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Show (SAYS WYOMING HAS JUST ! BEGUN ITS OIL PRODUCTION j . j Geologist Declares the Greatest Reservoirs of the State Have Not Yet Been Tapped; Expresses Opinion That Surprises Are in Store. Wyoming us nn oil s1;ilo lias just he-Cun he-Cun il rtduetion, says Charles C, Coulter, Ih'iiver pcoloist, in an artichi I in tho Oil ami dan News. Tlio roatont oil rt'tt'rvoirs ha vo not ns yet heen tapped. The coming seaoti, liowevcr, j pitMni-ei to produce at least one ami i i t haps two of these fit Ms, an when J once opened they will, in my opinion. surprise the whole oil world. l.thical reasons prevent the mention I ot" one v( these fields, winch wiil le j brought in in the spring with comMind interest, hut the K"eat size and prominence promi-nence of the second gives me liherty to talk frttly. refer to the Croat 'ifed Peeit com irv, wliieh wns first brought to the r,t Icntii. n of the American people hv the ' Pathfinder of the Kocky niouii' tains, ' ' tieneral John C. J'retncint -in August. 1 -s t i. It mis he who when on his celehrated exploring ex pedition ;cross the mountains did so much to eivo us our first crude i-'.eas regarding this :ist hinterland a forbidden do-r.ain, do-r.ain, inhabited by ooyptes and occasional occa-sional Indians a desolate, God-forgotten stretch of waterless waste. Fremont 's collection of prehistorie fauna and flora w as onlv limited by r.tisoe. ot Ju' fact that ru. means ol T .: n l; pc 1 1 at i on was aWo extremely limited, lim-ited, r.nd cerluiniy not from the reason o;' the scarcity of paloontoiogical interest in-terest and material. Fremont collected s-oino fartv different ami distinct forms, all of whieh were later collated and classified by .lamrs Hall, paleontologist j to the state of New York. 'Later Study Carried On. J 1 ntrr study of this reicn was ear-I ear-I rU'd oil by the Knited States geological j survey, in the vear lihtti, and has been 'fru'.ttul in giving us one of the very j finest collections of fossil remains that i- couiained in the national museum i Those tii tls are mostly confined to tin 1 Ct U.n'do group in the I'm 07 vortion of the nppei cretaceous. Thr-mhctit ih-' j frontier formation we find that these j remain? are a perfevt in,ii of the ag- 'r.nd eh,;raeter of :he series a retarti-:etr'fic retarti-:etr'fic importance. Thev are best 1 stii'tied from the viewpoint of a s l enlist at pueh points as the Uridger beds I in I'inta couuty, Cumberland and Fos-!! Fos-!! i. I.itP'oIn county. Le-mitv nills an. foinr 01 Kocks in Sweetwater cour.tv, 'ct:ity of Dad and Hagg.i, and to the w'-'tuaid in Carbon county, Antebtpe hi'rs in Fremont county, Iv" at Me i:-cii i:-cii e How and in Shirley basin in Carbon 'county. The most perfect specimen of ! the Ichthyosaurus extant was recovered ! -i few years since bv mem hers of the Smithsonian Institution, hut seen mi lee 1 la-rib of Medieine How in C,'irbon coun ' ty. From a scientific standpoint, t!u. .'" lion of the state ha s'arcly more than been dico et ed. and is a re j iou of iii os 1 absorbing ir.:oret. Fields Prolific. To return to the more material and remunerative a-peet of the subject whieh is fast coming to light In thi portion of Wyoming as the coming oil iteming urea. Let us carefully examine the evidences ns they are presented to our view' from the field pruetiee of the present lime in the location of petrol'ific structure. Take any good map of the state ot Wyoming and examine it cure-ful! cure-ful! v as to its topographical features. Vnn w 11 discover that the Ked Uesert is lln1 only portion of the state that is w it I o ut a drainage out let. The little lr inns which flow into k are absorbed by the anhydrous detritus whieh form t lie bit si n, in t-aort , here is n ' dome ' ' of whieh the aw rage promoter does dearlv low tit peah, but so extensive anu vast that it lias frightened tin1 average nil prospector 11 way, owing to its gigantic projortion. It may be said to cover the major portion of Carbon Car-bon and Sweetwater counties, the south ipiaiter ot Fremont eoi.ntv reaching into Moffat and Koutt counties, in northern Col or:i d i ', and well into I' hit a county in I'lah. Throughout this whole region the id. ntieul geological conditions which prevail is must rMnarKpi.'c. It is ynt 111 the province of tins brief nrticle to fi How out a eompleti geological record of this great "-'met lire, but in passing the onlv comment necessary here would bo to st:ute 'iat the .n '.tinding perirs are nil mlaet and can be accounted for from c;ii'. rml every ,-onil of the con--pass. lrospeclino; Unscientific. This great region has not been even prosMeted properly, not to Fay scientifically. scien-tifically. It i only on the fringe that such satisfactory production of petroleum petro-leum has been found as recorded in the Lost Soldier field, with its 5u0 and Moii-bairel well at shallow depth, but as yet wit hout an outlet to market. Wells have been brought in an Muddy creek, north of Bnggs, at Kcmrnerer. in Lincoln county, and in Lint a county, also south of Rawlin- and south of Kock Springs but all at a very shallow depth. There has not been a deep t't well put down in this whole area! That the 011 exists in paying quantities is b'-on ing well understood and had one ten'h the capital been expended in the development of this field that is being wasted in the fruitless ami useless at-teu;i at-teu;i ts to " foree " 01. production in seme w ell know 11 fields, but wholly 1 ot: t stile of the s ruct are " of those fields the tabulations of Wvoming annual an-nual oil : t:i tilth's would rend different differ-ent lv. nv oil rompany who-c prot-i",-iv is just on the '"outside' of the weU defined geological structure of any field had much better have property Ion miles away, if lueate, within a jk1!-rolifer-JiM area. Red Desert Attracts. Th;.' there is a gieat and growiog intere-t at present atlaehc I o Uiis f.'od l)eert region it need onlv be mentioned t '1:. 1 t In groa tet oil i 11 : crest s in the v.orid are actively engaged in exploiting exploit-ing this vast territory. Included among I others ar the Ohio Oi companv, I j 'Standard) Dutch Shell " company, i ; lluinphries. Merritt. Hurst. Ailen Oil ! company. Sw ingle ( il company. KFis ; ( inacian-A merican Oil company. Texas company and about forty others, and i we may confidently expect before the ; preent year passes that the great pool , will be tap;--d and the vast fortunes now 1 Yuien in the depths will begin to ' flow into the ehanneN of connner-e. Orher companies oj-erating in Carbon ; ooun ty and t he Shi rley basi n are the ; Ohio Oil company, Trinity. Fort Steele ; Petroleum, tieneral Petroleum. Carbon I Oil company and the Oucrin-Oregg in-: t'-rests. the latter having some H.o"0 ' a-TtM in that section. Some geologists claim the ' mother pool ' ' of AVvomiog sii e.ibi be found in arbon county. |