Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1899 — Natural Gas Nearly Gone. [ARTICLE]

Natural Gas Nearly Gone.

'The great Indiana gas belt is now on its last legs. After twelve years of reckless and prodigal use, and more reckless and prodigal waste, it is now practically used up. Of the field once covering many thousands of square miles of territory there are only about 100 square miles of real good gas area left. This centers around Fairmount, in Grant county, and so many pipe lines are being rushed into that region, and so many hundreds of wells will be drilled into it this season, that there is no hope for that lasting more than a year or two. A theory held in many gas towns, has been that after gas areas had been exhausted and allowed to rest a few years, new gas would accumulate, and drive back the ever encroaching salt water. There was never any basis, in science or experience, for this theory and every experiment made in boring into all exhausted gas territory has proved it wholly fallacious. Natural gas once gone is gone for good, just as though it were coal or petroleum, or any other organic product of ages past.