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The basis of Hunt's fortune was laid by a colorful oil wildcatter, Columbus "Dad" Joiner. In 1930 Joiner had been drilling in the oil fields of east Texas for over three years. He had struck nothing, and oil company geologists doubted the area had any oil. They were wrong: in September Joiner struck oil. Soon word of the strike made it into Arkansas. Hunt raced to Joiner's claim, bought up surrounding leases, and offered to purchase Joiner's wells. The wildcatter resisted at first. But Joiner had oversold investor claims to the oil field in order to finance his drilling. As they pressed their claims against him in court, Joiner feared he would lose everything. Wells drilled by others to the east and south of his find proved dry; leading geologists continued to insist the strike was an anomaly. Hunt offered Joiner $30,000 in cash and $1.3 million in future...
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This section contains 306 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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