Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Burnham #2-"The Smell of the Big Strike"

By David Wrolson

I discussed the possibility that Frederick Russell Burnham's might be one of the campfires I smell from the past in my previous post here in "The Smell of a Toddler's Urine." I found another tie in the lure of the big strike.

It is interesting that Burnham who prospected around the world found his lasting wealth later in life at the Dominguez Oil Field. This oil field was located on land that had long been familiar to him and which had been overlooked by other oil companies.

Readers will note how close it is too the heart of the Los Angeles basin.




From the Wikipedia article on the Dominguez Oil Field.

>>>"The spot where Burnham found oil was land where "as a small boy (in the 1870s) he used to graze cattle, and shoot game which he sold to the neighboring mining districts to support his widowed mother and infant brother."[5]"<<<<<

At the end of the day, one has to think of Burnham primarily as a prospector; an oilman if you will, among many other things.

Oddly enough, I too am an oilman; by inclination if not by profession. I make my living in agriculture but for reasons to lengthy to cover here, I am not able to call myself a farmer.

Neither of my ventures in college involved geology or anything related to oil, except for the second time in  my 30's when I majored in Geography and especially enjoyed a high level class on Geomorphology or landforms

Prior to first learning of Burnham in the fall.of 2009, I became fascinated with the Bakken oil field activity in North Dakota and wanted to learn everything about it. From the Bakken, I branched out into learning as much as I could about oil and oil geology and so forth,

I began to think of myself as an oilman and not as a farmer. Was this Burnham, the prospector and oilman, coming through?

Oddly enough, I have oil seeps on some of my land in Minnesota far from any known oil fields. This land is a 220-acre parcel of mostly pasture with 2 known oil seeps that are about 3/4 mile apart.

 This property is a rugged piece of land that is out of character with most of the land in the area. I call it a little bit of "Wyoming"here.

These oil seeps look like a puddle of water with waste oil spilled on top. The picture below shows the western oil seep. It is currently frozen so no oil is visible.

 The following pictures are of the landscape taken from the west side of the property and then from the east side.



There is oil there in quantity. I can smell it. With modern horizontal drilling and imaging techniques we could get to it. It is there. I feel the prospector and the wildcat oilman (the Burnham?) in me getting more excited by the day.

But, the farmer that I am now killed the possibility of getting to it. For financial reasons, I was forced to sell a conservation easement on the property to remodel some hog barns that have been a millstone around my neck for 25 years. So going after the oil is not legally possible.

My wife didn't want me to sell this easement and she was right. However, she understands that we really had no choice.

But the oilman and the prospector in me is confused and pissed. There is oil there. We own the land. Why can't we go after it?

All I can do is apologize to my true-self and say "I know. It really sucks to feel the lure of the big strike and we can't even go after it. Worse yet, I have to look at it every day."


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