Montana Oil And Mining Journal

Wildcat Precariously
Perches On High
Wall Of
West
Sweetgrass
Arch

The most spectacular wildcat well in Montana oil fields history is today spudding on the bleak, blizzard-swept wall of the western rimrock of the Sweetgrass Arch, west and north of the town of Kevin on the northwest corner of the NW1/4 NE1/4 Section 19, Twp. 35N. Rg. 3W.

Precariously perched on a 60-foot shelf dug out of the face of the 500-foot cliff, is a National machine belonging to Prevol & Shay, contractors. The rig is reached by a narrow road, likewise gouged out of the side of the wall with a tractor. This road, a quarter of a mile long, climbs a steep grade to reach the 30-foot cut in the embankment, which cut provides the 60-foot base.

This well, slightly over a mile from production, is intended to test a local high that is indicated by surface exposures and by subsurface geology of well logs in the high gravity pool of West Kevin.

It is being drilled by the High Gravity Producers company, headed by C. N. Wrighter, one of the founders and president of the highly successful Rimrock Oil company.

The well is fully financed by Kevin operators and Shelby business men, testing a 1600 acre block entirely controlled by High Gravity Producers and Rimrock Oil companies.

The Madison lime is expected at 2150 feet, starting at a surface elevation of 3,500 feet, which is 337 feet above the surrounding plain. At night the lights on the mast can be seen from practically every part of the vast Kevin-Sunburst field, and from the rig location it is likewise possible to get a complete panorama of Kevin-Sunburst. The result is that the test is the most talked-of event of its kind in many years.

Neighboring operators have urged the contractors to light the mast with colored lights during the Christmas season, emblematic of a prairie Christmas tree.

Plainly discernable on the Rimrock in the base of the Eagle sandstone is a magnetite band which shows a complete turn-over, in the shape of a rainbow. The well was located where it is to get as high up on the fold as possible. The presence of this exposure was first established in 1923 by F. K. Houston, geologist, who accurately mapped the west Kevin area long before there was any extensive drilling. The Rimrock pool was drilled on Houston geology.

The same map shows the local "high" above the rimrock, and since it is supported by subsurface contours, as drawn by F. C. Platt, E. M., of Shelby, the sponsors of the High Gravity Producers company chose this location at the lowest obtainable surface elevation. Should they get production of high gravity crude, as expected, their next location will doubtless be on top of the Rimrock, meaning more than 400 feet of additional drilling to reach the top of the lime.