The Hays Daily News from Hays, Kansas • Page 54

BfeCTlON HAYS DAILY NEWS PAGE 1 Area Oil Industry I i By Willie Mannebach FHS Student Credjt the development df the oil industry In Western ansas to Erasmus Ha worth. Near the turn of the century, a worth, head of the school of geology and mines the University of Kansas and former state geologist, established a cement mill six miles west of Hays. Haworth (ften remarked to his (ssociates that oil would one (ay be found in large quan- ties a few miles west of Hays i top of the ridge that extends 'om the Saline to the Smoky 1 ill River, a distance of 25 i liles. Haworth's cement mill tiled, and he did not return to 1 Illis County until 1923. His Dmpany drilled only one well I miles northeast of Hays and ten the venture was aban- oned when the price of crude a sharp downward turn.

add to the professor's roblems, landholders, i tenting oil, withheld leases. But other companies sent eologists and a large block of. creage, including that iscovered by Haworth, was 1 ised for tests. Haworth Was Right 'Oil was discovered in November of 1923 on the Ed Qswald farm one and one half miles east of the Ellis-Russell County line. The resulting Fairport field was the first in the entire Western half of Kansas and led expansion of the petroleum fyldustry into Ellis County in Then came the strike of JSlovember, 1928, Wildcatting Operations on the William $hutts farm 16 miles northeast of Hays opened the Bemis- Shutts oilfield, bringing Ellis Bounty's first commercial Forty-eight years, later, that field has marketed nearly 217 million barrels of crude, Is still making close to two "riillion bap-els per year and over 22,000 It extends north into Rooks solunty where Bemis-Shutts las marketed an additional 3.2 million barrels cumulative production.

The well ff a county-wide industry with total production of more than 860 million barrels by the end of this year, averaging six million per year from more than 2,575 wells on 85,500 productiveacreas. Oil fever hit the county and with the' discovery of commercial production, there was considerable wildcat play. By the end of 1929,34 wildcat tests had been completed in the county, with eight wells producing oil. They represented two fields along the line drawn by Haworth; the North Ellis field and the Yocemento field. By 1934 Ellis County had 16 oilfields and had already become one of the 'fastest developing parts, of the state.

The total production of oil in 1935 was 166,814 barrels and in 1936 it rose to 758,152 barrels. The development continued at such a pace that by 1937 the total production reached 4,528,882 barrels for the year, the greater share of this amount from the Bemis and Shutts pools. During the year, Bemis produced 1,630,740 barrels and the Shutts pool 243,309 barrels; By this time the Stanolind and Kaw Companies had built pipelines into the county so that all pools except- the Kobletz had a market outlet by Oil from the Kobletz pool was transported by truck to the Falcon Refinery at Great Bend. One of the most active pools in Kansas during 1939 was the Bemis pool; At that time, the pool had gained 45 wells and was joined to the old Shutts pool. The Burnett pool, located in the northern part of the county, had 65 wells in 1939 as compared with 10 at the end of 1938.

There were about 104 oil wells completed by the end of of which 94 were commercial producing wells, lease money and the sale of royalties amounting to $2.5 million many homesteads from being lost in the depression, and. drought years of the "Dirty Thirties." War Clouds Gather ppsBibUity. of developed the' oil industry in .1940, bringing in 196 new wells: There were 640 wells at'the end of 1940.with Bemis-Shutts accounting for 569. Personnel, pipe and parts shortages dried, up activity during the war years, 19411946. Another factor was the Federal Government's decision to restrict drilling to only one producing to each 40 acres.

It was hot until 1947 that oil production began to increase. A new burst of activity started with the revival of one abandoned pool, the Antoninot, and the discovery of several new pools. More drilling and discoveries could have been made during the period were it not for the critical shortage of oil-well casing and other oil field equipment requiring the use of steel. In 1948 the county reached the highest yearly production of 12,742,936 barrels. The Bemis-Shutts and the Burnett were the most productive pools in the Ellis county in 1941-1955.

Other leading pools were the Burnett Southwest, Fairport and the Walter pool. The year 1957 was the biggest for wildcat and pool completions with 461. Top Oil County. Despite a generally constant decline in the total oil production in the state, which started with the 1957 production, the development Ellis County kept it among the three highest oil-producing counties in the state. In the years 1956-1959, Ellis County was the second largest producer in Kansas, behind Barton County and ahead neighboring Russell County.

From I960 to 1963, Ellis' County took lead and more oil. than any other Kansas county. For several decades, Ellis County has been in the top five Kansas, counties in oil reserves, production, number of Wells drilled, wildcat discoveries, number of wildcats drilled, pool extensions, oil taxes and total footage drilled. It has the largest reserves of any state county although in area it is one of the smallest major producers. In 1965, production was 8.7 million barrels, some two million more than projected Therew'were recorded in.

the county courthouse in 1975, in- crease of 29 from the year before. All tangible property in oil in 1975 was assessed at $36,877,897. Boom or Bust Some unusual anecdotes from early county newspapers From Old To New Ellis County passed from the old as represented by the stone cor- nerpost to the age of energy shortages via the petroleum industry. Annual oil production in the county has dropped some tell of the impact of the industry on some residents. 'Before the Phillips Petroleum Company's find on the Shutts farm, Jim Brennan, pioneer driller-contractor, and a group of Hays businessmen accumulated several thousand acres six miles northeast of Hays.

After overcoming one disappointment after another, they, scraped together. 'enough money to spud a well near Catherine on the Charles Polifka farm. The was watched with the keenest of interest, Hays motorists beat, a trail over roads formerly little traveled to keep tab on proceedings. Then one day came word of the "strike." Oil rose 1,300 feet in the hole and a swabbing test made the well look like commercial production after being drilled a few feet farther into the Brennan, accustomed to ipoiUproducting areas, thought all he had to do was clean out the hole, drill it slightly deeper, get enough tankage, on the lease to hold the oil from swabbing tests and he would have anywhere from a 300 to a 500 barrel So did most of the other scouts representing other companies who came post haste from two million barrels in the past decade. The sign, along Highway 183 north of Hays, warns of further shortages.

The Way It Was It was different in the oil business then way back when. Wooden rigs dotted, the countryside and get- Oklahoma and southwestern oil-bearing stratum that was enriching its discoverers with a high gravity from a depth of about 3,000 feet. There seemed every likeihood that the new field would prove another oil ting oil to the surface was considerably harder than it is today with modern drills and pumps. A i Kansas. Twelve miles to the east was Oswald pool of northwestern Russell Coqnty, where about three years before, the first producing oil well of western Kansas had been brought in when a wildcat test plunked into an strike for the formerly discredited Western Kansas area into which only a few of the big companies courage to come.

But the hole failed to fill after being drained of its oil. Desperately the crews worked and operations speeded up. But the deeper the drill went, the "drier" if that were possible, the strata became, The new well that was to have had the made them rich over night! a just a plain "bust," they have ll In Ol1 And nothing in particular really had happened except that about $150,000 of Hays money had been expended to drill just one more dry wildcat well. The leader in revolutionary fashions for ladies and gentlemen. TOBIAS JAYMAR-RUBY CROSS CREEK DALTON-JAMESKENROB JACK WINTER RHODES OF CALIFORNIA HOWARD WOLF GARLAND WRANGLER MAIN PLACE STRAWBERRY PLANT BOTANY 500 ROBERT BRUCE men A an ladle A Downtown.