Underneath
Our Coast
They didn't find oil,
but they learned a lot
about the ‘‘basement.”
By KILL SHARPE
The most hard-headed people can¬
not resist being romantic about sudden
wealth. They still believe in fairy talcs,
sudden gold strikes, and overdue
legacies. Down east a few weeks ago,
several ordinarily realistic citizens said
they believed oil, or certain signs of oil.
had been uncovered in some of the
wells drilled there in recent years.
One man said he believed one of
the Esso wells had struck oil. "They
didn't need it.” he said, "so they
capped the well and will return to it
when reserves run low." We heard the
same story about a Carteret well.
A geologist of our acquaintance
laughed at this. "It's one of the most
stubborn departments of mythology,”
he said. "It ranks in vitality with the
lost mine, the pirate treasure map, and
the hidden train-robbery loot. You hear
these same oil stories even in oil-wise
Texas and Lousiana."
We believe him. The cores from
these wells were examined by state
geologists. In the case of the Esso wells
the cores were distributed to other ex¬
perts for examination. It would take a
complicated conspiracy to conceal the
presence of a valuable mineral.
Esso No. 1 — near Cape Hatteras
Light — was the deepest hole ever
drilled in North Carolina — the deep¬
est, in fact, ever drilled on the coast
between Maine and Florida. It didn't
yield anything in the way of petroleum,
but it added immeasurably to our
knowledge of the submarine structure
of North Carolina. At 9,878 feet, it
reached the top of the "basement"—
meaning the old, primeval rock of pre-
Cambrian age, on top of which nearly
two miles of sedimentary material had
been deposited. That's a lot of topsoil.
Much of it came from the top of
ancient Appalachia, the mountain area
which some geologists say once tow¬
ered over the Piedmont and Coastal
plains.
Then they drilled on into this base¬
ment until the well reached a total of
10,054 feet, when they called it off
and the well was declared a dry hole
showing no traces of oil or gas.
The first well ever drilled for oil in
North Carolina was the Great Lakes
Well No. 2, sunk in 1924 five miles
west of Havelock in Craven County. At
2,318 feet the top of the basement was
reached, and the drilling continued
through the solid rock to 2,404 feet
until the project was abandoned as a
failure.
Photographs show Esso No. 2 in Pam¬
lico Sound; No. I at Cape Hatteras.
From Havelock to Cape Hatteras,
there is a slope of the underlying rock
— a dip from 2,318 feet to 9.878 feet,
or 85 feet per mile.
Then in 1944. Esso had started pre¬
liminary exploration. Meantime, in
May 1945, the Coastal Plains Co.
drilled a well near Morchcad City. It
went easily through the sedimentary
accumulation of cons, and hit the base¬
ment at 4,030. It drilled only 14 feet
of this rock before calling it quits.
Esso No. 1, noted above, started
Dec. I, 1945, quit July 9, 1946 at
Hatteras.
All of this activity fired the enthu¬
siasm of North Carolinians. A consider¬
able sum was invested in wild-catting,
and the trading of mineral rights
reached such a pitch that acquisition
of land along the banks for the Na¬
tional Seashore was suspended.
The Carolina Petroleum Company
drilled nine holes in 1946 and 1947-
five in Carteret one in Craven, three
in Pamlico. All of them were ended
when the bits struck the crystalline ig¬
neous basement and were called dry
holes. The basement was reached
soonest in the Craven well (2.435 feet )
and was deepest in a Carteret well
(4,126).
Also in 1947, Esso tried again, this
time setting up its rig on a barge in
Pamlico Sound, just west of New Inlet
and 1 1 miles south of Wanchesc
(Roanoke Island). It did not continue
to the basement rocks, but was
(Continued on page 20)
THE STATE, August 14. 1954