A Burning Oil Well

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 26, 1885

A Burning Oil Well

A BURNING oil well is a most beautiful sight. A writer thus describes the burning of the great 25,000 barrel well at Thorn Creek: "So great is the force with which the oil leaves the well that the flame cannot get nearer than ten feet from the ground. From the mouth of the well to the point where the flame begins, the amber-colored fluid forms a solid straight column, six inches in diameter, and shining like burnished gold. At the height of 100 feet the column is probably not over five feet in diameter, but at 200 feet it spreads out into a cloud of overhanging flame, from which fiery streamers extend earthward like the drooping branches of a willow. The effect is indescribably grand. Imagine the greatest of the geysers of the Yellowstone on fire, and you can form some conception of this burning well."—Sel.