Forecasts of Arizona’s rich oil deposits fueled successive exploration booms that created gullible investors, but there was no black gold.
“The is smoldering Arizona’s oil boom fire will flare up in the coming weeks – and we predict an oil boom that will rock the state – like nothing we’ve seen before. Arizona Republican Party “Hundreds become millionaires overnight, thousands become independent.”
Unfortunately, this illusion of prosperity inspired by oil discoveries in the Chino Valley north of Prescott will be as elusive as the location of the Lost Dutchman Mine.
The 1917 ill-fated treasure hunt was one of a series of oil speculative ventures that began in the early 20th century. But fanatical predictions about wealth have been repeatedly thwarted by the baffling fact that Arizona has very few oil deposits. “Even today, statewide crude oil production is comparable to her daily output from her single well in a typical Texas,” says Kristine, a Tucson-based consulting geologist. Uhlman says.
Despite this barbaric claim and legacy of failed wells, the quest for wealth from oil exploration slowly waned in Arizona. and by the 1900s Texas and Southern California were important producing areas. Located in between, Arizona seemed well-positioned for oil deposits, especially since he was reported to see oil in the area in the late 1890s. However, no black gold was found in Arizona’s first oil exploration wells, 2,000 feet deep in Chino Valley in 1905 and 1,400 feet deep near Safford in 1906.
Exploration moved to the Verde Valley in 1911, where geological conditions were so favorable that more than 58,000 acres of land were claimed for oil and two oil companies were formed. and the failed drilling of a 760-foot well. Eric Berg, in Predicting the Big Boom: Oil Exploration and Venture in Northern Arizona (1900), writes: -1930 ”, Journal of Arizona History year 2000.
Despite such failures, oil prospectors known as “wildcats” were not deterred, largely due to high oil prices during World War I. , symbolized sudden wealth. To Wildcatters, Gusher represented money falling from the sky, but after he searched for bad money in Arizona, he threw good money.
The Wildcatters’ interest returned to the Chino Valley, and enthusiasm peaked in 1918. Speculators set up numerous companies to tap the rumored hydrocarbon resources, but few actually drilled wells, and only traces of oil were found. “Many of the Chino companies probably started out with good intentions, but exaggerated claims and strong sales tactics have endured the Chino craze as a scam,” Berg wrote.
In the wake of oil fever, the Arizona legislature passed a bill in 1919 offering $10,000 to the first company to develop an oil well producing at least 50 barrels per day. Governor Thomas Campbell, however, vetoed the proposal. That same year, oil interest shifted to the eastern town of Holbrook, where prospectors began their most extensive exploration to date. Geologists expressed cautious optimism, holbrook tribune Temporarily added “Heart of the New Oilfield” to the masthead.
Holbrook’s ‘oil rush’ generated more excitement than previous explorations, but it too was unsuccessful. The miner occasionally encountered pockets of natural gas, and in a publicity stunt one costume of his ignited a stream from the well, creating a three-foot-tall blue flame. But drilling was expensive, and when the oil companies were short on money, tribune I urged my readers to buy [stock] Until it became difficult to support local drilling operations. ”
Limited exploration continued in Arizona, but it did not produce oil until 1954, when only 3.6 barrels a day were being extracted from Apache County wells on Navajo land. The state’s only significant oil deposit, the Dineh-bi-Keyah field (also in Apache County), has produced 19 million barrels of crude since 1967. Production peaked at 35,000 barrels per month and is now producing 12,000 barrels per year.
Recent exploration has been linked to the “overthrust zone” in the Rocky Mountains, which was thought to extend into central Arizona. “The Anschutz Wildcat well was 18,013 feet below the surface in 1981, east of the Picacho Mountains, and was the deepest well ever drilled in Arizona,” said an engineer associated with the project. Frank of He says Corkhill. “There were essentially no hydrocarbon discoveries.”
Arizona has an unfavorable sedimentary (sedimentary) environment for petroleum deposits, Uhlman said. “We need organic debris that is deposited and sinks in the delta, trapped in shale, heated and transported by compressed water. or remain in the shale. This is when it breaks and releases the oil. Still, optimism reigns and he has more than 1,100 wells drilled in the state.
The state’s recurring oil rushes, created by hopeful geology and exaggerated claims, proved beneficial to promoters who lured investors even though no oil was discovered. But Arizona was not unique in this regard, according to Steve Rouge, former oil and gas administrator for the Arizona Geological Survey. “The early oil fever swept most of the Southwest. Some areas were better than others.”
