Show the fossil oil field wyoming the fossil oil field is situated on the oregon short line railroad about eight miles west of the county seat of Kern kemmerer and about four miles east of the railroad station or ossil fossil P says say the kemmerer republican during the last twenty years there has been a number of spasmodic attempts to brin bring in commercial iner cial production in this area nearly all wells drilled have had a showing of oil or gas gas sometimes both but due perhaps to their shallow depth no no b great amount of either has been encountered in the field what oil has been recovered is of very high grade containing ta according to some of the earlier operators 37 per cent gasoline 16 per cent kerosene 9 per cent lubricating oil and 2 4 per cent re if correct this indicates a very good grade of refining 6 oil and if a area could be located containing in this oil in coni commercial mercial amounts a profitable market would be assured for it in a report given out by G B morgan state geologist ol of wyoming b there appears to be two oil horizons and one gas horizon so far developed by a number of shallow wells it these the firsthand first sand has been found at depths ranging from froin to feet and the second sand at depths ranging 0 from 1 to feet the first sand is a thin sand containing I 1 1 I 1 a heavy black oil which is reported to be a high grade lubricating oil of about 24 degrees baume the wells in in this sand which are pumped produce only a fe few w barrels per day to the well the second sand produces a high grade oil of paraffin base having a greenish brown color and b containing a high percentage of gasoline asoline the baume 8 gravity of the light t oil is 42 degrees it contains about 42 per cent gasoline and 15 per cent kerosene the wells in this sand which are pumped produce from froin five to twenty five n barrels per day in section no 23 while there are a number of oil seep probably mostly froni from the upper tipper or black oil sand very little practical systematic development lias has taken place while a number of shallow holes have been drilled states mr morgan sand in most instances these are not deep enough to reach the se second co nd deeper drilling justified C concerning concerning ning the possibilities of the field mr air morgan said no iko doubt tile the field will be enlarged by further bevc development b loument lop ment especially to tile the north the oil so far discovered in this field occurs probably in tile the lower glower evanston and the upper tipper adaville formations As no dee deep p test well has been put down the re portion of the adaville and the underlying hilliard have not been tested and therein appears to lie the opportunity for the future development of this field it has been advanced by some geologists that the fossil oil is migratory in character and has come up from the lower formations such as the aspen and bear river whether that is the case or not there seems to be strong possibilities that more prolific lower sands may be encountered if a deep well is drilled in iii this field it is believed that a well feet deep would test out the adaville and the upper tipper portion of the hilliard Hilli arl formation it would seem to be good policy on the part of any operator owning in or controlling a fairly large acreage in this field to put down a deep test well near the axis of the anticline while at the same saine time developing the shallow sands for fuel and running expenses because of the lack of intensive development in southwestern wyoming byomin not so much is known of the oil bearing quail qualities ties of the upper tipper cretaceous as in other parts of the state but it is believed that the theory that the oil will be found above the frontier rather than in it is worthy of grave consideration the fossil oil field appears to be an ideal location for testing this theory for the reason that oil has already been found in the shallow sands indicating a closed structure and for the additional reason that most of the possible oil bearing sands of the upper tipper cretaceous would be within workable depth from the surface it is understood that salt lake parties have held several conferences with the various lease holders in the fossil area this winter in an effort to effect an organization capable of financing the drilling of a deep test of such a portion of the field as gives promise of heavy production representatives of these people have been to portland and seattle in furtherance of their plans for development last fall one of the former employed emp loyes of the sate geologists office was contemplating the organization and financing of a company to do some exploratory drilling in this field drilling costs inexpensive it is very likely that careful geological work would uncover one or more places where oil has accumulated in sufficient quantity to justify drilling due to its favorable transportation facilities cheap fuel from the kemmerer mines or crude oil from shallow sli allow wells prospecting should be a matter of very little eapen e here in comparison to some fields in the state where prospecting pectin involves the hauling of equipment and supplies the distance of 50 to miles the surface topography of the fossil field has mostly been carved by erosion from the green river and sandstones of the lower eocene age the high bluff west and north of fossil station gives one some idea of the amount of material that lias has been removed from this area by the combined efforts of the winds the snows and the rains of the countless centuries that have elapsed since the days when the green river were laid down in the fresh water lakes that used to cover all of this section this bluff is the site of the quarry in which embedded in in the rocks are found the fish remains for which this locality has become famous palaeontologists from all parts of the world have journeyed to this spot to examine examine the petrified fish in in their stony matrix and to recover specimens to add to their collections today almost every museum in the world is quipped equipped with these examples of a stage of life that has long mince since passed from the earth and many are re the learned discussions on what these fish remains have been responsible for much speculation has been made as to the course of their lives the conditions under which they died and what the causes of the entombment of their bodies in these beds of shale recent studies and discoveries lead one to believe that a great deal of the green river shale beds are composed of volcanic glass and sands the earlier tertiary period was a time of great volcanic activity and it is extremely likely that these fish in these shallow tertiary lakes were overwhelmed and submerged in an eruption of ashes and pumice from some of these volcanoes at this time the country north and east of rock springs shows a number of old volcanic necks that are relics from this period of volcanic activity and they may be the source of much of the material w which aich make up the green river and from what we know of the distance that volcanic ejections elections eject ions have traveled before settling down can easily be regarded as the source of much of this material |