It's
in the SE quarter of the SE quarter of Section 5. The lake shore is 1
mile north of that. Running parallel to the shore, there's about a 2
1/2 mile deep buffer owned by USA or ND Game and Fish. Immediately
south of that buffer are old time family names of Jellesed, Norby,
Mogen, Moberg. A childhood friend is married to a Jellesed, so I've
been on that place. Further south are the families of Wisness and
Washburn.
The late Arnel
Jellesed was born around 1910 or 1915. He's been dead for years. His
widow, Lillian, had a nice obituary - great ND story. Anyway,
Jellesed's hit some of the first oil around. 1950's or 1960's. Arnel
bought an airplane and flew it into Watford so he could take flying
lessons. (;>)
The
farmstead is on nice, flat land, but their "backyard" gets rough real
quick and runs down to the Lake. Their oldest son, Arne, was born in
1952, and he claims to remember the water backing up to fill the dam.
Their house is on Section 21, so that's 2 miles south and a mile east of
this well. The Swenson homestead would be 2 miles further south and a
mile further east. (;>)
Here's Lillian's obituary:
Arnel
was a good operator. Apparently the Jellesed's sold draft horses to
the homesteaders (one generation before Arnel). There's quite a big,
landmark barn on the place. So, he had some extra money in his pocket
even before oil. Many years after he died, the family was still
discovering mineral rights that he'd bought. A typical scenario was
that he'd been in a bar in Ray, somebody had a good poker hand and
needed $100 to call the pot. Arnel would advance the cash and pick up a
few mineral acres. (;>) Or somebody's wife needed surgery and
Arnel would pay the bill in exchange for some minerals. I think they
found stuff in several counties and even into Montana. They didn't find
it when they settled the estate - it only showed up when someone was
running title to get leases signed when the Bakken heated up about 10
years ago. At that time, he'd probably been dead for 15 years or so.
Quite a legacy. I never knew him. I did know Lillian and really
enjoyed her. Her kitchen was the best of ND farm kitchens. When they
added on to the house, she just bumped the kitchen out about 10 or 12
feet. So, that side of the house had a wall of windows along the south
side. She left in place the original lower cupboards, creating an
island that must have been 12 feet long. Then, there was just another
set of cupboards attached on the other side. So, it was a marvelous
place to cook and drink coffee. Typical in that the bedrooms were
smallish by today's standards, and they could have used another
bathroom. Not nearly enough closet space by today's standards, but, oh
that comfy kitchen
And,
Lillian's boys, Arne and Leif are both very good dancers! I credited
her with that, and she just beamed. Those Grassy Butte dances were a
blast.
Anyway,
one of the entries on the DMR website says that 11983's oil is
collected by Paradigm. Remember that 3 Affiliated Tribes owns 12% of
the 91 mile long, newish, pipeline that runs under the Van Hook Arm of
the Lake. As near as I can tell, that pipe would be 8 or 10 miles east
of this well. It's hard to tell exactly where the pipeline runs (I
guess they like keeping Jane Fonda in suspense - ha!) But, that's one
of the reasons they'll keep refreshing these wells - they can move the
gas and oil easily.
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