WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 4QI 



The above well made a show of gas in one of the upper 

 Salt Sands and in the Fourth, but nothing in the Salt Sand 

 of Rosedale, which is productive at Stumptown and Rosedale. 

 The well was abandoned as a dry hole, but the gas still burns 

 at the mouth of the hole. 



The Rosedale Oil Pool, located in the vicinity of Rose- 

 dale, along the line between Gilmer and Braxton, was opened 

 12 to 15 years ago by the South Penn Oil Company, \vhich 

 drilled ten wells on the head of Anthony Fork, on the Ben- 

 nett tract. Owing to the fact that four of these wells were 

 dry holes, drilling was discontinued for several years until 

 independent operators drilled a well in the town of Rosedale 

 and secured considerable oil. Within the last two years, nu- 

 merous wells have been drilled in the town and along the 

 waters of Steer Creek in both counties, many of which have 

 been oil wells of 5 to 50 barrels capacity, and some have been 

 gassers or dry holes. Oil is usually found in the lowest mem- 

 ber of the Pottsville Series, called the Salt Sand by the well 

 drillers and mentioned previously in this Report as the Salt 

 Sand of Rosedale. Gas is often found in the next sand above 

 the oil stratum and has been called the "Gas Sand" by the 

 drillers. In order not to confuse this horizon with the "Gas 

 Sand" of the northern counties, which is in the Allegheny 

 Series several hundred feet higher in the measures, it has 

 been mentioned heretofore in this Report as the Gas Sand of 

 Rosedale. The oil in this pool, as at present outlined, seems 

 confined largely to a narrow belt, about one mile wide, 

 lying between the 900 and 1000-foot structure contours on the 

 south side of the Grassland Syncline. Below this structural 

 level, there seems to be too much salt water for profitable 

 operation, and on the upward slope above the 1000-foot con- 

 tour gas is found instead of oil. The top of the Rosedale 

 Salt Sand is found at 1625 to 1650 feet below the Pittsburgh 

 Coal horizon, which at Rosedale is about 150 feet above drain- 

 age, making the depth to the oil sand about '1500 feet in the 

 town lot wells. The small cost of drilling these comparatively 

 shallow wells has stimulated prospecting, but the results have 

 been far from gratifying, as numerous wells have been dry. 

 The record of the J. W. Twyman No. 1 (794), which made 



