xJiiL i* 



Kansas University Quarterly. 



Vol. IV. JULY, 1895. No. i. 



Natural Gas and Coal Oil in Kansas. 



BY E. H. S. BAILEY, 



Petroleum or " Rock Oil" of some sort has been found in almost 

 all countries and in nearly every state of the Union. Practically 

 the production of Petroleum in this country began with the striking 

 of oil by Col. Drake at Titusville in 1859. Most of the oil that is 

 put on the market now comes from the states of Pennsylvania, New 

 York, Ohio, West Virginia, California, Colorado, and Indiana, and 

 considerable from Canada. As the production begins to diminish in 

 the older fields, there are many prospectors hoping to find newer and 

 better ones. 



One of these newly-discovered fields for gas and oil is the state 

 of Kansas. These products have been known in various localities in 

 the state for a number of years, but it is only since December, 1892, 

 when the first successful well was bored near Neodesha, that there 

 has been any extensive development in this direction. 



The gas and oil field in this state, from present developments, 

 seems to extend from the vicinity of Paola, Miami county, in a south- 

 westerly direction, to the southern border of the state, near Peru, a 

 distance of about 120 miles in a straight line. The width of this zone 

 has not been fully established, but from borings that have been made 

 it does not appear to be over 25 miles at any point. These products 

 have been found in commercial quantities in the counties of Miami, 

 Allen, Neosho, Wilson, Labette, Montgomery and Chautauqua, with 

 small quantities in Wyandotte, Linn and Bourbon counties. It is 

 evident that the borders of this field are irregular, and many more 

 holes must be bored to define it accurately. For convenience most 

 of the borings have been made near the streams, and thus far the 

 work has been done in the valleys of the Marais des Cygnes, the 



(1) KAN. UNIV. QUAU., VOL. IV, NO. ]. .JTI.Y 1, 1895. 



