Thar's Oil in Those Hills

OK, so maybe we're not the Beverly Hillbillies. But one of the first things I noticed, upon entering northern Edwards County on Hwy 130, was a lonely oil derrick pumping away, and then a few miles later, a set of storage tanks that surely weren't big enough to store grain. Yep, they were oil storage tanks!

The Dixon and Fisher clans are from the southern end of Edwards County... actually the Fishers lived in an adjoining county (Wayne) to the west, but were still part of the Albion community since lived east of the Little Wabash River.

There are lots... lots... of oil wells in Dixon Precinct and in the area where the Fishers lived. Most seem to still be producing. In some spots, there are literally storage tanks every few hundred yards and on both sides of some of the country roads.

Our Albion relatives assured me that the checks aren't big ones. But they don't mind the small, irregular bits of income from their oil rights. (Folks often sell the land, but keep ownership of the oil rights.) Sometimes the checks arrive quarterly, and sometimes once per year. At least in some cases, the old contracts say that if the oil company doesn't send a check at least annually, the deal can be cancelled.

With current oil prices and the bleak future of oil production, I'd be hoping the company forgot (or didn't think it was worth the cost) to send a check!