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Show CEOLOCICAL REPORT ON SAN. JUAN OIL FIELD The search for oil' fields in (.he United States has been very active in the last few ye;Qs and has extended to nearly every part of the United States. This search is not limited to the -inhabited regions, but is carried on no less eagerly eager-ly in the deserts. As far back as 1SS2 E. L.' Goodriik'e, a prospector thought there might be oil in the great desert which lies chiefly in northern Arizona but also extends into' southern Utah. He concluded to go'there and investigate. investi-gate. To reach the place he desired to examine it was necessary for him to go about 100 miles, from the nearst point on the railroad, through an uninhabited and almost unvvatered country to the little Mormon settlement at Bluif, Utah. From that place he followed San Juan River westward. He had gone scarcely 20 miles from the little settlement when' he found springs of petroleum a-Icng a-Icng the river and folds in the strata which he considered favorable for the accumulation of oil. He therefore made claim location. At that time it was impossible to take drilling aparatus into the field, but he persistently clung to the belief conditions were favorable for an oil field It was just 25 years later, in the fall of 1907, . before he could return to the field with a drilling outfit and start a well. He continued drilling until March 4th, 1903, when he struck oil. The well was a gusher and threw oil above the derrick to a height of TO feet. Of course this find caused great excitement and iuduced others to enter the field. New wells followed in rapid suces ion in the next three years, but most of them were only prospect holes put down to validate the titles of claims and not with the serious intention inten-tion of determining the oil resources of the field. It was difficult to drill deep holes, because it was almost impossible to transport the necessary heavy ma chinery into the field. Moreover, drilling drill-ing is very expensive, because the region re-gion is dry and the field is far from any base of supplies. It is 10G miles to a narrow gage railroad and 153 miles to a standard gage. The region lies in a wonderfully picturesque country fam.-d as the home of the Navajo blanket-weaving blanket-weaving Indiana. One canyon is a quarter of a mile deep, but not so wide as that at the bottom, and has almost vertical walls. .. Water is. scarce. ..Al supply for drilling is hauled in barrels from San Juan River, which flow? through the field. Fuel also is scarce, ; a few pinions on one of the plateaus j, and a scant growth of the same type j of free at the base of .the escarpment f, around the plateau furnishing all that r-s r-s available. In spite of these diif icul- ties, however, drilling has been under- taken at several places in the field and oil found in some of the wells. The oil I; is of high grade and contains some paraffine and considerable gasoline. When refined the gasoline is suitable , for use in automobiles. The (government heard of the work these men were attempting, learned something of their difficulties, and sent j one of its geologists, Mr. E. G. Wood- jj ruff, to examine the field and prepare j a geologic report upon it. He made a j topographic map of the field showing J the canyons, mountains, and mesas and I the trails and similar features. He al- j so studied the rocks and mapped the ! geologic formations. This map shows I where drilling is most likely to succeed. Samples of oil were collected and sent ' to Washington for- analysis. The con- j ditions found by Mr. Woodruff have been set forth in a government report on the subject, Bulletin 471-A-4 of the Geological Survey, which is distributed free. A copy can be obtained upon request re-quest addressed to the Director, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. |