One was abandoned. Their trou bles were just beginning. After five dry holes they decided to move from Christian Hill to the vicinity of Tar Creek or Santa Paula Creek where they might find more promising spots. This time they very carefully selected their loca tion on Tar Creek and called it “Smith Farm No. One." After reaching the depth of 1,520 feet, the sides of the well began to cave in. The rope broke and left the tools in the well and dirt buried the tools. They fished for three weeks but failed to recover them. The well had to be aban doned. The partners had drilled six wells and had yet to produce their first barrel of oil. They had spent about every cent they owned, but they still had their drilling rights and plenty of courage plus the optimism that goes with oil fever. In desperation, they moved the rig to a spot on Santa Paula Creek. Their “Santa Paula No. One" was another dry hole, the seventh in a row. The partners took stock of the situation. They had exhausted their capital. Hardison, who had organized two small banks, one at Eldred, Pa. and the other in Salina, Kansas, had borrowed to the limit. He had drawn so heavily on the Eldred Bank that the cashier was protesting in almost every mail and warned that the depositors were getting wind of Hardison's overdrafts. Stewart went to his friend Blake and laid their troublé on the table, holding nothing back. He pointed out to Blake that they had drilled all their wells on territory yet unproved and asked permission of him to al
low them to drill somewhere in proved territory. Blake was very sympathetic with their problems, knowing that they were both sub stantial, hard-working experienced oil men. He arranged for them to drill again in Pico Canyon but some distance from their first five “dusters" which they had drilled in that area. This was their last chance; if this failed they were through. Here they drilled “Star No. One." This well was to be come one of the most important wells in California oil history be cause without it the now gigantic Union Oil Company might never have been formed. At the 1,620- foot level the bit hit oil. When they installed their pumping equip ment it produced 75 barrels a day, an unusually good well for Califor nia in those days. Because the two partners had no capital with which to develop their oil, they were forced to sell Star No. One outright. At it turned out, the well eventually dropped to half its original production and later proved to be on the outer fringe of a pool. This would have meant that the partners would have gone broke had they tried to drill other wells in the area. They looked around for lands which they could buy with the money derived from the sale of their well. The broad valley of the Santa Clara River reminded them of the Venango Valley in Pennsyl vania. With their returns from Star No. One, they made the down payment on mineral rights to sev eral thousand acres in Adams and Wheeler Canyons and the Salt Marsh area back of Santa Paula. Using as collateral the land on which they had made down pay- Page 9
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