Popular Science Monthly 



573 



Petroleum Lands in Southern Cali- 

 fornia are worth millions. To ac- 

 quire them for nothing from the Gov- 

 ernment, the speculator works them 

 on the plea that they contain gypsum 

 deposits. So they do, but the oil is 

 what he wants. His work, done to 

 meet Government requirements, con- 

 sists in carving out the stairs and 

 terraces seen in the illustration 



Fake Gypsum Claims 



OXE of tlie most fantastic 

 frauds of the times is that 

 which is being perpetrated in ac- 

 quiring for nothing petroleum 

 lands in Southern California 

 which may be worth from $1,000 to 

 $2,000 an acre. It consists in entering 

 lands underlaid with petroleum under 

 the pretext that they contain valuable 

 gypsum deposits. The gypsum is there, 

 it is true, but it is commercially worth- 

 less; however, with the $100 a year "as- 

 sessment" for work on a claim, it is 

 l)ossible to hold large acreages, v/hile in 

 reality even this hundred dollars' worth 

 of work on most of these claims in- 

 cludes a very liberal estimate for the cost 

 of the labor performed. 



The people in the oil country smile 

 very broadly at this assessment work, 

 and, the work accomplished is of no 

 value and is simply to enable the oil man 

 conscientiouslv to make oath to the fact 



that he has done or paid for having done 

 SlOO worth of work on his claim. Thus 

 there are to he found picturesque amphi- 

 theaters and other configurations done 

 artistically in a poor quality of gypsum, 

 and winding stairs leading to nowhere 

 along the hillsides and slopes of the rich 

 California oil fields. In this manner the 

 oil lands are held against all comers 

 until the particular oil speculator or 

 syndicate gets ready to sell the land or 

 finance a company, perhaps, actually to 

 develop it for oil. A single well in any 

 of these great Southern California oil 

 fields may make the fortune of the man 

 who strikes it. some of the gushers hav- 

 ing produced upwards of a million dol- 

 lars' worth of petroleum. 



