Evening Star Newspaper, September 6, 1931, Page 53

b Eat o Th s SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBER 6, 1931. The New “World's Largest” Oil-Field Fourteen Years of Failure as a Wildcatter on Land Where Experts Said No Ot} Would Ever Be Found Didn’t Discourage “Dad” Joiner, but He Kept on Drilling Unttl He Struck His 1,000-Barrel Gusher, Tapping the Nozv FamedEast Texas Pool W hich Broke All Records and Saved the Cotton Planters € C. M., “Dad”’ Joiner, who opened the sremendous Fast Texas field to exploi- BY JOSEPH KORNFELD. ITLE to the world’s largest oil field was claimed for the Olkahoma City pool in 1929. Kettleman Hills, Cali- fornia, usurped the rank the next year. But now the laurels go to a field larger than Oklahoma City and Kettleman Hills combined—East Texas, where now & thousand gushers are tapping a billion=- barrel reserve of high-gravity oil. Imagine a solid forest of oil derricks 40 miles in length and from four to seven miles in width! It took American ingenuity and engineecring only five months, beginning Fecbruary 1, to de= velop this pool from three widely scattered producers. In additicn, when the thousandth gusher came in there were more than 490 wells drilling. It has been predicted that by the time the four-county field is one year o!d—October of this year—the area will have 1,500 producing wells. These gigantic wells have a daily ca- pacity of from 5,000 to 60,000 barrels, but since May 1 the field’s output has been restricted by order of the Railroad Commission of Texas. At that, the restricted area was sending 400.- 000 barrels a day into the pipe lines by July 21. Engineering estimates of the. total volume of oil recoverable from the reserve vary from one and a haif billion to five billion barrels. This means that each acre of pralific oil land will yleld from 15,000 to 35,000 barreis. Very strange it was that this billion-barrel reserve should have remained undiseovered as Inte at it did. For 15 years, major companies had been *punching down” deep tests throughout East Texas, seme below 6,000 feet, only to miss the immense reserve by only a few miles. Dozens of tests had been drilled on all boundaries of the pool as late as the Summer of 1930. So convinced were the major companies as to the unfavorable status of the region for oil that they allowed large lense “‘spreads” there to expire, reduced their blocks and minimized ex- ploration in that area. ESTINY ‘has decreed that a “wildcatter” would find the memmoth pool that had so long lain dormant. For 14 years C. M. “pDad’” Joiner, 45-year-cld Dallas operator, had drilled all over the region in futile scarch of the elusive wealth. Like typical prospectors, he clung to the idea that riches were near, al- though one disappointment after another had been his lot. Early in 1930 he obtained the firancial aid of R. A. “Bob” Mc:tley and Walter D. Tucker, Overton, Tex., bankers, for a Western Rusk County “shot.” Motley and Tucker loaned “Dad” virtually every dime they had. Their friends were soon laugihing at “them two fellers puttin’ their mon~y into Joiner's post- hole.” Never befcre had discouragement, repeated well failures and need of capital found a more game operator—and never before were the odds against finding oil so overbearing. No evidence of “structure,” usually present above large poels, was apparent on the surface. Two dry holes on the Bradford Farm in Western Rusk County were chalked up to the wildcatter’s experience. But, with a smile, Joiner spudded in his Bradford No. 3 a short distance to the west of these failures. That was in the early Fall of 1930. g It wasn't very easy for the drillers on No. 3 to keep up their waning spirit with the tomb- stones of two dismal failures mocking their efforts a few hundred feet away. Tucker had more than a banker’s interest fn the discovery well. Joiner was in need of ready cash to pay the drilling crew, so Tucker lent a real helpirg hand. Afwer his d2y’s work at the First State Bank Tucker would change to overalls and quietly drive over to the well on Mrs. Daisy Bradfcrd's farm, where he spent the balance of his waking hours working as a “rought-neck.” He helped to pull casing, repair drilling ma- chinery and did all of the many duties on the floor. Somehow they managed to put the test down to 3,600 feet. Then, on September 6, the prolific Wood- bine sand was struck—the core was reeking with' ofi—they had not labored in vain. By October 11 the well was brought in with a flow et R TSR ES £ 0 ] Jiewpr Beac: ef) From Tragic Depression. The blazing gusher that killed nine men. A photograph showing the tower of flame and smoke that went up from a burning well rear Gladewater, Tex., in the heart of the new East Texas pool. that shot over the tcp of the derrick and the greatest oil boom of the twentieth century began. It was many months before “Dad”™ could realize a profit from his venture. The well had beeen drilled and financed on the sale of many interests. Even after his discovery was cleared up of financial difficuities, Joiner still re- mained the old-time wildcatter that he always was, in spite of his sudden rise to wealth. The wildcatter stakes all, scmetimss against the worst odds. He takes his disappointments without & word. Only his spirit carries him over to the completicn of his project. Neither hard times nor the worst hardships can thin the pioneer blood: that flows through his veins. After he has “struck it rich” he is a democratic example. : A thousand miles away from the scene of op-- erations, Mrs. Irene Phillips of Laporte, Ind., believed in the struggling efforts of ‘“Dad” Joiner and had shown it by hawving sent him ten $60 money orders that Summer, with the instyuctions, “Invest this for me; put it where yow think it may have a chance to win.” Early in 1931, months after the discovery, she sold her interest in 116+ acres: for $70,008. At the time the balance of her property of 400 acres was estimated to be worth $200,000 Immediately after Joiner's discovery well came in, major companies hastened to obtain what protecting acreage was available and then gave = sigh of relief. They discounted the develop- ment as of no great importance. B8 Ay Lty B The independent operators held te another opinion and set up rigs on the small tracts that they succeeded in obtaining near the dis- covery well. One of these wells, drilled a mile west of the discovery, care in with a much greater flush production, showing the field to be of large propertions. Although the majors were again excited, the real magnitude of the situation was not ap- preciated. fHAT shook the emtire cil industry from California to Pennsylvania was the bringing. in of & selitary gusher four months later, located 15 miles to the north—the 15;- 000~barrel producer belonging ter €. J. Bate- man. In the absence of favorable surface condi- tions, even experienced geologisis eould not understand the occurrence of such prolific pro- duction. It seemed phenomenal that a lone “wildcat” well 156 miles distant from s proven area. could produce se heavy. The new fleld' showed that enormous gushers of - high-gravity oil' could be' found at compar- atively shallow depths. Only two weeks were required for driliing time, with a total cest of $22,000' per well. From the Pail of 1980 until July of the pres- ent year investors, geologists, contractors, oil seouts, engineers, drillers and supply dealers swept. into the new Hden by the thousands. Optimistically, there were w‘q-u- Uahom tat AR o gk wew 6 gk s DA This map shows where the famous new East Texas field is located, in a region that experts had said contained no oil at all. tors who believed oil would be found umder every acre of the prolific counties. It was the greatest oil boom of the era! T was to a settled but famished region that the oil beom came—as a godsend. The contrast between acute depression existent there and the resulting boom has never been par- alleled in U. S. history o as great an extent. The 19-county region had been subjected to two successive crop failures just before the boom. In the heart of ithe: subsequent boom area. were several counties where the Red Cross had found it necessary to lend relief. Drought sufferers stayed in their homes, in- accessible and widely scattered. Dulled and hopeless with misfortune, every resource ex- hausted and their live stock gone, they jus$ sat and waited. Starvation had nearly reached them—the wolf was already in their front room —when “Dad” Joiner’s gusher came in. Many a poor farmer who had labored a lifetime under the bondage of debt now found himself wealthy. Millions of dollars poured into the region in the form of major company investents. N the battle of man against nature the oil drama many times includes a toll of life and many days often pass before a gusher is subdued. One battle in the East Texas field proved disastrous, taking a toll of nine men when the Sinclair Oil & Gas Co. gusher on the M. T. Cole farm two miles southeast of Glade- water was being brought under control on April 29. Coming in with an initial flow of 15,000 barrels and 5,000,000 cubic feet of gas, the monster for 30 hours defled all efforts to sub- due it. Two drilling crews had the well al- most in check late the next day, lacking only a minute of winning the battle. At the crucial moment the casing elevators which had been raised by the gas column suddenly swung around, hitting a derrick beam. A huge spark was struck, a thunderlike ex- plosion was set off and what arounted to a blast furnace was started. Fire dominated the situation for the next eight days. Finally two shots of nitroglycerine proved successful in extinguishing the fire. Fisherman’s Love Continued from Eighth Page be just a dream. Something that will come back, as today will come back and the other days we have been pals together.” “They have been such happy days,” mur- mured the girl. “But they're almost over now. Day after tomorrow I will be wading into law books and briefs—say. it’s beginning to rain.” “No!” answered Marion, almost impatient- ly. She felt she was losing something. She thought of the woods with David gone. This was their last day tcgether and now he was drawing the canoe ashore. “We'd better head for camp,” he said, and the girl noticed a strange gruffness in his voice. When David had shouldered his pack, she took a last look at the pool. The fog was rolling down in heavy clouds and settling in the spruce tops; a litt’s: ripple fled before the wind across the pool; the loon laughed again from out of the driving mist and the pines be- gan to murmur. It was all her fault! She had teld David to forget, and now that he was trying to do so, she mustn't blame him. He was going away, and she knew what he was taking with him® < “David,” she said. “I understand now about the lost memories. Loek at them.” She sat down on a log, while the rain drops pattered abeut them. David slipped his pack and sat down beside her. “I'm glad you stopped,” he said. “Memories have haunted me all day,” the girl spoke after a silenee. “They have?” David looked at her quickly, but her face was averted. “Yes. And I know wimt you meant this “Do- you, Marion?” He was almost afraid tor trust his voice. “Then won't.you let me try again—try to win your love?” He leamed toward her, waiting for his answer. The woods seemed suddenly hushed. “You have it now,” she said softly, turning swoy from the land of Jo. memories, is i 0 2 ol