USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 43
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
steel of very superior merit. The deposit is located only nine miles from the Colorado and Southern Railroad at Iron Mountain station.
EARLY OIL DISCOVERIES
The first oil discovery in Wyoming of which we have any account is given by Irving in his account of Captain Bonneville's Expedition in 1833, in which he says :
"In this neighborhood ( on the Popo Agie River) the captain made a search for the great tar springs, one of the wonders of the mountains, the medicinal proper- ties of which he had heard extravagantly lauded by the trappers. After some toil- some searching he found it at the foot of a sand bluff a little east of Wind River Mountains where it exuded in a small stream of the color and consistency of tar. They immediately hastened to collect a quantity of it to use, as an ointment for the galled backs of their horses and as a balsam for their own aches and pains."
He goes on to say this substance is evidently petroleum or naphtha which forms the principal ingredient in the patent medicine called "British Oil," and which is found in various parts of Europe and Asia, and in the United States at Seneca Lake and is therefore called "Seneca Oil."
In 1863, oil was collected in a spring near the crossing of Poison Spider and sold to emigrants for axle grease.
In 1868, quite a large amount of oil was taken from the Carter Wells and $5,000 worth was sold to the Union Pacific Road for lubricating purposes.
George B. Graff of Omaha in 1880 sunk a number of shafts from six to forty feet deep and got a flow of two barrels a day from one of them. Later in 1885 he drilled three wells three hundred, five hundred and eight hundred feet re- spectively and reported a total yield of two hundred barrels a day. These were in Fremont County. Then came the Murphy Wells.
M. P. Shannon began drilling in the Salt Creek field in 1889 and put down a well 1,030 feet, from which he got four barrels a day. He organized the Pennsyl- vania Oil and Gas Company in 1895, put down some more wells and erected a small refinery. Later, some California parties came into the field, followed by the Franco-Wyoming and the "Dutch Company." The Midwest entered the field in 1910 and consolidated with the Franco-Petroleum Company with a capitalization of $20,000,000, which marked the beginning of the big oil boom.
WYOMING, THE NEW OIL STATE BY FRANK L. HOUX, GOVERNOR OF WYOMING
The most prominently outstanding feature of Wyoming's economic progress at this time is the great, and rapidly increasing, development of the state's re- markable petroleum resources. In five years the value (refined) of Wyoming's output has increased ten-fold, from about five million dollars in 1912 to more than fifty million dollars in 1917. A minor industry of the state in 1912, the oil business in 1917 has become second in importance of Wyoming's industrial activities, ranking below agriculture only and representing a gross business only four per cent less than that of agriculture. In the 1918 statement of the financial results of Wyoming industrial activity the oil business will lead.
Copyright by Doubleday-Foster Photo Printing Co.
THE BIG MUDDY. NEAR CASPER
Copyright by Doubleday
IN THE BIG MUDDY FIELD
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
Wyoming's estimated oil resources are amazing in magnitude. It is believed that 10,000,000 acres of the state's area reasonably may be regarded as oil-bearing. In a recently completed appraisement of the state's natural resources the value of the oil resources (undeveloped value) was placed at $10,000,000,000. The appraisement listed the petroleum resources as second only to the state's coal re- sources, which were estimated to be worth (undeveloped value) $80,000,000,000.
The development of Wyoming's oil resources during the last five years, and especially during the last two years, has been so rapid and applied to so many localities that an accurate survey of it is impossible. The state unfortunately has no immigration or other department charged with the duty of and clothed with authority to compile statistics relative to the oil industry and comprehensive and reliable official figures, therefore, are not available. Press reports of activities and developments, in the astonishingly numerous and widely scattered oil fields of state are bewildering. Many persons intelligently have endeavored to keep themselves comprehensively and accurately informed regarding Wyoming oil field developments but the undertaking, in view of the existing conditions, is an impossible one. No person, no Government department, no organization at this time possesses accurate information regarding all the activities in all the oil fields and supposed oil fields of Wyoming, or regarding the effects economic and otherwise of these activities.
Illustrative of the rapidity with which development of the state's oil resources is extending, as well as of the difficulty of keeping informed regarding develop- ments, is the fact that at this time there are in Wyoming about one hundred and eighty separate localities (fields and domes) in which oil has been found, where drilling for oil is in progress or where arrangements for drilling have progressed sufficiently to guarantee that drilling will be done this year. These localities are scattered through twenty counties and over an area of ninety thousand square miles.
$400,000,000 CAPITALIZATION IN 1917
Wyoming's oil field opportunities are attracting to the state persons and capital from every quarter of the nation and from many foreign lands. How many millions of dollars have been brought into the state for use in development of the oil resources is problematical; how many millions-and this is the greater of the two sums, have been invested in enterprises founded on or alleged to be founded on these petroleum resources is yet more problematical. The par value of stocks of oil concerns authorized by the State of Wyoming in the year 1917 alone to do business in the state totaled $400,000,000. The par value of the stocks of such concerns which during 1918 have obtained governmental sanction to operate in Wyoming has averaged more than $400,000 a day.
The State of Wyoming, by virtue of the fact that its land holdings within the state are second in extent only to those of the Federal Government, has in the oil industry an interest more direct and intimate than that merely naturally existing in any economic development beneficial to the individual propensity of a considerable proportion of the population. When Wyoming was admitted to statehood the Federal Government made to the new commonwealth grants of land totaling more than 4,000,000 acres. The minor acreage units comprising these grants were so selected as to give the commonwealth land holdings in
389
HISTORY OF WYOMING
every township within its boundaries. The result is that there is not an oil field in Wyoming within the limits of which the State of Wyoming is not a land- owner. State lands known to be oil-bearing, or believed to be oil-bearing, are not sold outright, but are leased to prospectors and operators on a royalty basis. The State of Wyoming now is receiving from oil royalties an income of more than $300,000 a year. This income is increasing rapidly and eventually, it appears certain to eventuate, will amount to many millions of dollars annually. There- fore, not merely those persons and corporations which own Wyoming oil land or oil stocks, but every taxpayer within the state, every person who is a beneficiary of the government of the state, has a direct personal interest in the development of the oil resources.
MAY FREE STATE FROM SCHOOL TAXATION
The revenue derived from state-owned lands goes into permanent funds and only the interest on these funds is applied to current expenses. The funds, it is intended, shall be perpetual-beneficial not only to the Wyomingites of today but to the generations of Wyomingites that are to come. The bulk of the interest on the trust funds is applied to expenses of the educational system. There may come a time when the trust land revenues will be sufficient entirely to support the public schools and there will be in Wyoming no taxation for educational purposes.
Wyoming's population last year increased about ten per cent, or almost twenty thousand. One-half of this increase, possibly more, reasonably may be credited to the petroleum industry. The value of the products of the state's industries increased during 1917 more than $75,000,000. Thirty per cent of this increase may be credited to the oil industry. Public attention in other states during the last year has been drawn to Wyoming as never before. Advertisement of the state's petroleum resources and of the opportunities for profit to be found in development of these resources chiefly was responsible for this fact. The petro- leum industry during the present and the next several years will be the cause of impressive increases in the state's population, wealth and industrial output. The petroleum resources are of such magnitude that logically they may become the basis for commercial and industrial activity more important from the view- point of financial return than all other commercial and industrial enterprises within the state.
The development of Wyoming's oil resources has raised several problems for the state government which will receive attention during the next session of the Legislature. Legislation is needed to safeguard these resources against waste and the ruin which is the result of ignorance or carelessness during development. A statute for which there is acute necessity is one making compulsory the sealing of overlying water carrying strata, to prevent water from these strata escaping through borings into oil bearing strata and driving the oil from the latter strata. So-called "blue sky" legislation also is a requirement of the situation arising from development of the oil resources, this being essential if investors are to be protected from fake promoters and worthless stock flotations. An oil field is fertile for the "wildcat" stock operator and the map of Wyoming is freckled with oil fields.
390
HISTORY OF WYOMING
THE STATE'S OIL INCOME
State Land Commissioner Ray E. Lee expects a steady monthly increase in the proceeds from the sale of royalty oil and anticipates that before the close of 1918 the income from this source will be at the rate of $1,000,000 annually.
Between December 1, 1917, and April 1, 1918, a period of three months, the state's royalty increased from $25,000 monthly to $43,500, the increase being $18,500 monthly, or seventy-four per cent. This increase was due in part to the bringing in of new wells and in part to increase in the market value of the crude oil.
Eventually, the State Land Commissioner forecasts, the state will receive annually royalty oil worth many millions of dollars. Development of state- owned lands is in progress in every oil field in Wyoming and the state's land holdings are so generally scattered that it is improbable that any new field will be discovered which does not include state-owned areas.
During the six-months period from September 30, 1917, to April 1, 1918, the income of the state land office was approximately $600,000, the bulk of tliis income being derived from the sale of royalty oil and from lease fees paid in by oil prospectors and oil operators. The income for the six months was nearly $200,000 greater than that of the corresponding period of 1916-17.
REFINERIES IN WYOMING-1917
Five refineries, representing an investment of $31,061,000, and which will have a capacity for handling 62,500 barrels of crude oil a day when present enlarge- ments are completed, are in operation in Wyoming, according to data compiled by H. G. James for a history of the industry of the country.
The refineries now operating are the two at Casper and Greybull owned by the Midwest Refining Company, two at the same points owned by the Standard Oil Company, of Indiana, and one owned by the Northwestern Oil Refining Company at Cowley. The Midwest Refinery at Casper will have a capacity of 35.000 barrels a day in 1918, and represents an investment of $25.000,000. This is one of the largest in the country. Its refinery at Greybull will have a capacity of 12,000 barrels a day and represents an investment of $2.500,000. The Standard has $2,000,000 invested in its plant at Casper and $1.500,000 at Greybull.
ANNUAL PRODUCTION REFINED OILS, ETC.
Report to April 1, 1918
Crude oil produced, all fields (barrels) . 10,950,000
Value at well
$14,203,700
Gasoline marketed (gallons) . 150,000,000
Value of gasoline at average retail price (25c) $37,500,000
Kerosene and other refined oils marketed (gallons ) ยท 55,000,000 Value of kerosene at average retail price (15c) $8,250,000 Estimated value other products, fuel oil, etc .. .$3.000,000
Number of completed producing wells, estimated. 475 Wells drilling, estimated 550 Number of proven fields in state 23
CENTRAL COAL AND COKE COMPANY'S NO. 2 MINE. ROCK SPRINGS
MINE NO. 3 OF THE BEAR RIVER COAL COMPANY, INC .. AT EVANSTON
392
HISTORY OF WYOMING
CHARACTER OF WYOMING OIL
The oil of Wyoming is of two grades. The light oil, or paraffine base oil, being 40 degrees to 48 degrees Baume, is in grade and quality similar to the West Virginia or the best of Oklahoma oils. It comes from the rocks of Cretaceous age. The fuel oil, or asphaltic base oil, similar to the California or Texas oils, comes from rocks of Carboniferous age.
While prices in Wyoming have not ranged as high as in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, the analyses, as made by federal chemists, prove that the value of Wyoming crude oil to that of the best eastern oil, is as nine is to ten. Monopoly of refining and distributing facilities have up to 1918 been able to hold the price ratio down to about one to two. As the annual production is increased the Wyoming prices will, of course, come to a parity with those of the mid-continent fields.
WYOMING COAL DEPOSITS
The state geologists of Wyoming have estimated the coal producing area of the state to be from thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand square miles. From territorial days it has been one of the leading industries, the production in 1917 being 8,465,664 tons. The character of coal differs in the various localities, being in general terms, lignite, bituminous, semi-bituminous and coking. The veins vary from four to forty feet in thickness. Coal mines are worked in every part of the state where railroad facilities are provided, and in some sections where there are no railroads the ranchmen open up mines and haul in their own supplies of fuel from some coal bank near at hand.
Coal was found in the state by the early explorers, but the earliest mining of coal as a commercial product began during the years 1867-8 and 9, as the Union Pacific extended its tracks through Southern Wyoming. Coal mines were opened at Carbon, Rock Springs and Almy as the road reached those points. Mr. Blair located coal on Bitter Creek and worked the vein before the railroad reached Rock Springs and became one of the leading pioneers of the coal mining industry in Wyoming.
At Carbon, coal mines were opened in 1868 and a prosperous town built up. Seven mines were opened there between 1868 and 1900 when the mines gave out.
Rock Springs Mine No. I was opened in 1868 by the Union Pacific and became the most famous of the coal mines of the west. This mine was in operation nearly forty years and is said to have been the largest mine in the world operating through one opening. Other mines have been opened at Rock Springs and vicinity as the demands of the railroad and market supply required.
In 1890 the Union Pacific Coal Company opened valuable coal mines at Hanna and it has now become one of the great coal camps of the west. Four good mines are in operation there and another is being opened.
In the early 'gos independent operators began to open mines along the Union Pacific. P. J. Quealy and associates opened what is known as the Central Coal and Coke Company No. 2 mine, and Mark Hopkins opened a mine at Sweetwater, then known as Hopkinsville. Both of these properties were acquired by the Sweetwater Coal and Mining Company, controlled by G. W. McGeath and were
CAMBRIA FUEL CO., CAMBRIA, WYOMING
394
HISTORY OF WYOMING
afterwards turned over to the Central Coal and Coke Company, now operating the properties.
Individual operators have also opened new mines in the Rock Springs field. Good properties have been opened at Reliance and Superior, and some old mines have been reopened and well equipped, furnishing a large production.
About 1897, Mr. P. J. Quealy, disposing of his Rock Springs interests, asso- ciated with M. S. Kemmerer of Pennsylvania and commenced to open and develop mines at Frontier, and laid out the present town of Kemmerer.
Mr. Quealy has increased his organization and development until he is now operating five mines in this locality, with an output of several thousand tons per day. He also has taken over part of the holdings of the old Adaville company and is operating a mine at Elkol, which is also quite a large producer. Kemmerer, through Mr. Quealy's efforts has developed into one of the most progressive, energetic towns in the West and is the county seat of Lincoln County as well as district headquarters for the Oregon Short Line railroad.
The Cumberland mines located about sixteen miles south of Kemmerer were opened in 1900. Two mines No. 1 and 2 were developed and the production at one time approached five thousand tons per day.
There are several other mines being operated in the vicinity of Kemmerer which may now be considered one of the coal centers of the Rocky Mountain region.
Rock Springs and its outlying camps is now producing from fifteen to eighteen thousand tons per day or over six million tons annually, being about two-thirds of the state's entire production.
In 1894 Salt Lake parties started operations near the present town of Diamond- ville and soon after sold their interests to the Anaconda Copper Company of Montana, and most of the product goes to that state. They also operate mines at Oakley and Glencoe, having an aggregate annual production of over six hundred thousand tons.
THE NORTHERN COAL FIELDS
As the advent of the Union Pacific railroad brought the coal fields of southern Wyoming into successful operation, so the building of the Burlington road into Northern Wyoming led to the development of the coal fields of that section. In fact no coal mines can be operated or find a market to any extent without railroad transportation. In some of the northern counties, however, coal mines were worked in the early '70s by farmers and ranchmen simply for a local supply. Three mines were opened up near Buffalo, Johnson County, and two mines about ten miles from Lander, in Fremont County, were worked in this way for home consumption.
In 1893 the first commercial coal of Sheridan County was mined at Dietz some fifty thousand tons being mined the first year. The Monarch Mine in this field produced in the year ending September 30, 1917, coal amounting to 378,993 tons. This is the largest producer in the northern field and the Cambria mines are second with a production for 1917 of 351.771 tons. The Monarch is said to have the thickest bed of bituminous coal mined in the United States it being thirty-four feet thick.
From the Herbert Coffeen Collection
CARNEYVILLE, ONE OF THE COAL CAMPS
From the Herbert Cofreen Collection
PARTIAL VIEW OF DIETZ. HOME OF -SHERIDAN COAL." FOUR MILES NORTH OF SHERIDAN
396
HISTORY OF WYOMING
The Acme Coal Mines on Goose Creek were opened in 1911. The Acme Company control fifteen hundred acres of coal territory and have established an up-to-date mining equipment with a capacity of two thousand tons daily. They are operating on an eighteen foot vein. The coal production of the Acme, for the year 1917, was 319,537 tons.
The Kooi Mine in the Sheridan district is rapidly becoming one of the big producers of that field. Last year it shipped over 250,000 tons.
Carneyville is another coal camp in the Sheridan district. In the Sheridan field six separate veins have been worked having a total thickness of ninety feet.
The Cambria coal fields, near Newcastle in Weston County were among the earliest developed in Northern Wyoming. The mines were opened in 1888 by Kilpatrick Brothers, who operated two mines, the Jumbo and the Antelope. Finding that they had a good coking coal they equipped the plant with twenty-five coke ovens in 1892, securing a market for the coke in the smelters of the Black Hills mining district. The production of the Cambria mines in 1917 was 351,771 tons.
In Hot Springs County, the first coal mined was by the Owl Creek Coal Com- pany at Gebo, in 1907. A few tons only were mined and shipped that year, but the production has been constantly increasing until now over two hundred coal miners are employed in supplying the demand for the coal which is of excellent quality.
Along the line of the northwestern railroad in the central part of the state coal mining has been carried on at different points, first at Shawnee and after- wards at Glenrock, Inez, Muddy and Hudson. Shawnee has been abandoned, and at the present time Hudson is the principal producer on the line, its output in 1917 being 204,227 tons.
The development of the Wyoming coal industry may be seen by the fol- lowing tables giving the production in 1869, being the first report issued by the state, and the production in 1917 the last report made.
COAL PRODUCTION IN 1869
Field
Tonnage
Carbon
30,428
Rock Springs
16,903
Point of Rocks
5,426
Almy
4,439
Other mines
990
Total
.58,186
COAL PRODUCTION IN 1917
Tons mined
Name of Company
Acme Coal Co. Mine No. 3. .
319.637
Amalgamated Development Co. 90,270
Bear River Coal Co. 70,964
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
Name of Company
Tons mincd
Big Horn Collieries Co. 241,467
Blazon Coal Co. 19,17I
Black Diamond Coal Co. 548
Cambria Fuel Co.
351,771
Carney Coal Co.
339,265
Central Coal & Coke Co.
. 324,707
Cox Coal Mine 310
Consumers Coal Co. 20
Diamond Coal Co., Oakley 247,980
Diamond Coal Co., Diamondville 174,938
Diamond Coal Co., Glencoe 196,337
Gunn-Quealy Coal Co. 117,172
Kooi Mine No. I 253,370
Kemmerer Coal Co.
683,475
Lincoln-Kemmerer Coal Co.
36,639
Lion Coal Co. 231,207
Lezeart Mine
333
Monarch Coal Mining Co. 378,993
Nebraska Coal Co.
1,462
Owl Creek Coal Co.
259,905
Park Coal Co.
15,793
Poposia Coal Co.
204,227
Pine Bluffs Mine Co.
460
Paragon Coal Co.
660
Quealy Coal Co.
211,868
Roberts Coal Co.
500
Rock Springs Mines
825,751
Reliance Mines
184,097
Sheridan Coal Co.
250,025
Storm King Coal Mine
3,000
Superior Coal Co.
15,246
Superior R. S. Mines
758,953
Union Pacific Coal Co., Hanna Mine
835,856
Union Pacific Coal Co., Cumberland Mine
.378,436
Wyoming Coal Co.
131,85I
Total
8,456,664
WYOMING IRON FIELDS
Iron is the prime factor of modern industry and its universal use marks the progress of civilization. Wyoming is rich in the character and extent of its iron deposits. The largest iron fields are the Rawlins, Seminoe and Sunrise districts. These are hematite ores of high grade. Large deposits of magnetite are found in the Laramie range, the huge deposit of titanic ore at Iron Mountain being described in our geologic report. Other deposits of hematite are found in various parts of the state, but have not been prospected to any extent.
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
THE RAWLINS DEPOSITS
Two miles north of Rawlins there is a large deposit of red hematite ore occurring in a metamorphosed sandstone, capped with limestone. The ore is high grade and very pure. This camp was the first in the state to mine and market its ores. It was first used as a paint ore and was used extensively by the Union Pacific Railroad, and even in the East, in the manufacture of red paint. Later it was mined extensively and shipped as a flux to smelters in Colorado.
For several years the Rawlins ores were shipped to Denver. The deposit has not been developed for large operations and its extent cannot be determined with any accuracy, but it can be traced for miles and undoubtedly is very large. Estimates are from two hundred million to three hundred million tons.
SEMINOE IRON ORES
The Seminoe deposits occur in the Seminoe Mountains at the foot of Brad- ley's Peak in Carbon County and have been quite fully prospected on the surface, but not to any great depths, so that the amount of the deposit is a matter of con- jecture in which the geologists differ, the estimates varying from two hundred and fifty million tons to five hundred million tons. The ore is a hematite, similar in character and grade to the Rawlins ore. Most of the field has been patented and is owned by eastern parties. The fact that it is over thirty miles from any railroad and that there are no iron and steel works in the state accounts for the fact that this great ore body is not utilized at the present time.
THE HARTVILLE IRON DISTRICT
The Hartville iron range in the Black Hills of Wyoming, about one hundred miles north of Cheyenne, is known throughout the country as containing one of the most extensive and purest deposits of hematite ore in this country, and is now the scene of vast operations, forming the principal source of ores used by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, with works at Pueblo, Colo. This company owns the famous Sunrise group of mines and employs about five hundred miners and laborers mining and shipping the ore, of which 600,000 tons and upwards are annually taken out to supply the Pueblo works. The company has established a model town at Sunrise in a picturesque park surrounded by the hills. The town has well equipped cottages for the workmen and their families, fine public buildings, among them a new Y. M. C. A. building costing $40,000, bathing houses, baseball park, public hall, etc.
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