Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-02-16
PALO PINTO COUNTY CEDARs.
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Correspondence of the Gazette
MINERAL WELLS, TEX, Feb. 1S.-Your
correspondent has Just returned from 8
two days. trip Of inspection Of the "cedar
brakes" of this county, and is prepared to
tell your readers 8 remarkable story con-
corning this wonderful forest Of cedars.
Twill will tell you of the country that 1
saw and not of that of which 1 have
heard, (I am told that there is vast area
Of cedar country in the southwestern por-
ton Of the county that l have not seem e.
Leaving Mineral Wells Travelled west,
stirling the first "solid" cedar six miles
west of town on the east side Of the river.
At this point I crossed the river to the
west side, travelled north three and one
half miles through solid cedar timber t
the residence of Mr.. E. G. Maddox, an
ex- Kentuckian, an expert timber and
wood man, who cheerfully consented to
conduct your correspondent on his "tour,
through the cedars" and assist him in
making estimates Of the quantity and
quality of this timber.
Following the Brazos river in its me-
andering course to the northwest, calcu-
latlng and including the timber along the
various creeks that empty their waters
into the river from this the west side,
we estimated the number Of acres of
"solid cedar" on this side to be %, 600
Crossing the river to the east side ct a
point opposite McAdam's peak, we des-
cended the river to the mouth OF Keechi,
o northern tributary to the Brszos, thence
up the Keechi to large CANYON coming
in from the east, up this canyon and re-
turning on opposite side to the mouth Of
Keechl, thence down the river to the
point at which we first crossed it, and the
total estimate OF acres on this side was
10, 200; making grand total OF n, 800
&C es traversed.
Reducing the quantity .and.quality OF this
vast forest of cedar trees, 10 posts, poles
and pilipg, we have the following:
Mr.. Maddox has one 'cedsr-brake"
consisting Of 29l acres that we took as
an average of the whole. We dtsmcunteo
here and began our estimate.
We estima ed that this brake would
make in six feet fence posts, Is 200 per
acre, that there were 100000 telegraph
poles and $4,000 pieces Of piling measur-
ing twenty TO twenty-five feet long iron
! ten to t1erty-four inches in diameter. Or
the whole tract of land tr4versed, re esti
mated the number of six feet fence posts
to be (5S2, 100000 FIVE hundred anc
eighty-tWo million, four hundred thous'
and; or, 72S GOO carloads, or Sc, 400 trsir
loads that would require nearly
one hundred years to haul out
hauling one load of twenty CAR
each per day. They will furnish enough
posts six feet long, If placed thirty fee
apart, TO reSch around the state Of Texa!
thirteen $1,000 hundred times, or enoug!
to reSch around the earth cRe hundred
I2T and twenty-seven times. These fig
ures cannot be disputed, Snd L challeng'
any and all corners to disprove them
This timber is Of easy access. A railroad
can be built from Millesp on the Texa
ara Pacific Railroad via Mineral Wells OF
a direct line into and through this timbe
for distance of thirty miles from millsal
in the direction OF Graham at cost o
30per cent. less than it will cost to con
struct the same number Of miles on an
l part OF the line of the Texas and Pacifi
Railroad between Marshall and Abilene
1t would traverse a country as rich Il
farming lands and far richer in miners
and timber lands than any part Of tn
Texas and Pacific Railroad between Tex
alksna and Ell Paso.
The above is what we have in the lin
of cedar. In some future artlcle l wi
tell you something of our mineral lands
They compare foYorably with our timber