The Walnut Valley Times from El Dorado, Kansas • Page 9

MES SPECIAL OIL EDITION THE WALNUT VALLEY EL DORADO, BUTLER COUNTY, KANSAS Gloriously Rich Sunflower Lease Plays Big Part In Putting El Dorado on Mid-Continent Oil Map in few other and at dishing and fields. SUPPLYING 80 PER CENT. "Itemember," continued Mr. Foster, "that the great mid-cont incut field, of which Itutler count Is now so conspicuous a part, is supplying about SO per cent of the world's demand for high grade, ref i liable oils. And also bear in mind that with the completion of the eight-Inch pipe line being constructed to the El Dorado field.

El Dorado will be directly connected with the main line through Neodesha, Sugar Creek and Whiting to Dayonne, N. and El Dorado oil ill make this long rip, pass through the world's i modern refineries at the coast, and be loaded on the great sliips destined for foreign ports without having seen (the light of day from the moment It left the Butler county well until It falls into the hands of the European consumer. Cia MHiS.F. M.FOSTER jr "A M.FOSTER.Vice President SOME STARTLING FIGURES. 'Figure, If you please, that the El Dorado field will furnish only ono per So suddenly did the shower of oil wealth fall into the hip of El Dorado that the town hardly yet has fully adjusted itself to the poise expected of, anil continually assumed by all the newly rich.

Hut El Dorado is pet tine along swimmingly, thank you. No longer does the little city on the hanks of the historic Walnut blush and awkwardly handle its hands and feet when it is announced that this, that or the other newcomer has bought somebody's oil lease for a sum ranging somewhere well up in the list of five or six figures. The people of El Dorado and Butler 1 county began to get used to this sort of thing when the Sunflower Oil Company handed over $63,000 in real money for the lease on the 163 acres about three and a half miles west of town, now known as the Wrightsman-Foster lease which has developed into a property that looks and acts like a million and a half, and upwards proposition. IN EXPERIENCED HANDS. This Wrightsman-Foster lease, as a matter of fact, has done a whole lot towards establishing Butler county's faith in Itself as one of the coming great and lasting oil fields of the world.

In the hands of men like C. J. Wrightsman of New York, president of the Sunflower Oil Company; J. B. Foster, secretary and treasurer, and J.

F. Sisler, superintendent of development and lease operations men with the pep born of success in the oil game the Wrightsman-Foster lease simply was compelled to hump itself. The ink was hardly dry on the lease hefore the wells began to show up. In handing over its $63,000 for the Wrightsman-Foster lease the Sunflower Company, which is only another way of saying Wrightsman and Foster, obligated itself to drill a shallow well within 60 days and a deep test well within 120 days. But at the expiration of the 60-day period of probation the lease was doited with 19 wells which had been drilled to the under side of the shallow sand and completed, and hefore the 120-day limit had been reached the deep test well also had been completed as a producer, bringing 1,200 barrels a day from the sand encountered at 2,457 feet, commonly known as the deep sand In the El Dorado field.

cent of he high grade oils now pumped from the mid-cont Inent field for the 80 per cent of the world's consumption and you will gain some Idea of the figure this Butler county field will cut in he world's supply of lubricating oils and Internal combustion J. B. OSTER3ecretary-TVeaSurer Mlh.hM Ihe WuMfhmer Oil K1 lHUO oil Will produce of 111 eight gallons of gasoline to the barrel, as against Cush lag's 10 gallons per barrel. Now dwell upon a busy condition that would arise if El Dorado lions. They recognize that it would he bad business to do otherwise, In view of the fact that all operations in the oil business are subject to such sudden and radical changes in conditions that at any moment it might be found advisable to abandon any promised operations thus possibly creating the impression that they were resorting to manipulation, or seeking to unduly misguide this or that Interest as to their operations.

EFFICIENCY IS MANIFEST. A visit to the company's field of Company and ilH predecessors in Oklahoma Mr. Foster has demons! rated his wisdom as an oil prophet and his ability as an executive, but apparently feels as deep an interest in the effect of oil development upon the commercial activities of the oil belt as In the advancement of his ow.ii affairs. "Probably in all (lie history of Kansas," Haid Mr. FoHtor recently, "nothing has occurred that means more to the mercantile lines and general business of this vicinity than the opening of the rich oil fields of Butler county, were interested In 1 per cent, of SO per cent of any other one Industry of tho world and perhaps you will have some conception of the Importance; the town Is scheduled to assume in the world's greatest of industries that of oil.

"Not only did the leasing of oil lands In Ibis vicinity lead to better financial and social conditions for El Dorado, hut the great army of cm- with the deepest interest and has convinced the public that, with all the land located between this well and the original discovery well of the Empire Gas and Fuel Company, El Dorado has at its doorstep a large and rich oil pool which will release millions upon millions in the community through royalty interest, working interest, labor, freights, construction work and the multifarious lines of industry hinging or dependent upon the oil business. It is not at all an itile pastime to imagine greatly increased railway facilities, with possibly the advent of new railway lines, electric lines, machine shops, refineries, smelters, glass plants and other factories with the pay rolls that build busy, bustling cities on spots where formerly the greatest dignity and satisfaction grew out of the title "county seat." SUCCESS FOLLOWS SUCCESS. From the beginning their operations in Oklahoma and Kansas have been so successful as to bear witness to the fact that here in lit mid-continent field oil companies have grown in a twelfthmonth to the financial importance of nationally known industrial corporation in other lines like the National Biscuit Company and developed into factors of great influence in the oil industry, one of the greatest if not the greatest industry of the world. Also it is one of the most humanly interesting incidents In the entire, history of the mid-cont Inenl oil field that a man ho young in years as J. B.

Foster should have been ho vitally Interested and successfully active in demonstrating the possibilities of this now wonderful field. BENEFITS WHOLE COMMUNITY. ft simply koch to show that all the big moves in the oil game need not he expected from the older heads, for this young man is well into the game and yet has all the Hpols in the king row covered. In handling his portion the trade of which naturaliv and new on largely drifts to El Dorado as the pay rolls and In- leased circiilailon or money In all count scat ami center of business lines of busines: operations at El Dorado is likely to convince even those unfamiliar with I he oil business that the company is handling all its operations on the highest possible plane of operating tensity and business efficiency, a con activity. HeHtaurants which a few months ago were either dilapidated or almost descried, now are the busy ling places of hundreds dally.

The great full dinner pall brigade marks time in the new operations in every direction from I'll Dormlo mill tiun- AN EFFICIENT SUPERINTENDENT Another of the new faces often seen at El Dorado as a I'chuII of tin opera-lions here of the Sunflower Oil Company Is that of J. F. Sisler, of Tulsa, I. viction that will dovetail with the reputation the members of the com HOLDS LARGE ACREAGE. The Sunflower Oil Company, under the laws of Kansas, was pany have won in their extensive operations in the Oklahoma fields for unriiiestt toned inlet-Tit in nil heir all the com- ili-oriH of men Loll, nlKl.t a are of pany's development and lease opera- organized for the purpose of buying in business dealings.

DEEPER SAND UNTOUCHED. busily engaged in tilling the crying demand for the high grade, crude, refinable oils such as are found here This deep test has not yet been and sellinS oil and Sas lease8 and tions. Mr. Sisler drifted from the Continued on I'ago Two. holds and oil and gas producing prop For sh extensive as have been their operations on the Wrightsman-Foster lease in such a phenomenally short time the company having already erties, building refineries, pipe lines, gasoline plants and engaging in any and all business incident to oil opera' tions.

It has in the El Dorado field completed 53 fallow well- and one about 3.000 acres of The deep well, with three other deep wells Wrightsman-Foster lease, or the property on which all operations have taken place, is well drilled up for shallow locations, and considerable ac drilled to the sand from which the Wilson No. 1, in section No. 27, northwest of the city. Is producing, and it is declared that when It finally is drilled to the sand found at 2600 feet in that field, oil men say it will in all probably be even a larger producer than Wilson No. 1.

In short, or putting it In a nutshell, the public feels that nothing has happened, aside from the Initial discovery well in the development of the El Dorado field that has so appreciated and stabilized values, or meant so much to the oil fraternity generally, as the drilling and completing of this deep lest on the Wrightsman-Foster property. The new well has been watched 11 'r" drilling and preparations in progress for three more deep ones, and commenced the rapid marketing of their product the operal ions here are a small part of those in which the Fosters and their associates have been engaged within a comparatively short but spectacularly successful period. FIRST IN AT HEALDTON. F. M.

Foster, who went to McAles-ter, from North Carolina in 1902, and his son, J. B. Foster who at 26 years of age is secretary and treasurer of the Sunflower Oil Company, and. Incidentally, spent nine tivity is in progress in the drilling of deep wells. Like many of the other large operating companies the Sunflower Company does not give out any information as to future plans of operation and development work.

They are forced to remain silent on these ques- years of his youth in a bank at Mc- Alester were the first men to gain confidence In the Healdton field of Oklahoma and to record a lease in that since noted oil producing local- Ity. That was in four yearH 1 before the Healdton field was opened i up, and the Fosters maintained their I positions as pioneers by beginning operations and bringing In the fourth well drilled in that vicinity, a field in i which F. M. Foster still Is interested. The first well brought in on the Wrightsman-Foster lease at El Do- 7 -M 30 4ri C57 CjQ" )7 i 1 rado, February 15, 1916, was simply the beginning of a new chapter In the 1 brilliant operations of the Fosters and their associates.

Down in Oklahoma i they were startlingly successful, oper- atlng In the various fields under the names of the W. F. Oil Company, I the Wrightsman-Foster I'etroieum Company and the Foster Oil Company, Fpon entering Kansas they adopted i the state's emblem and named their 1 new company the Sunflower Oil Com- pany. II. Wrightsman Foster, No.

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