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Show NEVADA OIL BOOM CHlLLEOjNINFCy Prospectors Learn With Disgust Standard Is Only Developing Clay Beds. The recent rush of oil prospectors into the Amargosa valley along the No vada-Calil'ornia line, has been traced to its source, which shosw the easy way a rumor of a big strike can gam circulation cir-culation without having any leuudatiou, says the lieno C.a.-.ctte. It all occurred through a ntisunderst ending of the motives mo-tives that led to the construction of a spur from the main line of the Touopah A Tidewater railroad beginning at ll point uear Scianton. As soon as the construction forces arrived it was learned that tho Saudard Oil company was backing the movement. Tho news was sent out broadcast and before dirt had begun flying around Scianton, pros pectors froui the mining camps of Tono-pah, Tono-pah, Goldficld and Pioneer began pouring pour-ing in by auto, with burro trains and by the railroad. ) All the newcomers were anMous to make locations. When tlicv were shown samples of shale which had been found worthless in extensive tests made ten years ago. they hesitated iu longer but made sure of getting in on the site ot a camp which they thought the Stand-aril Stand-aril Oil company was endoa veri ng to keep uuiet. in less than a week every available and unappropriated foot of ground for a distance of fifteen miles I from tho raiiroad had been staked oit ! without waiting for finding indications J of petroleum. After this labor had been dispatched ! the desert rats found time to catch their j breath and make a more coinpiehcils'.ve 1 reconnaissance, which disclosed the ta t I that the Standard Oil company of nil-, nil-, fornia was building a spur, not to oil i wells, but to tap some otioo acres of clay I beds which that company held under , patent for over ten years. The deposits ' are situated below Fairbanks Springs, and consist of an aluminum clay, which has been subjected to the severest tests to determine" its value as a substitute for fullers' earth, which used to come i from Florida in enormous quantities, j The movement from the extreme 1 southern country had to be abandoned ! on account of the difficulty of se.-ur-: ing cars and still greater trouble in mov-! mov-! ing them for such a long distance, so i the Standard Oil company decided to go ahead and develop its own latent resources in Calitornia. 1 he clay is used in the process of refining for clarifying clari-fying the oil, and will be shipped to the refineries at El Segundo and Richmond. I The Standard Oil company has estab-j estab-j lished a camp of portable houses which ! are a vat improvement on the shacks ! of the average mining camp, an.l the men who are superintending construction construc-tion sav the clays will be worked on an ! extensive scale, as tests have demon-' demon-' strated that the product of these fields j mav be used to the exclusion of the South Atlantic days. A fleet of motor i trucks will be placed in commission be-: be-: tween Scranton and the clav pits, which , are at a distauce of eight miles from ' the railroad. i Another deposit of commercial clay ueaf Death Valley Junction - is being j worked by the Bradford, father and son. ranchers, who have opened a whit-; whit-; ing mine from which they have shipped i six carloads to a paint manufacturing company in Los Angeles. |