| Show trual conditions existing on sequoia arch in the desert region fifty miles below green river utah tile the following article from the facile pen of H n W V C widely known consulting geologist of denver benver colo anil and written for the inland oil index of casper camper wyoming covers a subject of intense interest to utah and western oil men everywhere it is written in a fascinating style bordering on the romantic but for all that it deals with a potential oil bearing section of the state lying south south east of the san rafael swell that seems to hold out as great or grenter greater possibilities of putting utah permanently on oil tile the oil map as am any section that has received particular attention in the past it shows what had happened down in that country in the years gone by what results were obtained in the intensive geological investigations made there last year by the author and II 11 E crum and what the situation and 01 outlook 1 alook is today the article just as am it appears in tile the index is fa here reproduced in the belief that it will prove highly entertaining and educational to mining review readers editor by H W C brommell Prom mell consulting geologist denver colo while much has been written about the moab region including the colorado river structures elk ridge anticline the lisbon valley anticline indian creek anticline cedar mesa structure boundary butte anticline and other structures in utah and drilling 6 activities thereon little has been said about the sequoia anticline of the green river desert region some fifty miles to the south of the town oi oi green river utah and forty miles west of the colorado river nver structures this region is of historical as well as go geological interest many old cliff dwellings are found here and some of the finest nest hieroglyphics and indian paintings are found on the sandstone walls of barrier canyon at a later time the span ads traversed the southern part of the green river desert oil n their way northward from old mexico their trail known as the spanish trail which leads from the lofty green river desert plateau across the precipitous cliffs of wingate sandstone into basin and thence over the rugged outcrop of the concolino Con conino sandstone to the edge of cataract canyon where it descends in step like fashion over sheer walls of the rico and hermosa formations into cataract canyon proper has been rebuilt by cattlemen of this region fegion it has been a means of escape of many a cattle rustler at a later er time the green river desert was the meeting place of y highway men engaged in the business of holding up deliver enver rio 0 o grande western payroll trains and rob bilig bin of OI 01 eoal coal mining camp payrolls along the railroad after such uan episodes they made their escape into the green river de lert esert where their tracks were soon covered by desert winds many localities in the desert today earry carry names refer ring sto to the e activities of some of the early invaders such as robbers abers roost blue john spring observation rock mans ans hill hila and others The these semen men had permanent car at the cpr ing s in the desert which burnish unusually water ter th the e 0 old id stone corrals used by them at sweet water ler spring g can still be discerned robbers roost was one of their favorite meeting places where many hilarious unheard of parties were held at a later time joe biddlecome one ohe of the early cattlemen of southwestern colorado invaded the green river desert joe tells many interesting stories about the early conflicts between cattle raisers raisers in in southwestern colorado where competition became too strong for him this made imade him look for other quarters and he now reigns supreme over the greater part of the green river desert outside of the du quesne As association ocia tion camp and a small dugout formerly used by E T wolverton and now a cache of the chaffin interests joe joes I 1 S headquarters near robbers roost is the only habitation in this region the desert was good to joe during his many years stay there he has raised two daughters band and ai amassed a comfortable fortune his wife milly can rope steers with the best of em and besides is poetically inclined this is shown by the following poem written by her entitled robbers roost it bears on the early history of the green river desert country ROBBERS ROOST by milly biddlecome in the eastern end of wayne county there is a lovely spring the robbers roost is its name to it fond memories cling one drink of it you yon lose your hope two your religions gone three and you want to rob a bank before another dawn old blue john and old silver tip lived there for many years they spent a very busy time and uncle sam shed tears dick westwood Test wood took a bunch of men and to the roost he went he caught those rogues with greatest ease and to the pen they went but richard made a sad mistake amid the others laughter he from this noted spring did drink had trouble ever after one drink of it you lose your hope two your religions gone three and you want to rob a bank before another dawn burr and moore and jack cottrell all passed in quick succession sanford walker and cassidy were all in the procession for many years it was alone then wiles and swasey came with pony and a jackass bunch and made this place their home now joe biddlecome is the one bone using these noted waters he lives out at the robbers roost with his wife and daughters the best of men have worked for joe and its the same each time after they have worked awhile i they all go down the line now when you ride up to this spring and start to get a drink A sign hangs there in right plain sight to make you pause and think one drink of it you lose your hope two your religions gone three and you yau want to rob a bank before another dawn some pioneer wells with the exception of the san juan field along the san juan river in southern utah the earliest prospecting and 4 rilling for oil was done at and near basin on the sequoia anticline this work dates back to ito 1912 when colonel charles P tasker salt lake city utah commenced the drilling of a well known as the des moines well this well vell is situa situated in sec 19 well down on the flank of the sweetwater anticline of the sequoia arch colonel tasker was attracted to this region by the numerous outcrops of oil saturated sand which he prospected over a large area finally raising sufficient capital for the drilling of a well he started to ship machinery into the desert at that time machinery was hauled by horse and wagon and the trip from green river to the well location required over four days colonel tasker recites the following story while his men were hauling machinery both men and teams became exhausted during the fourth day of their travel they decided that one place in the desert might be as good as any other to drill a well dumped off the machinery built a camp and started drilling the intended location for the well was near a location made by prommel and crum on the flattops Flat tops anticline during their later work in 1926 at about the same time E T wolverton E M had spent several years pioneering this general section wolverton accompanied by L M chaffin of green river utah started a survey of the major portions of the green river desert and located oil placer claims in basin where seepages see pages of oil were found along the outcrop of the de chelly sandstone although the bringing of a star rig to be used in drilling assessment holes presented almost insurmountable difficulties the feat was accomplished assessment holes were drilled and the rig is still standing in basin small quantities of oil were encountered in these assessment holes all of which started in the natural satural saturated e d de chelly sandstone showings of oil and gas the des moines well encountered showings of oil and gas at 2160 feet where a 12 ft oil sand de chelly was encountered at 2300 feet a sand coconino feet thick showed so some high 6 grade oil and some gas at 2750 feet two more oil sands were encountered at this time the well was being drilled with the hole full of water which precluded the obtaining of any definite knowledge regarding the possibilities ties of these sands at a depth of 2910 feet work was suspended the drilling was done with a no 25 star machine the des moines company expended about in the drilling of this well after the first showing of oil was obtained in the des moines well in 1913 another company drilled the mount vernon well in sec 4 about six miles southwest of the des moines well and also way off favorable structure little is known about this well it is reported to have encountered similar oil sands to those drilled through in the des moines well oil placer claims on the strength of the showings obtained in these wells the du quesne association composed of W L curry and associates of pittsburgh pa located approximately acres of land in the green river desert under the united states mining law petroleum placer act during the year 1913 actual assessment work on these claims has been maintained to date no actual deep test has been made on these placers the annual assessment work comprises a number of shallow holes and pits as well as road construction under the petroleum placer act a report as to logs loas of wells or showings found is not required so that information of the operations of the du quesne association is not available the holdings of the du quesne association are located in townships 2526 25 26 south ranges 12 13 14 east salt lake meridian these old placer locations have recently I 1 been diere b carded by the public who have made oil and gas prospecting cling permit location on top of the old placer locations it is doubtful whether the old placer locations willbe will be consi considered deed valid by the federal government as they should have been chan changed ed into oil prospecting permits long ago aga wall paper and high finance after the oil and gas leasing act became effective february 25 1920 oil and gas prospecting permits were appleb for over a part of the green river desert covering the area from basin on the east to sweetwater spring on oh the west prior to this thie time T C conley who had been beeh active in the mid continent field of oklahoma visited the region he in turn interested some of his associates in n the des moines well and in the early wolverton locations in Flat erite basin the outcome of T C conleys colleys Con leys early endeavors was the drilling of a well by the union oil company of utah it in the seya se sec 34 this well was later taken over by the texas production company and finished at a a detthof depth ot 2200 feet on april 4 1924 the well did not find oil in commercial quantities in the de chelly sandstone as this formation was encountered at a higher elevation than its alts out ou 6 crops on green river and fremont river the drilling b 0 of f this thiis well took several years mainly because the raising of money for the undertaking 1 I sixty five miles removed fro from m the rail ra road was no easy matter while mr conley hai had some idea of a larre large 6 structure in this region he did not have a any hy de tailed geological 6 reports at one time six days before pay day there was no raised money in sight to meet the payroll and it had booe to be ras of somehow how somewhere conley recalled the acau ain tance a doctor in iowa and sent him a wire to get some of his aso as 0 cent dates to together ether for a meeting he then spent his hast sl th for railroad fare to iowa I 1 having equipped hini aimse self lie some colored pencils and several rolls of wall paper pap back opened the meeting during the afternoon using the strate of the wall paper f for or sketching t he ende endeavored avore I 1 to during w what hat his mind had seen in the green river desert hours of illustrious talking picture after picture was on the back of the unfolding rolls of wall paper od the me meeting etino I 1 lasted into the early morning hot rs greeg resulted in the ra raising asin 6 of conley returned to 03 river overdue he immediately started into the chedes desert the third in the distance Ji stance fire evening out he noticed a camp the fire had been built by his drilling crew who come colne had their way to green river as no pay for the their ir work w conley forth with greenbacks green backs bulging out of his pa POcket scein agreed to settle on the spot the dr illers hanve however ver work the actual cash continued th tn e returned to the well and geology Is misleading in the after the above well was abandoned activities interested ted green river desert diminished and all those in ter the con conley P Y ahting undertaking were r ready eady to drop it however until december 1925 when the frank shafer well on cin the cane creek anticline blew itself in this event renewed activities throughout southeastern utah A chance meeting of T C conley and H W C prommel took place during march 1926 in denver at which prommel agreed to make a reconnaissance trip trip into the green river desert at a later date during may 1926 prommel and conley started their reconnaissance T the he g geology of the region entering 6 it from green river is very misleading and formation can easily be misinterpreted W E emery of the united states geological survey during his work in the green river desert appears to have mistaken the carmel formation for formation it was not until two weeks had been spent on horseback by conley and prommel that the relationship of the different formations to each other became clear to them after spending another week exploring the region on horseback as afar south as the junction of the colorado and fremont rivers a detailed survey of the sequoia arch was recommended by brommell Prom mell this work was taken up by H W brommell Prom mell and H E crum the latter spending the entire summer of 1926 in the field mapping in detail the various anticlines anti clines developed on the sequoia arch the extreme summer heat made this work very tedious camps had to be established near springs and water holes which are very scarce over this region and at times even water for the horses had to be carried in barrels over a days journey to camp the field work was completed in october 1926 after which a mo month nth was required to write the report and construct the final maps of the region the field work was greatly facilitated by lou chaffin and sons green river utah intimate knowledge of ahe the country they served as guides throughout the work r difference in the green river desert region b is of geological interest as the differs somewhat from that of the moab region this is pointed out in dobbins and other papers on the moab region as well as in the press bulletins of the united states geological survey by the same writers the oil saturated de chelly sandstone is absent in the moab region the conglomerate is eroded over the top of the anticlines anti clines in the moab region the rico formation from drom which production has been obtained in the san joan field of southern utah is also eroded on the anticlines anti clines of the moab region all these formations are present and underlie the a anticlines anti clines on the sequoia arch at relatively ively shallow depths and their saturated outcrops can be studied in the canyons tributary to cat cataract araca canyon of the colorado river several possible oil horizons there are therefore several possible oil horizons underlying der lying the anticlines anti clines on the sequoia a arch from the top do downward anward they are the shi c conglomerate on in which a good showing of oil was obtained in the marland well five miles es south of the town of green river and in which production was encountered in the goun boundary dary butte well in athern southern utah this formation lies 1300 to 1900 feet below the Sur faccon the anticlines anti clines |
