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Show WYOMING OIL FIELDS. In view of the high tnx question the announcement that. Wyoming may b the first tax free state by reason of the royalties the state will receive from its oil wells is interesting. Another interesting angle to the Wyoming oil situation Is tho nosslbil j ity that fuel oil may replace soft coal in great part in Utah jf satisfactory freight rate arrangements can be j made. I The United States geological survey has found much of interest about Wyoming oil wells and the geology of the district and has written a bulletin bulle-tin about the' subject. Part of this bulletin we publish: "The Dry Piney oil field, In Lincoln I county. Wyoming, is probably one of I the highest oil fields in the world. It j lies east of the Wyoming range, on , what Is known as La Barge ridge, at inn elevation of about 8000 feet above , tho sea level. J "The oil wells are more than 60 miles north of the coal mining town of Kemraercr, on the Union Pacific rall-jroad. rall-jroad. Big Piney, a thriving village j about 14 milen northeast of Dry Piney I field, is the nearest postofflce and the I nearest largo settlement. The main j Kemmorer-Big Tiney road is fairly good except for a distance of perhaps !10 miles. The drilling equipment and supplies are hauled for long distances over the roads by motor trucks and wagons. Freightage from Kcmmerer costs 51.75 a hundred pounds. "This field was recently visited by E. H. Finch, a geologist of the United i States geological survey, department of the Interior, who examined It briefly brief-ly and obtained samples of the oil. I It Is interesting to note that the Dry I Piney oil field has been developed on jau ifnticline that was mapped by the United Stales geological survey in 107 and that is described by A. R. Schuliz in the survey's bulletin 543, published in 1914. The occurrence of oil in this part of Wyoming has been known for moro than half a century, as the oil springe I along the east front of Absaroka ridge north of Kemmerer were probably prob-ably those mentioned by F. W. Lander Lan-der In a report published in 1859. Lan- dre's report contains the general statement state-ment that in the mountains along the divide, In latitude 52 minutes north, there arc 'beds of coal, iron, slate, and a spring of peculiar mineral oil whicn by chemical process may be made suitable for lubricating machinery.' The report published by the United l States geological survey in 1914 suggested sug-gested that drilling tests bo made on this 'anticline, and systematic drilling has since developed a small supply of oil. Tha first well that produced oil wu drilled with a Leydeckor rig. Tho drill passed through nearfy 890 feet of "dark-blue to nearly black shale with thin layerB of light-gray rock from four inches to two feet thick." The well is 1023 feet deep and is reported to have yielded, by pumping, 22 barrels bar-rels in a few hours after the oil had stood in tho well for several weeks. It is said that this well yielded a flog of gas at 900 feet and that the drill struck the oil sand about 100 feet lo-wer. The gns Is aald to havo furnished the fuel U3cd for drilling another -well. |