Source:Scarcity-of-lumber/content
Map of the Field Showing Located Wells.
THE RAPIDITY with which the different phases of oil country experience have succeeded one another in the Westview oil field will certainly compare favorably with any other. Yet there are some circumstances in its situation that have tended to retard development. One of these circumstances is scarcity of lumber for rigs.
Despite the fact that the field is on the very border of Allegheny, the operators are delayed, owing to the impossibility of procuring suitable rig timbers on pemand [sic]. If it were not for this, there are several wells to be, perhaps a dozen, not yet started that might by this time have been busily drilling.
"Why there is a regular panic for this kind of lumber in the two cities," said a Pittsburg rig builder this morning. "The same lumber that up country would cost us $8 they are charging $16 for down here. If we only take time and wait on it we can get it delivered from the upper lumber districts for from $11 to $12. But the operators are impatient and won't wait, and so the lumber dealers here are making a very nice thing out of the oil excitement."
"The rise in the price of lumber has caused the cost of rigs to go up of course. That is the occasion of some of the sarcasm of the visiting operators that do not seem to realize we cannot help ourselves in this respect. Why, I lost one contract for a rig on this account. When the lumber dealer raised me $50 on the price, I had to raise the same amount in my bid and the company kicked and got another man."
"My opinion of the field and the prospects?" remarked a veteran operator as he turned up his coat collar on disembarking from an electric car. "I think the field quite a promising one. There will be an exceedingly large number of holes drilled in the field soon, judging from present prospects. I think nearly all the farms leased will be drilled, and you know they extend for miles away from Westview. In all probability, yes, even certainly many of them may be expected to be dry. It is so in every field. But nothing venture, nothing have. The sooner one strikes the sand, the better his prospect of a paying well. That is the explanation of the rush for derricks."
One of that class of operators that is least popular with the farmers, the lease speculators, was giving some of his experiences yesterday. Isaac Richey, for 20 years an operator and speculator, has visited, probably, every oil field of importance in the whole country. Formerly he used to have wells put down on his leases, but of late has confined himself almost exclusively to buying and selling the leases. Of course, as may be imagined, the owner of the real estate does not generally like this scheme, as he has the idea that he ought to have all the bonus and share of oil that the actual operator can spare. Nevertheless, they do not generally stop to think how much they owe to the visiting speculator that helps to arouse the excitement, and so makes the bonuses paid to the farmers actually larger than they otherwise would be, while he himself pockets a good commission. Mr. Richey has had several of these speculative leases in the Westview field, but has disposed of all of them now. He engineered the deed through which, in about 10 minutes, he pocketed a cool thousand, while the Ohio Valley Gas company acquired the lease of the Kirsch property at $4,000. It was made two or three days ago. Since that time he has visited the Shannopin field on a tour of inspection, is back again, and has already made his arrangements to start for the new Kentucky field, where he will spend some weeks.
The relations of the drillers with the country roads have already begun to disturb the domestic and social harmony of the region. The operators, as usual, complain about the badness of the byways and demand to have them fixed better so that they may be passable for the heavy loads of lumber and for the boilers and engines used in drilling. Yesterday workmen were engaged on the Jacks Run road, at frequent intervals, filling up the gullies and widening and grading it at places to allow the loads to pass safely down to the new well. In this connection one of the farmers was telling a new tale of the road. A neighbor of his, it seems, obtained a contract to do a little mending on a certain byroad near one of the new wells. Impressing his wife as assistant he chose to wield the pickax while she followed with the shovel.
"I come along yesterday," said the farmer, "shust after they begin. He vas digging along easy and resting mit himself every other lick between. Shust ven I come up the frau she say, 'Henry, pick; Henry make me more dirt or I freeze me to death.' Und Henry say: 'Py sheminy, off I not work the pick fast enough, you the work yourself may do.' Then I say to him, 'Henry, you ought to be ashamed mit yourself. Vy, you ought to dig so fast enough as two fraus may shovel. I tell him I not keep a frau out shivering the cold in, onless I could give her to shovel enough herself to keep warm as the kitchen fire beside. Put Henry he get mad und swear at me my own business to mind. Oh, dot man he lazy as two men ought ta be, und every cent he have he use to keep full the whisky bottle to him."
Spudding was begun yesterday at the Gailey's well on the Rea farm. Others in the neighborhood are ready to begin. The Keating well, which is to be sunk by Gailey & Graham, is being rapidly supplied with the necessary frame work. G. W. Sparks, of Pittsburg, is the rig builder. The boiler and engine, new from the shop, are ready waiting the completion of the rig. Smith & Kleeman's new derrick, just beyond, is also nearly complete. At many other locations of future wells the derricks are either begun or the site has been leveled and graded, and piles of derrick lumber show that the operators are in haste to get at the treasure in the earth and are not daunted by high prices.
