Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-10-12
New Castle Coal

The Omaha Bee of the 2nd inst. con
tains an elborate account of the wonder
ful coal deposit near the new town o
New Castle, Wyo,, forty miles west o
this city, from the pen of ID. G. Books,
prominent journalist who recently visit
ed that place a portion of which we ex
tract for the information of our readers
The vein Of coal is an extraordinary
one. Its thickness is over eightfeet. The
cleavage is at right angles 10 the dip oI
the vein, whlchgreatly facilitates mining
The vein is in its whole extent a dense
mass, without seam or fault through
out. 1t is so hard that TO mine IL by the
old method, with pickaxe and crowbar
would be impossible. Geolegically it is
quite evident that it belongs To the
family known as the juratriassic, which
lies between the carboniferous and
cretaceous groups, to the latter of which
the Rock Springs coal belongs. Its place
i'm geological nomenclature will no bouht
be the subject of much disputation
among scientific geologists. The posit-
ion here assigned TO it explains lis fine
quality, as compared with all other Goals
hitherto discovered in the far west.
That it belongs to the family of coking
Goals, has been decisively proven,
Ovens have been erected, and specimens
of the coke are seen, some Of which
have been taken from fire in the open
air. The product resembles in all resp
ects the coax made in the coal
regions of western Pennsylvania.
Its adaptation 10 this process will rem
1 a 10 ,r ,.nn,,l,nr al in, tho m and
manufactures of the Black Hills, which
have thus far depended on wood alone
for mining and reduction purposes, and
on coke transported from Pennsylvania,
by railway and wagon. The region
above Lead City, where valuable yet
refractory ores exist in great abundance,
and down as far as the tin mines about
Custer City, will undergo an extraordi-
ary development, as soon as coke can be
cheaply obtained.
The vein dips at an angle of one de-
gree with the horizon, giving sufficient
inclination for all needed purposes, and
affording facilities for drainage should
they at any time be needed. The vein,
however, so far as it has been uncovered, i,
| lies in bed which is perfectly dry. and
the overhanging rock, which is several
hundred feet in thickness, is imperyious
TO water. The roof is a white, f1inty
slate from two TO four feet in thickness,
underlying the sandstone, and is perfect
requiring no timbers IN the working
chambers. Underneath the vein Is
sandstone layer of six feet, below
which, here and there is found bed Of
superior fire-clay, eight feet in thickness.
The dimensions here given of the over
lying and underlying deposits are
uniform throughout. The sandstone on
which the coal rests is of excellent and
uniform quality for building purposes,
and the fire-clay possesses equal value.
The specific gravity of the coal is great,
amounting to Sc pounds per cubic foot
that of Pittsburg coal being only seventy
| nine pounds per cubic foot.
| The height of the coal bed above the
sea is 5,502 feet, or more than one mile,
1t enters the bluff fifty feet above the
canyon bottom, and the sandstone ex-
! tends above it for distance Of 400 feet.
On Gather side of the canyon in both di-
rections, as also in the adjoining canyons
| the evidences are seen of a fire which
completely consumed the vein for over
one hundred feet within. There is in
the sandstone lawyer Of ashes for this
distance two feet in thickness, upon
which the superintendent mass has
fallen, and one sees within the mountain,
| in the fissures or chimnevs above, the
tinge of the smoke upon the face of the
rock. The fire which has left these re-
cords must have been prehistoric.
Ina neighboring canyon which | Wis.,
tied, the excavation for several hundred
feet has taken place since the date Of
the fire, as there alone the coal was
found outcropping at the surface showing
no mark of the flames. What has since
become a cut through the mountain
several hundred feet in depth, must
there have beei: at this onS point solid
mass of rock above and telow the vein.
In every other instance the vein is COW
cred up on the bluffs by the debris
which has fallen on it from above,
obscuring from sight the LAYER Of ashes
that renamed, and covering up all
appearances Of a valuable deposit. The
appearances are everywhere exactly
alike. The interior heat melted the
sandstone Immediately above the coal
it ran down in a Stag which nearly fills
the cavity formed by the burning out of
the coal. After the fire had extended
over one hundred feet each way within,
the superintendent rock was crushed
down and the supply of air being shut
off the flames were extinguished. Had
the vein been an ordinary non-coking
coal this would not have happened the
coal, however, contains large amount
of bitumen, which has led to its preser-
vation.
There will for the present be two dis |
tinct mines operated, one on either side |
of the canyon. These will, ii is calculat- |
ed, intersect in five years above, when |
the two will become one mine, having |
two outlets. The mines and the canyon |
being lighted by electricity, and the coal |
being mined and hauled out by the same |
power, will proceed by night as well |
as by day.
The mines will be worked on the |
"room-and-pillar" system. Turning at |
right angles from the main shaft, the |
rooms" thirty feet in width, will be |
driven for 800 feet. Partitions will be |
left between the parallel rooms" |
which will be twenty feet in thickness. |
When the rooms" are driven to their
prescribed limit. the partitions will be |
attacked from within, and their contents |
drawn out, and the superintendent |
mass will crush in. Columns will, how
ever, be left along the main entries |