SANTA CLARA VALLEY : SESPE FIELDS. 
55 
The heart of the Coldwater anticline is occupied by the lower divi¬ 
sion of variegated strata at the base of the Sespe formation. The 
arch is well exposed in the canyon walls east of the Sespe channel, 
where practically the same succession of beds is to be seen as in the 
region of the Union Consolidated Oil Company’s wells 2 or 3 miles 
farther up the canyon, at the base of Sulphur Peak. The lower 
members of the formation, however, are not exposed. The arch is 
comparatively symmetrical, and the wells lie on both sides of the 
axis and also of Sespe Creek. They penetrate strata lying below the 
division of greenish-gray shale in the upper part of this member of the 
Sespe, and it is reported that oil is derived from the white sandstone 
at the base of the formation, and possibly also from certain strata 
in the upper part of the Topatopa formation. The source of the oil 
is, therefore, supposedly the same as in the wells of the Union Con¬ 
solidated Oil Company. The wells, five in number, yield a black oil 
of heavy gravity. One of the wells is said to have produced 40 bar¬ 
rels of heavy oil per day and to have yielded enough gas to run a 30- 
horsepower boiler. Considerable water rises with the oil, but of course 
is easily separated in the settling tanks. No shipments of oil have as 
yet been made from this field, the entire product being consumed in 
the operations of drilling. 
IVERS WELLS. 
The Ivers wells, located in Sespe Canyon a short distance below 
Devilsgate, are drilled on and near the axis of a local anticline in the 
red sandstone lying about midway of the Sespe formation (see fig. 5). 
Fig. 5.—Sketch map showing location of Ivers wells with relation to anticlinal axis in the Sespe red beds. 
Heavy dots, wells productive in 1902. Figures indicate numbers of wells. Lines show outcrop of 
beds around nose of anticline. 
The anticline has a trend of N. 65° W. with an easterly pitch. A 
transverse section of the anticline indicates a dip of about 75° on the 
south limb and 30° on the north limb. The particular horizon 
affording oil is possibly well toward the bottom of the red beds, and is 
at least 600 feet lower than that from which the oil of the Kentuck 
wells, one-half or three-fourths of a mile to the south, is derived. 
