274 The Stillivater Beep Well— Meeds. 



[Paper EE.'] 



THE STILLWATER DEEP WELL. — A. D. Meeds. 



The Stillwater deep well was bored by a stock company o£ 

 Stillwater citizens organized for the purpose of investigating the 

 nature of the underlying rocks with reference to the occurrence of 

 natural gas. It was begun June 23, 1888, by Mr. Paige Guthrie, 

 contractor of Pittsburgh, Pa., and continued until the summer of 

 1889, when it was abandoned after reaching a depth of 3,440 feet. 

 The well is situated in the centre of town, two blocks west of the 

 city hall, is about 75 feet above Lake St. Croix, and 740 feet above 

 sea level. It is 5| inches in diameter and cased to 740 feet, below 

 which no water was found. Water was struck at various depths 

 above that but nowhere in sufficient quantity to be of value. 



The drift here is but 18 feet thick. The Palaeozoic rocks ex- 

 tend below the drift to a depth of 717 feet and consist of light 

 colored sandstones, limestones and shales. The remaining rocks 

 are of Keweenawan age, extending to the bottom of the well. 

 They consist of dark red sandstones in the upper part, changing to 

 fine grained and much altered diabases in the lower part. In 

 thin slides these rocks agree well with descriptions of Keweena- 

 wan rocks from Lake Superior. 



The following is the record of the well taken from samples 

 preserved by the men in charge: 



No. THICKNESS. DEPTH. 



1. Coarse yellow sand consisting of rounded grains of 



quartz, much rusted 18 ft. 



2. Gray limestone 85 ft. 103 ft. 



3. Fine grained quartz sand mixed with some limestone 



from No. 3 39 ft. 142 ft. 



4. Very fine grained and almost pure white sand 20 ft. 162 fr. 



5. Light green shale with some grains of sand and 



pieces of limestone 41 ft. 203 ft. 



6. Very fine white sand- mixed with some green mate- 



rial from No. 5 12 ft. 215 ft. 



7. Light green shale with some grains of sand 56 ft. 271 ft. 



8. Fine grained white sand which has a grayish appear- 



ance, owing to coating of lime 31 ft. 302 ft, 



9. Coarse grained grayish sand with pieces of drab 



shale or limestone and some green material 10 ft. 312 ft. 



10. Coarse grained white sand, consisting of rounded 



grains of quartz, some of a grayish color, some 



pyrite and some pieces of shale from No. 9 10 ft. 322 ft. 



