Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 19, Number 35, DeMotte, Jasper County, 29 July 1949 — INDIANA OIL BOOM GATHERS MOMENTUM [ARTICLE]

INDIANA OIL BOOM GATHERS MOMENTUM

Indianapolis, Ind., July 28. —■_ Indiana is fast becoming one of the largest oil-producing _siaLes of the mid-continent area, according to a statement issued by Elmer Hoehn, Director of the Oil and Gas Division of the Indiana Department of Conservation. In the departmental report for June 1949 there were 156 drilling permits issued. Wells drilled numbered 130 of which 59 were dry and 45 became producing wells. The most promising well yet completed was brought in July 14, by the Gillam Drilling Company, an independent outfit in Section 20. Linton Township., Vigo County. -Experts estimate that the well will produce from two to three thousand barrel daily. Drilling operations have start<rd"~T)iT tt -ne-wl-y -diacowered_ oil pool neai Fontanet, an abandoned coal mining area, which geologist pronounce the largest oil structure yet found in Indiana. It compris■o.< i ■flpproximtfctely IOjUJU- acgas. Petroleum Highlands, as it is re-ferred-"'to officially is located about twelve miles northeast of Terre Haute and is believed to be the pool that fed the old Terre Haute Prox well, which produced for forty years in the heart of the downtown district. The rich oil structure, originally located by an aerial survey, has been radarfzed dnd yfeeizmongraphed by- three different companies recently and is now declared by petroleum engineers to be large enough to accommodate more than 1,000 oil wells. In 1926 Tommy Hitchcock, New York sportsman, discovered the Siosi pool of about 80 oil wells in South Vigo County and last August an Indianapolis realtor discovered the Martz pool which

now has about 20 producing wells. That discovery kicked off the present oil boom.