared elaborate drilling programs had to sustain losses some of them staggering optimism was followed by pessimism first the operators could see nothing bad in the region then they could see nothing good in it the pessimism was as shortsighted and as destructive of rational judgment as the unrestrained optimism operators who persistently stuck to the region and intelligently prospected and developed it found new pools and extended old ones obviously the region still has reserves of oil with which to repay those who can learn the secret of their hiding places and who after finding them are gifted with the intelligence to develop them rationally suicidal rentals high lease prices and huge royalties are becoming less and less common and it is to be hoped that the paying sands of this district will soon be developed en as a business and not as a b gamble or a pure speculation field calls for geologists best efforts geology has played its part in the discovery of the fields of central texas and will evidently be of high value in their future development but the country is not one where the 1 geologist ceolo b can ride out in his car glance over the landscape squint at a rock through an his magnifying b glass and indicate exactly where a fortune is is waiting for the drill to discover it at least if his work is done in that way it is likely to come to a painful end at the hand of the outraged operators whose dusters he has so simply and quickly located I 1 this is a re region ion where the geologist ecologist 6 eo logist I 1 11 ll must spend weeks or months in the mesquite scrub must spend long hours plotting and studying well records niest call upon fact and fancy or at least scientific imagination to enable him to visualize the conditions below 6 ground and must give deep thought 6 to every recommendation that he makes for the successful development of the region depends largely upon him fortunately the b geologists col b work is gradually becom ing easier easier with better prospects of success at first very few Z geologic 11 facts had been published concerning this region and b geologists t i working 6 there were compelled to rely entirely upon their own observations even now years after the discovery of the ranger pool published descriptions of the geology are Gc scarce arce and the newcomer in the field is badly handicapped even the united states geological 11 1 1 eol 6 survey that first aid to the commercial 11 geologist 1 b has published comparatively little regarding this region in fact only two short bulletins no g on the lacasa area and no c on the wiles area in stephens county |