Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-18
TEXAS COAL.
st. Louis Capital Being Used to Develop
Rich Fields.
How the Coal Was Discovered ana What Its
Mining will do for
this State.

I
Post-Dispatch is the following, which
will prove of interest to Fort Worth and
this section of Texas. This coal is only
seventy odd miles away:
''The fact is not generally known, -
said Marcus A. Wilson of Thurber, Tex. !,
who arrived in the city this morn
ing, ''that the coal industries
of Northern Texas are beng
most rapidly pushed to the front, and
that st. Louis capitalists are furnishing
the means. More than this, they dis
covered the fields, and to them is due
the entire credit of bringing to the front
some of the best coal fields west OF the
Missouri river. / refer to the lands n5el
far from Thurber, which are being ep-
Grated by r. D. Hunter, Thomas DasE-
son and a number of st. Louis menswith
whom I am not acquainted. y
''When I say that these fields weFe dis
covered by these gentlemen, l avn rely
ing on the stories told, which gSFethe
credit to herder of Evans and kfISRter
and J 7. Hill, when they were Engaged
in the cattle business in Texass The
story goes that man looking for stray
horses was caught in hailstorm in
the winter and sought refuge
under bank. He hollowea
out sort of a cave with his kRife4
and came upon thin vein of Ignite. lie
reported what he had found at the home
ranch, and for some time the Nations
were supplied with fuel from thavein IN
the easily worked plain. Before long Il
worked out, and for several YeaTS moths.
ing more was thought of the nletaafs
Evans s. Hunter moved the greater part
of their stock to the Indian Territory and
the old coal fields were forgotten. -
"After Evans and Hunter left iAHeir
ranch it was occupied by maa from
New York. He determined to 9nd GOAL
in paying quantities, having bad nst o
little experience in Pennsylvania and
OHIO. Several shafts were .sFIRk, one to
the depth of I05 feet, and ,fhree or fotfr
more than seventy, and cgal misery con-
siderable quantities was fBund. %BEf'the
first taken out showed the cEnmbling
characteristics of the ordinary plaiR
coal, and work was abandoned. The
mines lay idle for several years, when an
agent of the former owners CHANGED to
Hook at them, and found that some
of. the Jumps were as hard as
the\ best Indiana block. He spent
some lime in investigating matters,
quietly sci, several men to work boring
and found that the friabIlity was con-
fined to the surface layer, and that be-
meath this the coal closely resembled the
English camel Negotiations were en-
tered into and several thousand acres OF
land purchased. This was aB6fit q year
ago, and ever since then the work has
been steadily going on. A SeQtch, com
pany holds much of the stoek, but the
larger portion is held in st. LdtEis. The
result of the explorations has been to-
partially develop a coal fieldiceRering
thousands of acres. and the coal rs of a
most excellent quality, elosel SEesem-
bling the famous productlogsef CaIf6n'
City, Col. 81
CHARACTER OF THE OUTPUT.
cit burns without ashes and almost
without smoke, being as clean as anthra-
cite, and almost as easily ignitable as
wood. The seam is from five to nine
feet thick; that is the largest seam, as
there are no less than five already dis
covered, and others probably underlie
the lowest yet found. The report is that
another has been struck at depth of 1876
feet but that this fact is being carefully
concealed In fact a great deal of
secrecy is being preserved and much cap
ital has been subscribed within the past
two months to extend operations, and il
is rumored that large WOODEN mills will
be set up. The cost of hauling Texas
wool to the North is very heavy, and it
is believed that firm of lowell, Mass.
will locate works near the mines, where
fuel of the best quality can be obtained
at very low cost, and the wool can be
bought at a low figure. A cotton
mill is also talked of.