Some Yavapai County townsites were as speculative as the mineral worth of the ground they stood on. Two towns had particularly short existences: the oil town of Heslet in Chino Valley, and what could be described as a suburb of Jerome named Oxford.
Heslet
“Near Valley, on the SFP&P railroad, a new townsite has been surveyed and laid off into lots bearing the name of Heslet, in honor of one of the first locators of oil lands in the big Chino Valley,” the Weekly Journal-Miner explained. “The tract covers about 50 acres, with a total of 335 lots, each of the size of 25x125 feet. All streets are to be 80 feet wide and alleys 20 feet wide.”
“Heslet is out in the oil fields of the Chino Valley, where a number of rigs are in operation,” the Mohave County Miner described. People who had faith in the oil fields striking bought lots, “which will either remain a barren spot on the landscape or [it will] flourish. A hotel, several dwelling houses, and a number of business structures are being talked of, and it would not be surprising to see a real town some morning where, to now, only jackrabbits have made their habitat.”
JC Heslet was the man who saw Chino Valley as a prospective oil site and founded the Chino Valley Oil Co. 12,320 acres in the greater Chino Valley were designated as possible oil lands back then.
JC Heslet was the cousin of Senator WA Clark, owner of the United Verde mine, and in January 1918, it was announced that “the United Verde people will start drilling in Chino Valley very shortly.” If oil were struck, the UV would then use it for its own operations in Jerome.
Drilling to 1900 feet, the company discovered oil sands that were 110 feet thick. Although technology today has solved the problem of extracting oil from sand, at this time, oil sands were worthless, but they were a hopeful sign of an oil deposit further down.
The first real estate sale in the town of Heslet was made March 26, 1918, to ”a local bank buying two lots, facing on a corner of a street and taking options on two others,” the Journal-Miner revealed.
The phone company had faith enough in the future of the town that, on their way wiring a phone line from Prescott to Ash Fork, Mountain State Bell decided to run a line to the Heslet townsite west of the Valley train stop.
It all turned out to be a waste of money, however, as only oil sands were found (except for a remarkably light oil), which only yielded two quarts, and Heslet dried up and blew away like a tumbleweed across that great basin.
ALSO ENJOY: The Forgotten, Lost Town of Val Verde
The entire 5-year history of Val Verde, Arizona, the predecessor to Humboldt.
Oxford
The proposed town of Oxford met with conflict over its inception. Many built inexpensive dwellings along the county road that ran through Deception Gulch on the way from Jerome to the Verde Valley. Today, this road is a portion of Highway 89A. “Deception Gulch has petitioned by 23 of its residents to be incorporated under the classic name of Oxford,” the Arizona Republican reported. The site covered 52.63 acres. Probate judge Hicks filed the petition for the townsite, which was situated in the gulch from the south line of the town of Jerome.
However, some of this land had already been declared mineral land, in particular, mining claim No. 7. “There will be a fight over the matter, as the land has been claimed as mineral. The petitioners have all located on the land under protest from the original owners, who located it as mining claims and mill sites.”
The matter would come up on October 2, 1899, and it seems the original owners prevailed, as there was no further mention of Oxford in any surviving newspaper.
**********************************
CLICK HERE for all the #PrescottAZHistory stories about Ghost Towns!
*********************************
(Daily pics and featured articles.)
Drew Desmond is on Facebook (For the latest article and posts about Drew's writing.)
SOURCES:
Weekly Journal-Miner, 3/27/1918, Pg. 3, Col. 6.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 1/2/1918, Pg. 3, Col. 4.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 1/8/1919, Pg. 6, Col. 2.
Mohave Co. Miner 4/13/1918, Pg. 2, Cols. 5-6.
Arizona Daily Star 1/31/1918, Pg. 3, Col. 3.
Bisbee Daily Review, 6/4/1918, Pg. 4, Col. 6.
Arizona Republican, 7/7/1918, Pg. 2, Col. 2.
Arizona Republican, 8/15/1899, Pg. 3.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 10/2/1899, Pg. 3, Col. 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment