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Show Sau Juan County. Utah,. Holds Great Volume of Very Valuable Oil. Hj SA4ST. -LAKERS ARE PIONEERS IN FIELD H Seldom-Mentioned Region" Is Hj Now Attracting Very Wide, Sincere Attention. l Li'Saii Juan county, Utah, the H extremo southeastern part of tho state, and along the San Juan river on its H north bank, and extending northerly H therefrom, and doubtless southerly as H well, there has been shown to exist H oue of the most promising oil fields, H quantity and quality considered, in tho H United States. H On the south side of tho Eio San H .Tuan is situate the Navajo Indian H reservation. The river to a point about BJ twenty-ihrco miles westerly of the H town of Bluff is the north boundary H of the reservation, which is bounded on H tho west by the ono hundred and tenth H meridian, and hence little prospecting H for oil has been done on (he south H eide; Still some such work has been H done near the west boundary, on the south side of the river, by parties who H believed that they were west of the H one hundred and tenth meridian, and H therefore were not in forbidden terri- H tory, and seepages of oil have been H discovered there as upon the north side, H and some minine locations made. The 1 actual work of development. b.y sinking H oil wells, has all been done on tho north H Fide of the San Juan river. The known H and proved or field commences at a H pohit about twenty to twenty-two miles H from Bluff, and extends twenty-fivo H miles from there to the west down the H This field, from a geological point ot H view: is said by men of first-class ropu- H tations and who are recognized experts H in the examination of geological fqrina- H lions, for the purpose of determining 1 v. liotlier they arc favorable for con- H laining large quantities of oil. have. Hj so far as known, uniformly reported H to their emnloyors (hat. this region is Hl most favorable for carrying oil of the H finest quality and in great quantity. H Nearly all of this character of pro- H fcssional work lias been done since the H first of last April. H Professor Lakes, geologist, and pro- H fessor of geolog' in tho University of H Wyoming, in an article published in H lay, 190S. vrliilc the- article written Hl was not dealing specially with the great H jilafeau of the liio San Juan, as to 1 its oil carrying probabilities, but rather H Svith its unique and rugged beauty, says 1 that the "region of southeast ern Utah H riordering on the Ixio San Juan is one H little known to white men. Tt has Hj been rarely traversed, if at all, by the H rciontific explorer, and by few except H snmo hardy prospectors, arid tho patient H Mormon to whom the church may liavo H said, 'Go and settle in that land.' H Tt is distinctly a plateau rather than H :i mountainous region thero are no H great mountain ranges, only small iso- H la ted pimple-like groups dotted here and H there over the monotonous plain of rocks H of sedimentary origin. These volcanic H islets belong to f lie laccoliths, and in H lime the erosion of this region removed j H the ' overlying sedimentary rocks and H exposed the laccoliths." H Geological Formation. H Professor Lakes states that along the H San Juan river elsewhere, the strata so H prevailingly horizontal suddenly rear H tip into steep anticlinal arches, dimin- H ishing in steepness westward, tintil they H pass into gentle broad-backed rolls, and H thlit it is where the river has cut a H canyon through the anticlinal rolls that i H thejoil seepages occur. They issue from H a porous limestone of probably tho H Permian age. between the overlying B Jura-Trias red sandstones, and the un- H dcrlying limestones and sandstones of i H the upper carboniferous. Ho adds, ! "Whether this vast field of gentle . H anticlines contains any large bodies of , B oil can only be proved bv boring. The H geological conditions wonld theoretically 1 apnear quite favorable." B The country is mgged. but not so on H account of volcanic uplifts destroying j oishxittcring the strata, but solely due H as appears on account of tremendous rosion?- making box canyons through the sandstones long after the scdiment-j scdiment-j ury rocks had been laid down under tho 1 waters, which have since subsided. Hf There cau be no geological reason why the oil-cannot exist in vast quantities; 1 in these sandstone strata, shales and j H porous limestones. But one fact, as the saying is, is l worth a. thousand theories the oil has 1 been discovercl by boring wells, in lngo i j quantity, and of the finest possible j 1 quxility, and noy,r manv men of means j 1 are seeking to require territory by : leases for development or by outright I j purchase. All this has come about in 1 tho.-year" 1908, and is likely to prove 1 ono of the most valuable if not the greatest of Utah's assets. Oil . seepages have been known to 1 exist along the San Juan river for vcar.s -baclc In 3001 Mr. E. L. Good-1 Good-1 ridge was proceeding down the San 1 .ruan river in a boat for the purpose of T pros'pecting gold bars which f-xist along 1 that, srream. and to examine the oil- j bearing strata as well, lis discovered H! verJ promising oil seepages immediatc- ly on the stream at a point about forty-T forty-T 5ivo mrles bolow the tov.u of Bluff, j which town has been settled for fiftv years, and is now the home of a small but very thriving community. Trees f; iavc been planted and the shade trees Hji Ji;ivo grown to large proportions: or- rhards of. apples and iiears and other rmitb- have been set out. and the soil 1; ihoro to.yie extent of 500 acres has been cultivated by tho people living there, tho soil being vcrv fertile and bearing the finest fruits", which find rheir. market in the state ot Colorado, f This fertility of soil exists al! tho -way down, the river, and will, when water is 1: placed upon it, undoubtedly produco fine -crops. Bluff has been 'an Indian i trading post all the years. I j Work of Development. fli , Mr. Goo'dridge proceeded to sink some kolcs with his pick and shovel along and near the water's odgo, in the rocks wheio the oil came from, and in cvery instance the little hole he would sink i would fill with oil by the next morning. Hp brought some of this oil to Salt Lali City to endeavor to enlist some inpisal to open up tho field. He look a mail down with him to examine, and 1 JiiB..rcporl was v.ery favorable, but tho couutry wa considered b parties who sent him as too inaccessible to .-justify any effort. He then camo to Mr. A. C. Ellis with this oil and solicited his assistance. The oil was analyzed and was pronounced of tho first class, whereupon terms were made and a corporation cor-poration was brought into existence. Colonel Ellis taking control of tho stock and financing it himself, A drilling machine was ordered from the factory in 1ho cast and was shipped to the territory for the purposo of development. de-velopment. It was found so difficult to mako a road to. the spot that .all calculations wore upset as to tho umo of reaching the field, and instead of dropping the drill on tho fourjh of July as was expected, drilling was not commenced until the first day of ISo-vember. ISo-vember. 1901. The well was put down at that point to a distance of H00 foet, but the company having no shelter and no moans of getting one, operations ceased after a flood many thousand dol'ars had been expended. The first sand was encountered at this place at 170 feet, considerable water also coming in. Tho quantity of oil developed de-veloped was estimated by Mr. Good-ridge Good-ridge and the driller at about twenty-fivo twenty-fivo barrels per day. Nothing further was done in the entire region by anybody any-body until August, 1907, when Mr. Goodridgo was requested by Mr. Ellis to return and renew the scheme of oil drilling higher up the stream and nearer to Bluff. Mr. Goodridgo was sent down to the field, a new machine was ordered or-dered and was delivered in the oil district, dis-trict, mado read' for operation and drilling was commenced on December 4 at a point about twenty fivo miles west, of Bluff. On March 4 following, after more or less difficulty and dclaj', duo to tho then inaccessibility of the field and lack of means of ropair of machinery, the second sand was encountered. en-countered. The first sand was encountered en-countered at 170 feet, some water haying hay-ing been encountered at 130 feet. This first sand was drillod through nnd yielded twenty to twenty-live barrels a day, it was estimated. "When tho second sand was struck, on March 4, at a depth of 220 feet, a tremendous flow of oil, with a great volumo of gas. was encountered. The oil was forced up I above tho top of the casing, 8 VI inches I iu diameter, a distance of twelve foot by tho force of the gas and continued to spout for ten or fifteen minutes tnat high. Subsequently tho flow began to decline, and tho oil for a month flowed gently over the pipe and gradually sunk "down to about forty feet below the top of the well, and there is became stationary. Tho well was permitted to rest for 'some two or three months, except ex-cept the people who visited tho rogion would take away such quantities of oil as they cared for, from ono gallon to ton gallons, and tho oil soon found its way into various states and places in the state of Utah. Second Well Started. In the meantime a second well was commenced bv the samo parties under l tho business namo of the Oil Company of San Juan, further up the anticline, about thrco miles and a half distant. It was sunk to tho depth of 170 feet before be-fore it encountered the first sand, and lies one-half mile cast of north of the original well. Tho first sand in this well also showed high gas pressure and much water, xind yielded about thirty-five thirty-five barrels a day. It is the opinion of the superintendent of the only active company then in the field, the Oil Company Com-pany or San Juan, that this well will equal the first one in tho output of oil, but the sinking of it further was discontinued, dis-continued, because tho object of sinking tho well was to discover the oil and validate tho locations only. A third well was then commenced at a point about two miles from the second well to tho northeast, and in the first sand water lias been encountered, with a strong flow of oil, showing about the same .yield for that sand as the first and second wells. Sinco then a fourth well has been started at a point about a half milo from tho first well xmd the oil has been encountered in the fourth well, as in the others. The fifth well is now under way, with a certainty of getting the oil, since it is surrounded by oil wells. . . Until after the finding of oil m tho first well, which is situated GOO yards from tho Rio San Juan, no money was over expended iu the actual development develop-ment or the oil field except by the pioneers, constituting the Oil Company of San Juan, but with the striko mado in well No. 1 tho district commenced filling up with locators aud parties who had orcviously located to look after their locations, experts and capitalists following rapily. Now thero are no less than ten drilling machines on the field, besides tho two original machines sent in by Mr. Ellis and operated by Mr. Goodridgo. Four of these nro actually dropping tho drill and one of them, on land lying adjoining nnd immediately north of the fourth well mentioned, has struck a fine flow of oil and two others havo nearly reached tho second sand. Thero arc two Standard machines already al-ready in the district and now being erected, and a number of Star drilling machines. The San Francisco San Juan Oil company, a corporation, with its principal place of business in San Francisco, but formed under the laws of the State of Nevada, has a now first-class first-class machine, constructed in tho East, capable of going 2600 feet deep, now on tho, way between tho railroad point of Dolores and Bluff, and at or about tho 5th of January should be upon the tho lands of that company. This new machino has all of the appointments to enable xi continuous and rapid campaign, cam-paign, and its torritory is so situated that it will undoubtedly encounter xt very valuable well in a very short time, and main' of them. The first well sunk on what is known as tho Crossing No. 2 claim of tho Oil company of San Juan, composed of Messrs. Ellis & Goodridgo and their associates, has been tested to ascertain its capacity by rxipid pumping with a bailer. This was done expressly to ascertain as-certain what the well could do. Everv- thing being in perfect order, tho bailer wns set in motion and was used as rapidly as possible, with a fall of 40 fact to tho oil to begin with, and the drillor estimated that he was making at least three trips in five minutes, and it was found without any respite iu tho drilling that the oil had been lowcrod some 20 feet below where it was standing stand-ing when the pumping commenced, aud it was illustrated at that rate of pumping pump-ing thnt the well would yield S00 barrels bar-rels of oil per day. -Tho operations "for rapid development of the Held have been delayed b.y ac- t i cidont3 and tho difficulty of getting into tho field from Bluff, but tho road making has all been accomplished by the owners of tho oil claims, assisted by tho county of San Juan, and things will movo much moro rapidly in tho future. Automobiles havo gono down from Dolores to tho oil field, also freight teams, a very largo number going go-ing regularly. Thero aro fivo sands showing in this field, of much greater thickness than thoHwo so far. encountered, and underlying un-derlying them. Theso sands aro exposed ex-posed by tho tremendous erosion of the San Juan river, and aro readily to be seen and examined, and havo been so seen and examined by thoroughly thor-oughly capable experts. Ono of these sands, near tho water's edge, which has not been reached by the driller, and which is practically lower by 1000 feet than the level of tho mesa "above, yields vorj' large quantities of oil by tho pick and shovel. A largo hole was sunk in it and in a very short, timo was filled up by tho oil rolliug in. A number of wells such as Well No. 1 of the original company can bo hnd, and there is no doubt that the district will very soon bo capable of producing 10.000 barrels of oil a day. Competent persons say it is tho finest oil of which they have any account or knowledge. It may be said that it has a parafiino base, or as nearly so as any oil to bo found, or of which thero is any account. Tho percentage) of paraf-fine paraf-fine contained as shown by the analysis, scale and vaseline, is 12 per cent of the crude weight of the oil. Tho sulphur, sul-phur, a mcro trace; and the asphaltum, nominal fn-nvity ot' tho crudo oil, 3S degrees Baumo; specific gravity 0.S37. Tho percentago ot naphtha, 12.5 by volumo: 11.0 by weight; gravity, 03 dcg. Baume, 0.7.11 specific gravity. Light burning oil. iv volume, 21.2; by weight, 19.9; giv 51 deg. Baume; 0.77S specific gr:r Heavy burning oil, by volume, J!-': by weight, 19.0; gravity Baume 'II deg 0.S23 specific gravity. Heavy oils. -13.0. by volumo; by weight. 44. G: Baumo "33. deg.; specific gravity 0.S62. Cokings and loss hy volume, -1.1 tier cent. It is a very liquid oil, nnd when exposed ex-posed in a glass bottle or tube to tho light is greenish in color, and when shaken in a bottle in the light shows an amber-like wine color. Practically this same character of oil, produced by wells in Wyoming, is commanding at tho wells thero $2.50 per barrel. This Wyoming oil was -Isold in 1904 at $7 a barrel at the same time thp California asphaltum oil was sold at 27 cents. In 1905 the California oil was averaging 24 1. confs per barrel at the well, and this character of oil $0.10. This Wyoming Wyo-ming oil is being purchased aj $2.50 a barrel, and tho products of the San Juan oil would be' worth more than $20 a barrel at tho market prices in vogue at the centers of sales now. That is the value of the paralfine, tho naphtha, tho light and hcav3r burning oils and tho lubricating oils and tho like that would be produced. Tho money value of the oils, of this field as a commercial commer-cial proposition would bo equal to any other district known,' and it can readily bo seen that tho money yield from tho oil land of that district cannot bo exceeded, ex-ceeded, when pipe line or railroad facilities facil-ities aro secured. Extent of District. Wliilo the pioneer capital for this field and the supervision of its dcvolopnfbnt hy Mr. Goodridgo is duo to Salt Lako parties, now a largo number of persons of other states are becoming interested. From Portland, Or.; Chicago. Durango. Colo.; Colorado Springs, Spokane and New York, in all of which places companies com-panies or associations havo been formed to send machines into the field, though the camp is in its infancy. The field will soon bo surveyed by tho United States government. Last May Senator Sutherland of Utah, by the request of Mr. Ellis, introduced an amendment to the sundry civil bill mak; ing an appropriation for the survey of ihis San Juan county oil land, which was pushed through the senate and house of representatives by the Utah delegation, and has become tho law. Advertisements for bids for the survev will expire on tho 14th of January, and the contract bo let by the surveyor general of the state of Utah. This field is in tho region of the cliff-dwellers cliff-dwellers and tho cave-dwellers, and, very near it, and in it are some of tho most j marvelous natural monuments to be found on tho globe. The great natural bridges in Utah, which have been set apart by the president as a reservation, reserva-tion, arc within twenty-five miles -of these oil wells, and its ethnological and archaeological importance,, by recent discoveries made by scientific people in Utah aud by representatives of the Smithsonian' institute in Washington, are adding to the interest surrounding this remarkablo oil field, and before manv years it, in all likelihood, will bo tho 'Mecca of tourists looking for tho wonderful natural curiosities of that portion of Utah. . The timo for railroad and pipe lines is rapidly approaching, and probably that branch of this industry will bo well under way in the coming year, when Utah will realize upon this section sec-tion of the state. This field is distant from Grand Junction Junc-tion 150 miles, and from Thompson Springs about the same distance, and from 'Salt Lake City about 250 miles, and from the Santa Fe railroad, in rizona, 125 miles, and from Marys-vale, Marys-vale, in Utah, the terminus of one ; tho branches of the Denver & Bio Grande, or Rio Grande Western, 12o miles. Lines have been run from tho Sauta Fo railway to tho region of tho 011 fields, which illustrate that tho oil could be' delivered by gravity through a pipe line to the Santa Fo system, following generally the line of tho San Juan and Colorado rivers, as it is : persistent fall from the oil field to tho Santa Fc. No pipe lino has yet been proiectcd, but thero is much talked about now by some capitalists and by intercsted parties. .Ore and Bullion. The ore and bullion report for Saturday, Satur-day, given by McCornick & Co., was as follows: Ore received, 539,000; bullion shipped. $1:7.000. . Metal Market. Tho metal quotations for Saturday, posted bv iicCornlcl: & Co.. were as follows: fol-lows: Silver, 50ic; lead, $1.22; copper, IS ir.-lGc. Oro Shipments, -The Ploneor sampler on Sxiturday released re-leased 8 cars of oro from Utah camps, and the Txiylor ft Brunton Co. relcnscd 12 oars from Utah. |