The White Pine news. [volume], April 17, 1910, Page THREE, Image 3

About The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910

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Oil to Supersede Mineral in Interest for a Time
"m I . _
Thomas ( . Shotwell, writing in the New York American,
draws some interesting market conclusions from the belief that
the supreme court will not hand down trust case decisions be
fore June and probably not until fall. In view of the possibility
of a dune decision, lie says matters are being shaped for a
highly active summer market, and then continues as follows:
l rider the circumstances, it is mere gambling to buy or sell
stocks of any of the railroads or individual trusts unless one
buys them for straight-out investment. Even investments may
be uncertain, but the well-known record of the supreme court
encourages the hope that it will still be possible to do business
in the Lnited States after the decisions are rendered. In view
of the uncertainty, however, capital is finding its way into new
enterprises not connected with the big corporations. The
most popular just now is oil.
An impression prevails that the Standard Oil company will
encourage a market for the stocks of other oil companies as a
foundation for a market in shares of the new company to cover
its own properties after a reorganization. As oil stocks have I
not been traded in by the public for a generation, the field is a
fascinating one, particularlly full of" pitfalls for the innocents.
Even the best oil stock can hardly be considered an investment.
Standard Oill company does not produce oil except on a very
small scale. It is a manufacturing proposition and does not
compare in any way with crude oil producers. As the produc
tion of oil increases every year and as tla* deposits of oil seem'
to be inexhaustable, such companies as the Standard Oil will
undoubtedly be in business for centuries and will become more
important everv vear.
Importance of the oil future in the United States may be
glimpsed from a statement that the first oil well was drilled in
the United States in 1859, and the first one in Russia in 1871.
Although Russia produced in 1908 more than 60,000,000 barrels
of oil, only 10 square miles of tin* 15,000 square miles of oil ter
ritory in that country had been drilled. Single wells in the
Baku district of Russia have produced as much as 3,000,000
barrels of oil in a single month.
Gushers have been struck in the United States running at
as great a rate for a short time, but all oil wells become exhaust
ed after a few years, regardless of how much they yield in the
beginning, and the inevitable death of wells makes the stocks
of oil producing companies fluctuate violently in prices. It
frequently happens that the greatest wells suddenly cease to
flow because the oil is drained away by other wells in the neigh
borhood or because great quantities of salt water rush into the
partially drained oil sands and prevents further flow of oil.
The greatest well ever struck on the American continent
was near Tampico, Mexico. It gushed so violently that it is
estimated 3,000,000 barrels of oil were blown out of it before it
could be controlled, and then this lake of oil, covering an extent
of twenty-five acres, caught fire and burned. After the well
was under control it was a big producer, until suddenly one day
it turned into a well of salt water, which is has since produced
exclusively.
Wells have been known to produce twenty years without
interruption. The old oil territory in Western Pennsylvania is
largely exhausted. The Spindle Top field of Texas, with an
area of about 200 acres, produced more than 30,000,000 barrels
in four years, after which it was so far exhausted and flooded
with salt water that tin* ouput fell to 6,000 barrels a day, with
1,100 of the wells completely abandoned.
Some idea of what this volume of od means may he gained
from the statement that the production of those four years was
enough to flood the surface of the 2b0 acres producing it 22 feet
deep with liquid. One patch of 27 acres in the Baku district
produced enough oil to cover the surface to a depth of 2/0 feet.:
The speculative excitement has now drifted to California where
production is increasing every day. Scores of wells are being
drilled, and in the last few weeks gushers of from 20,000 to 50,
000 barrels a day have come in. #
These remarkable variations in quantity and length of yield
explain the wild fluctuations of oil stocks. Gold mining is a
conservative business compared with the oil business, but a
good gold mine is a pitful thing in comprison with a big oil well,
for with crude oil selling at 00 cents a barrel at the well, even
a little gusher may mean millions to its owner.
The important thing for purchasers of oil stocks to remem
ber is that when the oil is gone their investment is gone. 1 hey
must get back in dividends during tin- life of the property not
only interest on their money, but their entire principal. hven
the ablest mining engineers and scientists are unable to forecast
the probable life of any oil well, but. taking all the oil wells ot
the United States, the average period of profitable production
has been about six veins. Many wells have been pumped tor
twenty or thirty years at intervals, but not on a scale large
onomrh to make them a stock market proposition.
What makes oil properties m ( ulitomin particularly ai
traetive is the scarcity of coal in that part ot the country, here
is » ready market for even the vast quantity produced, and the
Stain lard Oil company or other purchasing concerns stands j
ready to buv everv barrel of the yield the minute it can be de
livered. Pipes are extended to the well by the purchasing com
pany and tin* oil is as good as money in hank.
' It is important to remember that, with very rare exception*
wells do not gush more than a few days, and it is grossly untair
to estimate the market value of an oil stock by the number ot
barrels it mav produce during the first month of its existence
It is onlv natural that stocks of companies striking gushers
should beoine excited, and that is usually the time to sell, it
is also a fact that the more numerous wells become m any dis
trict the less valuable are the individual wells, since they must j
all drain from common reservoir. .
Mining stocks show signs of a long resting spell, and some;
of the most eminent mining engineers in America are devoting
their attention just now to oil, with the result that within the
next few weeks the public will he invited to deal ... stocks of oil
companies promoted by men whose names are famous tor their
connection with the highest grade mining (ompanus o u
world.
POOR START FOR F.AMF.
First Issue of Kimberly Paper Bristles
With Cheerful Dream of
• Mountains of Gobi.
Whelher the new mining camp of
Kimberly, lender county, Nevada, Is
going to be a second Goldfield or not,
It has adopted a means of advertis
ing itself that is not looked upon
with favor by conservative mining
men. From the appearance of the
llrst Issue of the Kimberly paper, the
Kimberly News, which appeared on
Feb 17, It Is issued for the one pur
pose of boosting a few and circulat
ing wild tales about a camp that lias
been known for some time. Larry
Sullivan in his palmy days of golden
showers of shekels from advertising
Goldfield, could not have gingered up
his paid scribes to point of a more
hashish dream of a bllllon-dollar gold
mine. If the camp has the mines to
make it a great camp, there is no
doubt but truth would be much
stronger than fancy.
The leading head in the first issue
of the paper said, “A Blllion-dollar
Mine, is the Opinion Expressed by
One Inspecting the Kimberly Mining
Properties." A sub-head reads as
follows: "Such showings as seen at
Kimbery, if found in any other min
ing camp, would be heralded all over
the world. No adequate description
of the camp can be written. Gold
seems to be everywhere.”
The story of startling gold deposits
begins as follows:
"Never has such a great body of
rich gold been found in an area cf a
square mile or more, anywhe.e in the
world. It is not one vein of rich ore.
It Is not Just one rich ore mine or a
few rich spots. Just a mountain of
ore or several mountains of ore, pan
ning free gold from $10 to $10,000
and even to $100,000 a ton is the
way a recent visitor to the camp ex
pressed his impression.
“It is beyond description, for how
can even the most prolific writer de
scribe things which the imagination
cannot formerly have conceived? in
what other place has been found a
vein of ore that outcrops from the
hills, standing up 40 or 00 feet, a
dike of solid ore that in places when
struck with a hammer shows free
gold to the naked eye. Then digging
down into the side hill other such
ores, and the main dike 450 feet wide
equal to 80 average velnn. Ore every
where. Kverywhere the rocks, even
on the gravelly side hills, pan a
stringer of free gold from only a few
ounces of rock. Never has such a
property or combination of proper
ties shown such great values from
shallow' prospecting. How can one
describe such a property.”
The glowing description continues,
the only thing left out is that a ham
mer stroke on the mountain can be
heard 40 miles away, or >u« absorbed
heat of summer keeps the country
warm in winter.
It states that 10 millions of dollars
wll| be taken from the ground an
nually at Kimberly. The tale ends
with:
“The buildings will he solid and
permanent: it will ue a city that will
endure, for no one who views the
enormous deposits will doubt that
tvimberly will become the greatest
mining camp the world has ever
known. Nothing can stand in the
way of a blllion-dollar camp.”
‘‘Keep your eyes on Kimberly.”
Another story that is equally as
impossible as the blllion-dollar camp
appears in the issue and is copied
from the Holland Dally Sentinel. S.
S. Shackelton, tue writer. Is describ
ed as having been associated with
many of the leading publications of
New York, Detroit pnd Grand Rapids,
but Holland is a little Dutch town
where mostly barrels are m ide and
people ride bicycles. It has about
3,000 inhabitants and has quite a
name as a summer resort.
( The camp, Mr. Shackelton declares
will make Goldfield f :de into com
parative insignificant e and at the
camp today he declares there is piled
high "on the dumps hundreds of
thousands of dollars' worth of golden
metal." The discoverers found “al
most tons of pure metal in their very
grasp.” “Millions upon millions of
pure free gold is fairly bulging out
of the dikes, ledges, tunnels and
shafts.”
It was evidently Mr. Shackelton's
first visit to the country and made
good reading for Holland. It is
stated that he was formerly manag
ing editor of the paper for which h><
wrote.
TALKS OP LOST MINKS.
Itoiiianlic Search for Fabulous 1
Fortunes Usually Finis in Death.
Though it may not be very gen
erally known there are still a few of
the old-school prospectors in this
state who are still searching year-in
and year-out for "lost mines," fabu
lously rich phantom prospects, vague
intimations of which have been hand
ed down from generation to genera
tion since the days of the early In
dian inhabitants, says the Salt Lake
Tribune. There are still those who
have some faith in the actual exis
tence of the famous Lost Josephine,
and within the last few years just
prior in fact to the opening of the
Uintah Indian reservation to set1 e
inent, a party of prospectors renewed
a search for a so-called “lost mine”
in that section.
Improbable as the theory of lost 1
mines may be at the present time, ]
there is indisputable evidence to be
found in different parts of the state
that mining was carried on before
the advent of the white man in this
part of the country. Not many years
ago in the course of some prospecting
and development work on claims only
a few miles east of Park City, there :
was found buried deep in some old i
workings crude Mexican tools which
had at one time no doubt been used (
for mining purposes. Roughly made |
digging implements, drills and :i |
primitive sort of a crushing mlM.i
were uncovered, and naturally these
discoveries led to much speculation
and some further search for ores
I which hall evidently been mined in a
G5henY6u GoAway
From Home*
where you are not known, you may have trouble
in supplying yourself with funds, unless you cany
tmyeur£ckqucs
American bankers'Association
These cheques are equally useful for travelers m
America or Abroad. Unlike checks and drafts,
they do not require personal identifica
tion, but identify the holder wherever he
travels. Accepted at par everywhere.
Not available to finder or thief, if lost or
stolen. Let us explain the system.
COPPER NATIONAL BANK
EAST ELY, NEVADA
day when Burleigh machines and cy
anide plants were undreamed of. In
these old Mexican workings were
found also the crude ladders, very
similar to those used in the Mexican
mines today, by means of which the
peons carried the ore to the surface
on their backs.
As the latter-day exploratory work
continued, however, great volumes
of water were encountered, and in
order to have handled this it would
have been necessary to install ex
pensive pumping equipment. Such
expenditures the researchers could
not aflord, so that whatever may re
main in the old workings, if any
thing at all is there, still remains a
mystery.
In tramping over the state in
various sections it is not unusual to
run across abandoned shafts and
tunnels in most out of the way places
some of them bearing evidence of
early-day production. When an old
prospector stumbles onto these old
claims, he, too, is inclined to keep
the nature and location of his dis
covery a secret, and he works on
quietly and alone in his search for
wealth until death claims him and
his secret.
In Salt Bake City there is living
an old miner, rich in worldly goods,
who was fortunate some years ago In
selling an interest in some mining
claims for a goodly sum. His brother
who was interested with him in the
property, also received enough to
make him independent for life, but
instead of passing the remainder of
his days in peace and comfort, he
prefers to be led by the lure of gold,
and is at present, as he has been for
years past, wandering about the
mountains “just prospecting.” He
has a “lost mine” rediscovered, too’
but when he visits civilization, only
once or twice during the year, he re
fuses point blank to impart the least
information regarding its wherea
bouts.
Seme day, quietly and alone, he
will pass into the big sleep—a feast
for the coyotes.
MASON VALLEY BONDS.
In a broker's New York dispatch
the news ticker is quoted as saying:
“Considerable attention is being
attracted to the new 6 per cent con
veritable bonds of the Mason Valley
Mines company. These bonds, which
are regarded as among the most at
tractive on the market, are being
traded in on the curb and sales are
being made at $1.02% and interest
and the rates are around $2.50 per
$100."
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