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Show -- 4 4. ' t V. v ' . : - SALT FLAT NEWS, FEBRUARY, 1972 5 lOOO by Richard Menzies . ROZEL POINT, UTAH: Across this lonely peninsula jutting into the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake, roving bands of coyotes raise their voices in a predatory wail and horses run wild and unaccustomed to the sight of man. Through the muddy lowlands a single rut of a road winds toward the inland sea and to Rozel Point. On the horizon, sky and water blend in a primeval mist; the shapes of distant islands seem to hover in mid air. At the old shoreline a solitary frame cabin waits to be reclaimed by the land, and offshore, standing like wooden totems in the lake bottom are the log pilings marking early efforts at the only offshore oil drilling operation in the great American desert. Reported as early as 1861 by a battalion of General Conner's army, the oil seeps at Rozel Point have remained a mystery to geologists and a challenge to enterprising men who seek to harvest the bounty of earth's innards. One such man is Max Cazier, today the last man working at this remote outpost. Caziers only visitors these days are likely to be petroleum geologists and engineers come to study the strange bitumen material he pumps from a shallow well only two hundred feet beneath the lake bottom. In consistency, the oil is as much a solid as a liquid. A discouraged field report in 1927 described the material as being like "heavy molasses in warm weather, and ranges from that to a solid that can be chopped with an axe in freezing weather. The only practical method so far de-vised to remove the product from this well or caisson, as it might be called, is by hand, either tossing 'the pieces out or passing it up in buckets as greater depths are reached." However, the early attempt to mine the stuff in open shafts proved a futile undertaking, and accounted for Rozel's angle fatality. Cazier has met the problem by heating the well with steam to de crease the oils viscosity, using an ingenious heating plant inspired by an itinerant Texan named Groom. I wonder where old fatso is now, mused Cazier, white changing a complex arrangement of hoses on the steam boiler. It takes several days of pumping steam underground until the oil begins to flow freely; to help things along, naptha is added to dissolve the asphaltic substance. As the warm oil surfaces through a central pipe, its channeled to an insulated holding tank, there to await shipment by truck to Cedar City, where its mixed with gilsonite and used to plug chuckholes on highway 89. Such an application, in the opinion of some geologists, may be a little like paying the roads with gold. A sample taken from Caziers well for analysis by tee University, of Utah. Fuels Engineering Department yielded almost fifteen . per cent sulphur cpntent.The oil has been as possibly having the highest percentage of organically combined' sulfur of any oil f known... j Oil and Gas Utah to ."According Paul Commissioner Conservation Burchell, thaanaterial is probably of animal origin, with a distinct Burchell compares it v fishy odor. to ichthyol and suspects medici-na- l properties that could bring a far better price per barrel than road tar. Dr. E. G. Christiansen, of the Department of Chemical Engi- . j jj called goop has led him to investigate the unique characteristics of Rozel oil, is another who has studied the field with interest. Rising to the surface of the lake during warm months, the "goop forms a permanent tar slick that entraps and preserves indefinitely a number of unwary pelicans. In the winter, the stuff hardens to form a rubbery carpet of black. Just where it comes from is a subject of much speculation. Prominent Utah geologist A. J. Eardley believes the oil is not formed at Rozel Point but is migrating westward, so that drillers should logically look for oil somewhere to the east. A Gulf Company well drilled to a dry depth of nine thousand feet seems to tend support to such a conclusion. wells have In all, thirty-tw- o been sunk at Rozel since the first attempt in 1906. As if foredoomed, each has met with financial disaster of one sort or another. Without getting any closer to solving the mystery, hope has receded with the waters of the Great Salt Lake, leaving only Max and his one working rig, surrounded on all sides by bits of broken dreams and broken bits. Cazier has worked on the last three crews here, but he figures that things will improve, now that his overhead is reduced to one employee. In the meantime, there isnt much else to do but sit and dream and listen to the howling of the coyotes. Max Cazier, Utah's one man oil field, hopes to keep overhead down, production up, in ambitious venture near remote Promontory Peninsula. not-so-dista- nt Where thousands of listeners enjoy concert music and news every day! Crude oil, oozing to the surface through abandoned well casings, forms fantastic shapes, lends ghost town atmosphere to Rozel Point BUYING SILVER DOLLARS Abandoned horsehead pumps at Utah's only offshore oil field reflect recent failure in attempts to bring black gold to the surface. MORE EXAMPLES Will Pay $6.00 Cash For Each With Rims described . ' . . . BEST PRICES FOR BETTER FOREIGN COINS AND MEDALS . into plastic materials popularly Like a museum of modem history, oil boilers and iron wheels lie flitted torMUupyrtmUCh'ot Jlvzel Portt Vrjllep haw pursued' me v elusive treasure since 1906. s l'rl I i 'll I -l 'I I - Write to J. L. Green, Gen. Mgr. Salt Flat News P.0. Box 11717 Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 Phone 299-4504 c -I 4 i j , I i I l ' v " I i i r: r - !'l i I ,''l! I |