The Dickinson press., 1885-01-17
Fuel in Dakota.

Writes E. V. Smalley in a St. Paul
letter to the Philadelphia Times:
The reader may ask, "What do the
people out on the bleak prairies in
the little claim shanties do to make
existence tolerable!" The common
protection against the piercing winds
is the tarred building paper, which,
in well-constructed houses, is nailed
upon the studding inside the weather
boarding. Cheap shanties are GOV.
cred on the outside with this paper
fastened on in long sheets by narrow
cleats of wood nailed over the joints.
A building SO encased has an ugly
look, but it is blizzard-proof. The
thin hoard walls, however, are a poor
defense against tho still cold, and
many settlers surround their dwell
ings with thick entertainments of turf
reaching up to the caves and embras-
ured for the windows and doors. A
house 80 prepared is almost as warm
as a cellar. Barns are frequently pro.
tected in the same way ON the north.
ern side, or a big straw-stack is
thrown mp as a wind-break. In east
ern Dakota q good deal of anthracite
is burned, dear as it is, and it costs
about SIS q ton. Hard wood, hauled
on the railroad from the Minnesota
forests, is worth from Sc to SO per
cord. The soft, brown Ignite coal
from west of the Missouri is sold for
81 or SIS per ton, and is much used.
Eastern Dakota will soon have a
cheap fuel supply from the coal beds
recently discovered in the Turtle
mountains, northwest Of DEVILS lake,
to reach which about fifty miles of
railroad will have to be built from
| Minnewaukan, at the west end of the
lake. This coal is harder and more
like good bituminous than any other
found in Dakota. I think it worth
the attention of practical Pennsylva-
mia coal operators. Dakota is going
to he as thickly settled as Iowa or
Kansas, and, as it is almost destitute
of timber, its consumption of coal
will be very large. If the Turtle
mountain deposits are extensive, as
there is every reason to believe, and
are as good as the samples l have
seen, a vast mining industry will
grow up there.
West of the Missouri the country is
underlaid with immense beds of lig.
mite, cropping out on the sides Of the
buttes and ravines. In the region l
lately visited this coal is so abundant
and so easily dug that the settlers
supply themselves. Almost every
farmer has all outcropping on his
own land, where with pick and shov.
ell, he a load his wagon. Those
who are too busy to dig their own
fuel a hire their neighbors to de-
liver it for $3.50 per wagon lad.
The Ignite shows the structure of
the wood from which it has been
charred and solicited in natures lab.
oratory, and often contains sections
of carbonized limbs. 1t crumbles
quickly when exposed to the air; but
it makes a hot fire, and answers well
all the needs Of the settlers for a d..
nestle fuel. For locomotive use it
must be mixed with Ohio b%itulninous
coal in proportions varying with the
work the engine has to do. The lig.
mite ia of incalculable benefit to the
poor settlers struggling to make a
living while opening farms on the
prairies. Indeed, it would be diff.
cult to settle many portions of the
great area of Dakota if the fuel sup.
ply had to be brought from the dis.
tant mines of the Eastern states.