The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-10-21
/ SMOKE FROM CHIMNEY ROCK.
People Who Think There Is a Volca-
no in the Blue Ridge.

no in the Blue Ridge.
Some excitement was created in
western Maryland the past week, writes
Baltimore correspondent to The Phil
adelphia Times. by reports that since
the earthquake on Aug. 81 volumes of
smoke have been seen issuing from the
crevices in Chimney rock, near Me-
chanicstown. Md, on the Blue ridge
range. One paper in Baltimore went
SO far as to state that Maryland vol
cano had been discovered, which in
creased the alarm, particularly in the
towns that dot the sides of the Blue
ridge in Maryland and the beautiful
Cumberland valley. Newspaper cor
respondents made trip to Chimney
rock and were aided in their investiga-
ton by John ID. Miller, the hotel-keep-
err of Mechanicstown, and who has
lived on the mountain within gunshot
of the mysterious Chimney rock all his
life. Mr.. Miller declared that while
there had not been any particular dis
turbance noticed further than the gen.
eral vibrations felt all along the Blue
ridge at the time of the Charleston
earthquake, still there had been within
the past two years phenomena in the
vicinity of Chimney rock which could
not be understood, and had alarmed
some of the mountaineers to such an
extent that they moved away.
The summit of Chimney rock is very
difficult to reach. 1t is one of the
steepest and widest of the Blue ridge
chain. The summit is twelve hundred
feet above Mechanicstown, and if CHM
ney rock should ever turn into a Vesu-
vius that would be the last of the charm
ing village in which so many Balti-
moreans find their summer home At
the height of eleven hundred feet a
tarrace is reached. After proceeding
about fifty yards along the plateau the
progress of the tourist Is blocked by
perpendicular wall of bare limestone
known as table rock. This wall arises
from the plateau fully 250 feet on each
side like the ramparts of great fort
ress. 1t is here that are to be seen the
strange freaks of nature which give
rise to the theory that down in that
mountain are vast internal furnaces
straining to give vent to their pent-up
fires. BY perilous climbing to the top
OF Chimney rock is reached. There
are many curious assures in the rock.
These are of an unknown depth. From
these assures columns of smoke have
been seen to rise from time to time
within the last two years, Landlord
Miller and many othors have seen this
Ill Il
from the intense. blue smoky haze that
always covers the Blue ridge peaks
1t was a dense. black smoke, forming
a strong contrast to the blue haze.
Mr.. Miller says that when he first
noticed the smoke coming out of the
mountain, two years ago, it seemed to
start up like a jet of high-pressure
steam. as thick as the trunk of a big
tree and with crown like the spread
ing foliage Of a pine tree. The news
paper Investigators made efforts to
guage the depth of the assures. but
without success. Many of them were
partly filled in with timber and huge
stones, which had been cast down by
inqulsltlve visitors, but wherever the
view was unobstructed it was easy to
see that they extended far below the
visible base of the table rock itself end
probably hundreds of feet into the
depths of the mountain. There had
evidently been considerable disturbance
of rock within recent period. In
some places masses weighing hundreds
of tons had split away and sunk verti-
cally, as il 10 fill a mighty chasm exist
ing beneath. The sinking varied from
twelve to forty or fifty feet. and the
growth of young brushwood had been
effected W thin the last three or four
years. In few spots light penetrated
the assures in lateral direction f;ity
or eighty feet below, and signs of ourn-
ing or hlackening on the walls were
distinctly noticeable. Volcano or no
volcano, it is plain that active geologic
al changes have been at work on CHM
ney rock within quite recent period.
The attention of biologists has been
called to Chimney rock and its queer
phenomena. and since the recent earth
quake, which somewhat enlarged the
assures. the residents of the valley have
not been little agitated over the idea
that the top of Chimney rock may
prove to be q crater