HAWORTH. | Discoveries of Oil and Gas. Dil 
by no means confined to these three counties. Shawnee county, 
Bourbon county, and as far south as Cherokee county, little 
seeps of oil here and there excited the interest of observers. 
In the southwestern part of the latter county so much oil was 
found along a little creek that it gave rise to the name of “Tar 
ereek,” and the current belief was, and has been ever since, 
that if sufficient prospecting were done here, vast quantities of 
oil would be obtained. 
The discovery of oil and gas in Kansas in paying quantities 
in recent times, therefore, is the natural and legitimate out- 
come of surface indications found here and there in so many 
places. It is a peculiar and interesting fact, however, that in 
every instance where valuable production has been obtained 
there have been practically no seeps of either oil or gas. These 
surface indications have been of great value by stimulating 
prospecting, but have, on the other hand, been very misleading, 
because they have excited interest and faith and hope where 
nothing of importance could be found. People are now learn- 
ing that oil and gas held under pressure are trying to escape, 
and if they are escaping it is a sure indication they do not 
exist in the depths below under very considerable pressure, 
and hence not in very large quantities, because leakage long 
ago exhausted the great supply. 
Second. The second part of our history may include the 
time period between 1870 and 1890. During this period a 
fair amount of drilling was done in many different places, 
principally by local companies and by drillers of limited ex- 
perience, the locations for drilling being chosen almost en- 
tirely from the surface indications already described. Paola 
was looked upon as the center of the oil and gas territory. 
About seven miles to the northeast of Paola, in 1882, wells 
were put down, and a fair amount of gas was obtained and 
piped into the city. The drillers expected to find oil, for there 
were traces of oil on the water in springs and creeks. En- 
couraged by this fair success, drilling was prosecuted to a con- 
siderable extent throughout a semicircle reaching from north- 
east to southwest of the town. Occasionally an oil-well would 
be found producing a heavy, dark oil which found a ready 
local market at from three to five dollars per barrel for lubri- 
cating-oil. But a far greater value was found in the natural 
gas, which was obtained in sufficient abundance to supply the 
