COAL    AND    OIL    IN    UINTA    COUNTY,    WYO.  848 
the  water  in  this  well,  sold  to  emigrants,  and  carried  in  small  quantities  to  Salt  Lake 
City. 
In  1867  Judge  C.  M.  White  began  operations  at  a  spring  in  the  NW.  )  sec.  33,  T.  14  N., 
R.  119  W.,  now  known  as  the  White  oil  spring,  lie  dug  a  large  hole  and  skimmed  off  the 
oil,  which  he  sent  to  Salt  Lake  and  sold  to  tanners.  He  began  drilling  in  1867,  but  aban- 
doned the  hole  in  1868  at  a  depth  of  480  feet.  Later  the  Evanston  Oil  Company  sunk 
a  well  at  this  place,  but  it  was  likewise  abandoned  at  a  depth  of  a  few  hundred  feet. 
The  Carter  oil  spring  locality  became  of  importance  in  1868,  when  in  driving  a  tunnel 
for  coal  a  slight  flow  of  petroleum  (8  to  10  gallons  a  day)  was  obtained  and  the  discharge 
of  the  spring  ceased.  This  oil  was  collected  and  sold  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  to 
neighboring  coal  mines  for  lubricating  purposes.  It  is  reported  that  Judge  Carter,  (hen  sut- 
ler at  Fort  Bridger,  attempted  to  drill  a  hole  here,  but  the  well  was  abandoned  without 
results.  This  spring  was  incidentally  mentioned  by  Meek  a  in  1871  and  a  short  statement 
regarding  it  was  published  by  Emmons  &  jn  1877,  but  the  first  account  of  importance  is 
that  published  by  Rickettsc  in  1888. 
-  The  oil  springs  along  the  south  fork  of  Twin  Creek  in  T.  21  N.,  R.  117  W.,  are  perhaps 
referred  to  in  Lander's  general  statement  that  in  the  mountains  along  the  divide  in  lati- 
tude 42°  N.  there  are  "beds  of  coal,  iron,  and  salt,  and  a  spring  of  peculiar  mineral  oil 
which  by  chemical  process  may  be  made  suitable  for  lubricating  machinery."  At  any 
rate,  the  map  of  his  explorations  in  1857  shows  that  he  passed  up  Twin  Creek  and  over 
Hodges  Pass.d  Operations  were  begun  here  by  the  Twin  Creek  Land  and  Oil  Company 
in  1885.  This  company  drilled  before  1887  two  wells,  one  110  feet  deep  and  the  other 
185  feet.  Both  yielded  a  large  flow  of  brakish  sulphur  water,  with  a  little  oil  and  gas. 
The  deeper  of  the  two  is  now  open  and  is  commonly  known  in  the  field  as  the  Clark  well, 
from  Senator  C.  D.  Clark,  who  was  interested  in  this  company.  The  oil  is  dark  and  heavy. 
The  gravity  is  given  by  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  e  as  26.75°  Baume,  by  Slosson/  as  19.7° 
Baume. 
In  the  fall  of  1900  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  began  a  water  well  at  Spring  Valley, 
Wyo.,  and  October  14  struck  a  white  sand  containing  a  very  high-grade  oil  between  424 
and  463  feet.  Oil  was  struck  again  in  December  between  567  and  575  feet  and  the  fol- 
lowing May  between  1,147  and  1,159  feet.  Water  is  reported  in  this  well  at  a  depth  of 
about  300  feet,  but  it  was  brackish  and  the  well  was  capped  and  abandoned.  Intense  ex- 
citement followed  this  find  and  as  the  greater  part  of  the  land  in  this  section  was  unoccu- 
pied Government  land  the  whole  region  was  soon  staked  out  as  petroleum  claims  under 
the  placer-mining  laws.  A  large  part  of  these  were  purely  speculative  claims,  which  the 
owners  had  no  intention  of  developing.  The  Government  Land  Office  took  the  impor- 
tant step  of  removing  from  entry,  except  under  the  mining  laws,  all  Government  lands 
in  an  area  very  nearly  equal  to  that  shown  on  PI.  XI,  and  refused  to  issue  to  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  patents  for  the  unpatented  odd  sections  in  the  railroad  grant  within  the 
limits  of  this  reservation  until  after  December  1,  1903,  when  the  issuance  of  patents  was 
to  be  determined  by  the  "then  known  character  of  the  land."  In  the  words  of  the 
Department :  9 
The  purpose  of  this  order  is  to  permit,  encourage,  and  protect,  so  far  as  the  Department  can  do  so, 
but  within  the  time  herein  named,  the  exploration  and  exploitation  of  the  unpatented  alternate  odd 
numbered  sections  within  said  railroad  land  grant  which  are  within  the  limits  hereinbefore  specifi- 
cally described,  and  of  the  public  lands  within  said  limits,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  and 
demonstrating  whether,  as  claimed,  such  lands  or  any  of  them  are  mineral  in  character,  in  that  (hey 
a  Meek,  F.  B.  [Fourth  Ann.],  Preliminary  Rcpt.  U.  S.  Gcol.  Survey  of  Wyoming,  1871,  p.  306. 
b  Emmons,  S.  F.,  Rept.  U.  S.  Geol.  Explor.  40th  Par.,  vol.  2,  1877,  p.  252. 
cRicketts,  Louis  D.,  Ann.  Rept.  Territorial  Geologist  of  Wyoming  for  1887,  1888,  pp.  23,  42. 
d  Lander,  F.  W.,  Preliminary  Report  upon  Explorations  west  of  South  Pass  for  a.  suitable  location 
for  the  Fort  Kearney,  South  Pass,  and  Honey  Lake  wagon  route,  35th  Gong.,  2d  sess.,  Senate  Ex. 
Doc,  vol.  10,  No.  36,  1859,  p.  .33. 
e  Min.  Res.  U.  S.  for  1885,  1886,  p.  154. 
/Slosson,  E.  E.,  School  of  Mines,  Univ.  of  Wyo.,  Petroleum  ser.,  Bull.  No.  3,  L899,  p.  31. 
9  Decisions  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior  and  General  Land  Office  in  Gases  relating  to  Public 
Lands,  vol.  33,  1903,  p.  50. 
