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Show iw SEES -BIG FUTUBE II WESTERN OILS E. G. Straub, Identified With Wyoming Fields, Tells of Developments. WEST IS THE CENTER Advance in Oil Stock and Prices of Leases Proof of Great Activity. E. G. Straub, formerly of Denver, more recently of California Rnd now identified with the oil fields of Wyoming, Wyo-ming, foresees in oil, he says, the greatest great-est source of money making for producers pro-ducers that has ever been witnessed in the United States. Mr. Straub is at IjyWilson hotel on his way from the 0!jH8t, where he has spent the winter -with his family in San Francisco. In a statement yesterday he said: One who knew Salt Lake a few years ago is surprised to note the wonderful progress which has been made here in civic improvements, and also the growth of business activity ac-tivity within r.be last five years. Much of this proCTess no doubt is attributable to the wouderfiil development de-velopment of vour mining industry. indus-try. Wyoming Big Fields. Iu California the greatest Inspiration Inspi-ration to business is the oil. It also is becoming phenomenal as a business busi-ness developer in Wyoming within the last three years. This year Wyoming promises to produce at Wst 1(K per cent more oil than in 1916, when there was a yield estimated esti-mated bv the government of almost 70,000,0(30 barrels. Had there been more pipe lines and refineries in Wyoming last year the output might have been easily 50 per cent greater than it was." Salt Lake will undoubtedly begin be-gin soon to reap some of the benefits bene-fits of Wyoming oil activities, and it should" within the near future assume something of the extraordinary extraor-dinary interest in oil which is prevailing pre-vailing in Denver and Casper, Wyo., where everybody is, in a way, what they eall oil crazy. One of the reasons is that so many people in these two states participated in tha oil profits which were realized in 1916 from the $40,150,000 value of the production which was marketed. mar-keted. Denver Is Aroused. Denver is now more of an oil than a mining center. Knormous amounts of Denver capital have gone into Wyoming uil deve.lop-inent. deve.lop-inent. and it has been exceedingly f successful. ' There was a time when the ytandard Oil company controlled tiTe oil business. iow there are dozens of independent companies -.operating freely, and all put together to-gether cannot produce enough for the demand. The new fields in Wyoming are promising to be prolific producers. Among these are the Lost Soldier and Big Muddy and Salt Creek districts, which are the most devel-oped; devel-oped; while a dozen more are coming com-ing into equal prominence. At Casper, which town ha.s grown from about 4500 to more than 7000 in population in the last eighteen months as a result of the oil business, they have organized an oil stock exchange, and oil stock daily quotations reflect the great increases in values of these securities. securi-ties. Advance in Stocks. Midwest Oil Refining stock, for instance, a $50 par value stock, has' gone to $154 a share. Merrit Oil, which was listed at $9, has gone to $30 a share. Glen Bock Petroleum, which was put on the market at 25 cents, rose quickly to 75 cents and is now $2.7o. Prices of oil leases have ascended ascend-ed to enormous heights. The extent ex-tent of the intense rivalry for leases in the Big Muddy district is shown by the fact that "J. M. Hnrst of California paid the Wyoming state land board recently a cash bonus of $105,000 for a lease on the eastern half of section 16, township town-ship 33, range 76. More new companies are being organized daily on these fields, among the latter being the Big Five, controlling a large acreage rs in the Big Muddy field, and the Midland Oil & Drilling company, having more than 1100 acres in the tjosi; ooicuer ana oig jiuaiiv neids. More than 101X1 rigs are being prepared pre-pared for drilling, as soon as tho spring weather arrives, in the central cen-tral and southern parts of the state alone. In the northern part of the state several new refineries and many hundreds of miles of pipe lines are going in this summer. |