By Dick Dahl

Regional editor

JEFFERS — The quest for water is a continuing problem around this little town located on the edge of a subsurface glacial ridge.

But for one Jeffers farmer a new problem perhaps a more pleasant one has developed.

Selmer Osland has discovered oil on his land.

THE DECISION he faces is whether or not to attempt to capitalize on it.

“I have no idea if there is a pool of oil out there or not,” he said.”But where did it come from?”

When the well driller, Jim Erickson of Westbrook, hit the oil this summer it was estimated to be about a two-foot vein in itself hardly worth drilling for.

However, Osland, 63, hopes it leads to or from something bigger.

IT ALL BEGAN two days before the Jan. 10-12 blizzard when the walls of Osland’s well collapsed.

“We hauled water and melted snow for the cattle and in the spring there was enough water in the little stream out here,” he said.

“But since the well went we weren’t pumping any water, so you can see why I needed the water and not the oil.”

Anticipating that the stream would run dry in the summer, Osland hired Erickson to begin the drilling procedure next to their farmhouse in June.

At 112 feet the driller struck a vein that produced 25,000 gallons of water before it died.

He then drilled deeper to 122 feet and hit another vein, pumping it for two days until it stopped.

The drill bit went deeper again several feet and hit rock, Osland recalls.

“THEN THEY broke through and hit the oil vein,” he said. “They said at first they were scared; smoke was pouring out.”

Mrs. Osland said she was in the house at the time, heard the excitement, and saw what was happening when she looked out the window.

“They were excited,” she laughed. “They said, ‘We hit oil! Tell Selmer we’re looking for a barrel to put it in!”

“They asked me if I wanted oil or water,”Osland said. “I told them I needed the water.”

The drillers continued going deeper and several feet further down struck a strong vein of water producing 15 gallons per minute. The drilling finally stopped at that location.

THE OSLANDS have evidence of their find: a glass jar containing the black crude oil, and samples of the sub-surface sand at three of the depths where the drill stopped. The oil-bearing sand is still moist whereas the others dried out long ago.

The Oslands agree that if nothing else the “strike” and the jar of oil have been an interesting topic of conversation for them with their friends and neighbors.

Some of them jokingly call him the “oil king,” he said.

“I told Selmer if we ever sell the farm we’ve got to keep the mineral rights,” Mrs. Osland said, smiling.

OSLAND MAINTAINS that his finding oil is not totally new to the area. A neighbor who lives 1 1/2 miles from Osland reportedly hit natural gas while drilling several years ago.

Osland said Erickson told him that he once struck oil near St. James, 30 miles east of Jeffers, but nobody would believe him.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Sept. 14, 1975