[Photograph 2012.201.OVZ001.7971]

• Format: Still Image
• Language: Norwegian
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: Business; Economics and Finance - Journalism; Oil-Oklahoma City-Capitol Area; Oklahoma City Times photographs; OIL / OKLAHOMA CITY / CAPITOL AREA; Northwest Passage; Northwest passage
• Online Access: https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1696635/

Photograph used for a story in the Oklahoma City Times newspaper. Caption: "This map speculates the trend of the Oklahoma City oil field. Not that a geologic fault, together with numerous dry holes define the fieldon the northeast and, in fact, down the entire east side of the field. Dry holes cut off the possibilities of a further northward extension. Only Further drilling can define its western limit. Pioneers in this western hemispher sought a northwest passage from the old world, through the new world and back. Today the modern pioneers are finding an outlet or an end of the Oklahoma City oil field, and they, too, are looking to the northwest. These oil pioneers are guessing almost as much as the old mariners. Dry holes are likened to reefs and barriers, gushing wells are like the soundings of deep water and open channels. The old men on the bridge knew that danger was in front and on each side, so he had to feel his way along. That, in brief, is what the operators in the north extension of the Oklahoma City field are doing. They are feeling their way and some of them are taking long chances. They are gambling for a big pay-off.Best theory is that the field will swing in a northwesterly direction, right through beautiful homes, into and across playgrounds, dodging churches here and there: knowing no limitations of what mere man has done to make his life happy.A second theory is that the reservoir is about defined. The facts aid in reaching this belief. One is the natural contour of the reservoir - or field - as already drilled and defined on the east side.The OKlahoma City field is on top of the Nemaha buried mountains. This mountain chain traveses Kansas and down through the central part of Oklahoma. Along its ridge and backbone are the history-making fields of Tonkawa, garber, Covington, Three Sands, and some dozen or more fields, all of them found before the record-breaking Oklahoma City pool. If you have been on top of a tall peak and looked down on the ridges of a mountain chain, you have a conception of what this Nemaha trend looks like, other than that it is buried under centuries of sedimentation."