The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-07-15

only q few miles of direct railroad,
without any transshipment. Gentle-
men, | may have stepped over into
North Carolina in this, but it all
mrans Tennessee and it is only the
mother deciding some of her wealth to
the child. The coal of Tennessee and
the vast mineral wealth of that ALLIE
ghagy region were destined by nature
to ejoined together, and the railroads
now being built are only completing
the banus which nature proclaimed
thousands of years ago.
l said that Tennessee's resources
we're greater md more varied than
Pennsylvania or New York, and |
add of any other state in the Union.
Others have more of one or another
specially, but she is independent in
herself. She has a little of all, and IL
great deal of the two chief elements
of wealth--iron and coal. She may
not have as much zinc and lead as
Missouri, but in her borders are rich
mines of both; no State has in the
same limited area a greater supply of
copper ore; manganese of the best quail
ity is in her mountains, cobalt and
nickel are known to exist, and while
her silver aud gold may be scarce, yet
both have been found, and IL cannot
be said of them that they do not exist
or that their quantity is positively
known. Her petroleum has flowed
out in hundreds of barrels, yet its
quantity is equally an unsolved prob
lem. Neither is West Tennessee, the
fertile land of corn and cotton, dei>
cient in character of mineral wealth.
Her clays have no superior in quality
and quantity, and the green sands OF
McNairy may yet be as great source
of profit to the miner and the agricul-
ture of the State as those of Freehold
and Monmouth, New jersey. Hence,
gentlemen, having as much bitumi-
nous coal as Pennsylvania, which New
York has not, having in our reach
and in our own mountains as much
magnetic iron as either of these States,
having other iron ore in greater guam
titles than either state, having copper,
which neither has, lead and zinc, sur
passing one, and perhaps fully equal
ling the other, comparing favorably
with them in other minerals. having
the green sands and clays which they
bring from New Jersey, am | not sus-
tanned in saying that Tennessee's min
eral wealth is greater and more va
ried than Pennsylvania or New York;
1t is for you gentlemen to aid me in
publishing this to the world. There
is no paper 50 insignificant but it has
influence with some one.
Besides the greatness and variety
of her ores Tennessee has iron ores Of
a character that exist in no other part
of the world known to geological sci
ence except Immediately on her Dor.
der in Kentucky and a small strip in
Illinois. | refer to the immense beds
of iron ore in the fields around you.
Every shore in this great highland re.
gion, wherever you reach certain al
titude above that peculiar limestone
which crops out of yonder hill, you
will find iron ore and higher above
that limestone the greater is likely to
be the deposit of ore, This ore is
found in formation which nowhere
else has any ore except in few limi-
ted instances. Its position is different
from any other in this State; there il
none in like rocks in Ohio, Indiana,
Pennsylvania or New York, nor in
the budding and rich State of Virgin.
ia. This fact has caused many to
think that its quantity was small. Ii
it was not in Pennsylvania why it
could not he much if anywhere else.
But the same nature that has given
us the piled up seams of coal, that has
given us halt dozen distinct seams Of
red fossil iron ore, where Pennsylva'
ME has one, that has given rs thai
wonderful work, to us so common
the Middle Tennessee basin, alsC
placed all around the rim of that ba-
sin, near Col. Skaters home in Win
chester as well as here in Hickman, a
vast belt formed of series of beds Of
iron ore; the belt is rudely torn away
on the north and somewhat on the
south, but its crescent arms reach GU,
to where they were once clasped. II
the geology of Tennessee had nc
other point Of interest this vast depos