Saturday, March 20, 2021

11983

I was intrigued by your mention of "This is what the Bakken is all about" -  the Charlson well from 1988 that's been reentered twice.  Obviously, since it's listed as a USA well, I knew it'd be near the south shore of the Lake, but I wanted to know the neighborhood.

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.
 

Sacagawea Pipeline - Paradigm Midstream

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