334
HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY
twenty more. The community also has filed for additional water for future growth.
Other Mineral
Development
The geological make-up of eastern Garfield County also has indicated the possibility that oil could lurk deep in the stratified layers of canyon and mesa. As early as 1920 the Ohio Oil Company employed Escalante and Boulder men to build a road and haul equipment to the n o r t h e a s t Circle Cliffs area. The results of drilling b e g u n in January 1921 did not prove successful, however, so the company abandoned the project. In 1949 the oil company returned and drilled some distance to the south on Wagon Box Mesa. Although it struck oil in Mississippian strata, the thick consistency made the oil unmarketable at the time. The company capped the well and moved on but continually renewed its lease in the area. In November 1963 drillers for the Tenneco Oil C o r p o r a t i o n struck high-grade oil at their No. 2 well in the upper valley near Escalante. They found the oil at the 6,650-foot level. This represented what was called "the first commercial find of oil in the permian formation in Utah."21 Soon the well delivered 125 barrels a day, and then it steadily increased its output in the following weeks and months, reaching a maximum of 333 barrels per day. On 31 December 1963 the first tankload of oil left the well and headed north to the Woods Cross, Utah, refinery. The company also found oil at another well located about 1.5 miles to the south. Even though the first well they dug also delivered a good grade of oil, certain porous formations made it too difficult to access, so it was abandoned. By 1967 Tenneco had a total of seven producing area wells and had increased its output to 1,500 barrels a day. By November 1968 it reached 50,000 barrels a day. Production kept eighteen drivers busy hauling the crude oil twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Although storage tanks were originally located near the wells, by the early 1970s the oil came by pipe from the fields to new tanks located in a ravine near but out of sight of the highway. The company did this to be in compliance with mandates of the Environmental Protection Agency and so drivers could avoid the steep, winding, hazardous roads from the wells. Other companies dug for oil in areas surrounding
