Discovery Oil Utah
Utah History To Go - Utah's Black Gold: The Petroleum Industry
But the big find, which was to move the state from anonymous inclusion in the "all other" column in national crude-oil production reports to a separate Utah listing, was still to come. This find was to occur in the complex of fields known as Greater Aneth located on either side of the San Juan River in the Paradox Basin in the extreme southeast corner of the state. The Boundary Butte field, discovered in 1947 almost on the Utah-Arizona border, had not been termed commercial. Shell Oil Company had made previous field discoveries in the Bluff field in 1951, at Desert Creek in 1954, and at Akah in 1955, but extensive drilling in the region did not begin until after the Aneth discovery. The well which set off the exploration boom was drilled at a depth of 5,896 feet in Section 23, Township 40 South, Range 24 East by the Texas Company. Initial flow was at the rate of 1,704 barrels per day—which helps explain the excitement it created. The confirmation well was completed by Superio ... [Read More]
Utah History To Go - Petroleum
Toward the end of World War II oilmen began to accelerate Utah's petroleum operations once again. From 1945 through 1947 they succeeded in finishing the groundwork necessary to propel the state into a period of commercial oil production. The focal point of their activities was the Uinta Basin where a number of large companies such as Standard Oil of California, Pure, Continental, Gulf, Carter, and Union began to explore more seriously than ever before. Despite the presence of these major firms, the Equity Oil Company, a Utah-based enterprise under the leadership of J. L. Dougan, was the first to find commercial amounts of oil in the Uinta Basin. Dougan was drilling in Ashley Valley on September 18, 1948, when his company tapped a pool of oil that produced 300 barrels a day. During the next seven years major oil companies opened several Uinta Basin fields such as Roosevelt (1949), Red Wash (1951), Walker Hollow (1953), and Bluebell (1955). These fields became a part of two giant oil-pro ... [Read More]
Utah History To Go - Moab Keeps Pedaling
At the same time, another local product was contributing its share to Moab's economy. Small quantities of uranium ore were in demand as dye material for the European ceramics industry. In the early decades of the 20th century radium was in demand for its phosphorescent qualities as well as its alleged medical benefits. Uranium's real boom (and bust), however, would have to wait until the 1950s. Meanwhile, the discovery of oil and natural gas deposits led to the sinking of numerous wells throughout the 1920s, sparking another minor local boom. ... [Read More]
Department News
The State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration held a competitive sealed bid auction, for oil and gas, and mineral leases, netting $2,214,828.86. The largest bid was $511 per acre for a 460 acre lease in Sevier County by GeoScout Land & Title Company. The average price per acre was $25.99 and 85,222 acres were leased. The lands leased were located primarily in Grand, Summit, Daggett, Wayne, Sanpete, Garfield, Juab, Millard and Sevier counties. Of the 140 total lands offered, 106 were leased. ... [Read More]
Monumental Mining District (Utah), Mining district minutes, 1908-1909.
In March 1908 prospectors drilling for oil on the San Juan River opened a gusher which threw oil to a height of 70 feet. This discovery brought a stampede of speculators to San Juan County (Osmond L. Harline, "Utah's Black Gold," Utah Historical Quarterly , vol. 31, no. 3, p. 295-6). This volume, entitled "Rules and Regulations of the Monumental Mining District," contains minutes of meetings held among claim holders as they met to reorganize the Monumental District, coordinate mining activities, and establish new rules and regulations adapted to the needs of petroleum exploration. The minutes summarize the discussion of these meetings held in Bluff, Utah from November 1908 to November 1909. The miners revised previously established by-laws, established regulations, and instituted a mining district government to coordinate activities and enforce regulations. This book also includes a complete list of the miners in the district. ... [Read More]
San Juan County (Utah). County Recorder. Mining records, 1891-1914.
San Juan County mining record books document the boom and bust of wealth-seekers searching for gold in the late nineteenth century and then for oil in the early twentieth century. While these books contain a variety of mining records, they are dominated by notices of location along the banks of the Colorado and San Juan Rivers. Federal mining law enacted in 1872 provided that valuable mineral deposits in the public domain were free and open to exploration and that the locators of the same were to have exclusive right of possession as long as they complied with federal and local law ( Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America , vol. XVII, chap. 152, also Revised Statutes of the United States , chap. 6, title 32). The first step toward ownership of mineral deposits was the discovery of a potentially productive site and recording the claim or notice of location. Each notice affirms that the locator has complied with federal and local mining laws. Eac ... [Read More]
US Dept of State
Oil and gas activity in the San Juan Resource Area is an intergral part of the oil and gasactivitiy for the State of Utah. A discovery well was drilled in 1908 in the Mexican Hat oilfield,making it one of the oldest in the state. ... Oil and Gas drilling in Utah in 1995 increased slightly over 1994. A total of 217 wells weredrilled, up from 194 in 1994. Of the 217 wells drilled in 1995, 125 were completed asproducing oil wells and 45 were producing gas wells. 22 wells were plugged and abandonedas dry holes. San Juan County had 35 completed wells in 1995. ... [Read More]
Utah History To Go - Uranium
This was all that Charlie Steen needed. He bought a secondhand jeep and a broken-down drill rig and headed for the Colorado Plateau. After studying the reports of Manhattan Project geologists who charted the back country, he decided that a triangle drawn from Moab, Utah, on the west, Dove Creek, Colorado, near the Utah-Colorado border in the southeast, and Grand Junction, Colorado, to the north contained the heart of the action. Confident of his expertise as an oil geologist, he ignored established uranium prospecting guidelines drawn by federal geologists and was convinced that uranium could collect deep underground like reservoirs of oil and then leech upward into the Morrison Formation where most of the ore had been located. Consequently, instead of prospecting ridge lines, he looked for downward sloping, or anticlinal, structures behind existing claims where small amounts of uranium had been found. ... [Read More]
Utah History To Go - Uinta Basin
The Uinta Basin has been susceptible to frequent economic boom-bust cycles. For the most part these have been connected with the discovery or development of various natural resources coupled with national and international economic conditions. The first of these cycles was the rush for fur-bearing animals in the 1820s to 1840s. This was followed by the discovery of Gilsonite and other asphaltums. A railroad line was planned but never fully materialized. The third boom-bust cycle was the opening of the two reservations which increased the white population sufficiently that Duchesne County was carved out of Wasatch County. Commercial oil production was begun 1948 but was not fully exploited until the 1970s with increased the price of crude oil. This in turn spurred private and public ventures to develop an inexpensive process for separating oil from oil shale and tar sands. Shortage of housing, increased school enrollments, and a vigorous economic activity was experienced in the 1970s be ... [Read More]
San Juan County (Utah). County recorder, mining location notices (petroleum), 1905-1941.
DESCRIPTION: Mining location notices in this series document the petroleum boom which peaked in San Juan County in 1908-1909. After oil prospectors opened a gusher in March 1908, the ensuing stampede to the San Juan and Colorado Rivers resulted in the recording of nearly 10,000 location notices by July 1909 (Osmond L. Harline, "Utah's Black Gold," Utah Historical Quarterly , vol. 31, no. 3, p. 295-6). Federal mining law provided that valuable mineral deposits in the public domain were free and open to exploration and that the locators of the same were to have exclusive right of possession as long as they complied with federal and local law ( Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America , vol. XVII, chap. 152, also Revised Statutes of the United States , chap. 6, title 32). The first step toward ownership was the discovery of a potentially productive site and recording the claim or notice of location. Each notice affirms that the locator has compli ... [Read More]
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