Kennewick Writer Questions Rattlesnake Hills Oil and Gas Claims
A skeptical resident questions the feverish speculation surrounding potential oil and gas discoveries in the Kennewick area.
I was an interested spectator at the oil meeting the other night, and enjoyed to the limits the free samples of natural gas handed out in unlimited quantities by the speakers to the doubting Thomases. Three questions suggest themselves: What is the altitude at the point where the gas leaves the earth? Has any other well been put down to the same depth? If not, how could anyone without more data chart the Rattlesnake oil and gas dome? No doubt oil and gas exist in that vicinity, but as yet no one has the authority to say 'thus far and no farther.' We here at Kennewick believe that an all-wise Providence intended by these natural resources that this should become an important place on the map, and we cannot imagine how Dame Nature could be so cruel as to place these fields where Kennewick would have to play second to any other competitor.
“We here at Kennewick believe that an all-wise Providence intended by many natural resources that this should become an important place on the map.”
Energy booms have defined the Tri-Cities for over a century, shifting from the early 20th-century oil prospecting described here to the later rise of Hanford. This letter captures the unique blend of local boosterism and genuine skepticism that still characterizes regional discussions about resource development today.
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