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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1984)
Monday, April 9, 1984/The Battalion/Page 9 )irmeyei mere YEAH. eologist promoting oil-rich land p United Press International LAKE OUACHITA, Ark. — jeologist who attracted na tal attention with his pro- ncements that the Ouachita mains might be rich in oil 20,000 acres at stake, but his love for Arkansas Impted his crusade. long-since transplanted an, John H. Gray or El Do- takes great pleasure in juring up images of wealth is adopted Arkansas. ■he first well has not been ”ed, but Gray already is cau- ting Arkansans about how to [nd all the money, using old ies about the the newly-rich tingjackrabbits in Cadillacs r the discovery of large oil Is in Oklahoma and Texas to warn against greed. The content and the struc ture of the rocks that surround Lake Ouachita, which straddles Garland and Montgomery counties, prompted the reports about the possibility that nuge oil and natural gas reserves might lie 15,000 feet below the surface. But the only way to prove it is to drill a well. That is what Gray and other geologists are waiting for. Gray said he has leased 20,000 acres in the area, but frowns at the thought that someone might interpret that as a reason for promoting the area. Major oil companies have leasect most of the 1.5 million acres in the sprawling Ouachita Mountains pinpointed by Ar kansas geologists in 1979 as a potential oil and gas resource. The key to Gray’s optimism is the economics of the oil busi ness that recently has made the expense of drilling 15,000 feet and below feasible. The reason he openly dis cusses the area is that he is an independent geologist, be holden to no traditionally tight- lipped oil companies, Gray said. Gray averages two speeches a week to various civic groups around the state. He first started talking about the poten tial for oil finds in February. Gray has averaged 70-75 tele phone calls a month from the curious since then. "You have to be an optimist. When you’re out on new ground, you always have skep tics,” Gray said during a tour of rock formations edging Lake Ouachita on Saturday for 35 re porters, geologists and energy industry representatives. Gray has been transformed into a hometown celebrity, with one politician during a recent speech in El Dorado asking if Moses was anywhere in the au dience hawking his promised land. "It’s kind of fun. My wife is sorry,” Gray said about all the attention. A likeable man with a friendly face and a funny story at every stop on the tour, Gray said his career is just his way of continuing his childhood play at the rock pile. When Gray learned that ge ologists actually made a living at playing with rocks, the native of Fort Worth enrolled at what is now the University of Texas at El Paso and came away a geolo gist in 1948. He still plays with rocks, shrugging off icy rain on the Saturday barge tour to scramble up jagged cliffs and pick at the quartz, shale and sandstone. He joked about the bane of all geol ogists— snakes. His silvered hair is his re sume. Gray, who has worked in Arkansas, Texas, Mexico and China, said he would not have survived 36 years in oil and gas exploration without a good re cord of success. MSC OPAS Academy of St. Martin In the Fields Octet April 11 Rudder Auditorium Tickets: MSC Box Office 845-1234 mmmi m Wgmmm ■ ,;:T nis dub ndfl n cameoutfr ) the tennisi e man and, to the gionj lid. “They I ind fired ait he two gut the avenue,’ o handguntj ■ar the see# >ut declined e ports thali I on the arm i reports man may npike who uns away lanager of chicken restaurant ives Geter a free lifetime pass gllill|||llllll|||lliHl|||lllllliHlllllli||IIIIH||llilllt|||llllll|||llllll|||l I Alpha Kappa Psi ( National Professional Business Fraternity announces its ooting of Protestanip d that St. i s had cons] kers. United Press International REENVILLE — The man- r of a fast-food restaurant ch figured in Lenell Geter’s month legal ordeal gave the :k engineer a lifetime pass free chicken. Jeter and NAACP attorney orge Hairston Saturday pped by the Kentucky Fried ken restaurant Saturday on irway to a black-tie banquet )allas, where Geter and An- ny Williams, his former mmate, presented awards to of their lawyers on behalf of ack attorneys’ group. “He wanted chicken,” Geter said when asked why he and Hairston stopped at the restau rant northeast of Dallas. “I guess it was a spur-of-the-mo- ment thing.” Geter said Joe Cuna, the manager of the restaurant, rec ognized Geter and gave him a business card with a hand written lifetime free meal pass on the back. “We were really touched he’d come in,” Cuna said. “I guess he just wanted to show us every thing was cool.” None of the employees Sat urday were working at the res taurant when police claimed Geter robbed it in August 1982. An investigation by Green ville police implicated Geter in the robbery. Although he was never charged in the case, Greenville police circulated er roneous information which contributed to his conviction and life sentence in a robbery at a Balch Springs Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Williams, another black engi neer at E-Systems Inc. in Greenville, was charged with robbing a Taco Bell restaurant in Garland. Williams was ac quitted at a trial last year. After media attention to alle gations that racism led to Get er’s conviction, the engineer was granted a new trial, which had been scheduled to start Monday. 1st Annual Sale of Easter "Agg Baskets // AUTO INSURANCE FOR AGGIES Call: George Webb Farmers Insurance Group 3400 S. College 823 8051 -candy filled baskets will be sold April 9-17 in the MSC, Commons, & Blocker Building for $5.00. -on campus delivery will be April 18-19. ^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiii^ tfaine police on guard tify luring trial of radical o prison for! 5-year-old fl Frieda 5 years in pB United Press International ORTLAND, Maine — A ■time radical who hid out seven years before his arrest Texas was found guilty of bing a bank as a member of ared terrorist gang that in- led two men now on the of an eie |i s “io Most Wanted” list. innocent to ying when st week, but ifessed too ings across In the final days of the two- eekU.S. District Court trial of Sties Barrett, jittery police — jarently fearing his com ics would try and disrupt the iceedings — made two “mis- e” arrests of men answering the description of the fugitives. It took the jury 10 '/•> hours of deliberations to find Barrett, 45, guilty late Saturday. He faces up to 25 years in prison. U.S. marshals imposed tight security, including sealing the courthouse and checking every one for weapons. The prosecution charged Barrett was a member of the “Jonathan Jackson-Sam Mel ville Brigade,” a terrorist group named for two dead revolution aries. / ‘ lYE F/NAU V FIGURED OUT SOMETHIN6 TO &ET US OFF THIS /SLANP. IPOVBT IT WE'va TRIED SMOKE SIGNALS, RAFTS, message bottles. BUT TH! 5 WILL ATTRACT SOME ATTENTION. dre really fine eats Dominik Drive College Station-BY-THE-SEA ul Walsh | live confess oncerning I ing, but Hit| | cas learnedr :nan's deall lice docuit n also has told authot 1 they wanlt | ) was undef or.izineu'te I ise aliorneii I mm ealing withi Lucas resell s, but wasii ve means oil t (hem rai igns of agfj April 19th MSC Endowed Lecture Series , ■ < Henry Marvin Kalb Kissinger Alexander Haig w/n oor Friday p.m. Perspectives on U .S Foreign Policy" tickets available at MSC Box Office 845-1234 Memorial Student Center