The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1872-04-12
CHE aNarietta Sollrual.
Marietta, Georgia, april IS, 1879.
COAL AND IRON FIELDS GEORGIA
AND ALABAMA.
by W. C. ATKINSON.

, Warrior river in Alabama the Goa
measures are from eight to ten fect
in thickness, yielding a pure, dfy,
hard and beautiful fuel Alabama
promises to be the great iron State
of the future. Her coal deposits,
though apparently inexhaustibIc, are
not perhaps more vast than her iron
beds, which are almost every yarie-
ty, viz; hematite, fossil similar to
the Juniata Of Pennsylvania, hon
eycomb, and pipe ores. Carbonatcs
or clay iron stones occur in the coal
fields, and the whole series Of red
and brown oxides. Magnetic ores
also occur in Alabama and yield a
high per centage. They are sorich
that metallic iron can be reduced
from them in an ordinary smiths
fire. The new railroad and river
improvements now progressing rap.
idly in Alabama, connecting the
Tennessee system OF railroads and
the Virginia Great Southern lines
with the commercial cities and coun-
ties Of the Gulf, are opening up this
mining district heretofore unknown.
Capital is looking to these attractive
centres Of the southwestern interior
have heard experienced iron
masters declare that Alabama in
coal, iron ores and Auxes, so yalua-
bic for the manufacture of iron and
steel, was a far richer State than even
PENNSYLVANIA, with all her cclebri-
ty. They were men Of experience
aud Judgment, and had personal
knowledge Of the subjects discussed.
The famous Juniata or fossil iron
ore of Pennsylvania occurs in strata
of wonderful thickness in Alabama
Tennessee. In some places it is
from five to twelve feet thick, and
is one Of the best iron ores known to
the world, yielding from forty to six
ty per cent of metallic iron. 1t oc .
ours underlying thousands Of acres,
and is often so favorably placed that
thousands Of tons can be worked in
open pits and drifted for half a mile,
the bed lying regular, solid, and at
good angles for drainage and car
riage. A prominent iron-master re-
siding at Chattanooga, who had a
thirty years experience in the man
ufac tGre Of iron, mainly from "fossil
ores" on the Tennessee river (the ex-
act prolongation of the Alabama coal
and iron fields to the north,) forci-
bly, impressed me with the value of
the ore and the facilities for making
iron in these southwest sections.
The Chattanooga, Mobile and
New Orleans Railroad" which is
now just about being opened, and
which affords direct through connec-
ton between New York and New
Orleans, traverses the eastern por-
tions of the coal, iron and limestone
fields of Alabama, which in this
State and Tennessee are more than
400 miles long and exceed 100 miles
in width. This line is now called
the Alabama and Chattanooga Rail
road. It's 296 miles long, running
from Chattanooga to Meridian, Miss.
Considerable activity has been no
ticed among the capitalists of the
United States in the pastfew months
by their investments in the material
resources Of this rich and beautiful
southwest interior. For health and
purity Of climate, there is no part of
America more desirable than the
central and northern parts Of Ala
bama and Georgia. The gardens
are blooming and bearing when it
is mid-winter in New Yorker State,
and the population of the country
has never been visited by either the
cholera, yellow fever, or any other
malady of the kind. A trip to Mid
die and Northern Alabama or Geor-
eia cannot fail to DO interesting, in
structive and delightful, and to seek
ers after good fortunes may prove
eminently profitable. Land is cheap
and titles are guaranteed.
The evenness and salubrity of the
climates that prevail on our Ameri-
can continent between the thirty
/ second aud thirty sixth parallels Of
latitude. and extending from the At
lantic westward to the Pacific shores,
/ have developed many valuable facts
and discoveries on which the best
medical practice nowadays is bas-
/ ed. Instead offeeble invalids being
sent to Cuba, Florida, or other warm
and enervatng regions, they are d.
rected to be taken to the genial and
equaling temperature Of the noun
tains in Alabama, Georgia, and Ten
nessee. Here there is perfect and
constant protectionsagainst the chill
ing blasts and gloomy fogs and ter
rife "cold snaps and binding snow
storms which, from Labrador ant
Newfoundland, sweep down along
the Atlantic States Iile.so many be
SONS Of destruction for an aggregate
Of more than 125 days in the year
Bronchial, pulmonary, rheumatic
neuralgia, dyspeptic, and other hI
man maladies proceeding from ex
IRENE and sudden and climate
changes of the Northern States, rare
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