The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-18
UNPARALLELED RESOURCES.

Metals Near Great Falls.
Cascade county is but three years old and
embraces an area of 5000 square miles, but
small as it's area may appear it possesses
more and greater natural resources than
any similar expanse of territory in Mon
tana, II not in the world. It Is yet young,
but long before It shall have attained its
majority 1t viii stand foremost as the rich
est farming, coal mining, gold and silver
and!lead mining, stock raising, wool growing
manufacturing and smelting point in the
new northwest. And Great Falls is the cen.
ter of all this natural wealth. The coal in
dustry is already assuming envious proper
lions, and at Sand Coulee the output ID
1,5OO tons daily. Belt creek, south Of Great
Falls. as is Sand Coulee, is the other
IMPORTANT COAL MINING
section of Cascade county. Both places
have rail connections with Great Falls. The
character of the coal furnished 10 soft and
essentially bituminous. It forms an excel
lent quality of coke, is the best locomotive
coal in the west, and has given general sat
isfaction wherever it is used. IL is now in
use in the cities of Great Falls, Helena and
Butte, at the Anaconda, and Boston and
Montana works at Butte. exclusively on the
Montana Central railway, and on the main
4AA4O 0AN DA0uOACo VI VA0 Ots Iss NJ q M,
railway as far east as the Red River Of the
North. The thickness of the vein is ton to
sixteen feet and its area is estimated at
over 300 square miles; 30 the supply is prac-
tically inexhaustible.
Prof. g. G. Swallow, state mine inspector.
and an eminent Reologist and Inetallurgist
in his annual report for 1889 speaks thus of
the coal fields of Cascade county: "The
coal beds at Belt creek, at Sand Coulee and
on Deep creek will yield 100000 tons per
square mile. As the area underlaid by this
coal at each Of these locations has not been
determined, it IS impossible to tell how
many square miles have it; but it is safe to
say they cover an average of six square
miles at each of these localities. and proba-
BILE many more, and will furnish 36 0OO, GOO
tons of marketable coal, or thousand tons
per diem for the next hundred years. By
the time these Goals are exhausted some
better mode Of warming the cold regions
cred. The amount of coal ON Willow creek,
on Spanish coulee, on Sun river, on Missouri
river and on Otter creek can not even be
conjectured from the small amount of work
done at those localities. But enough 10
known to say these localities will furnish
all needed supplies for domestic uses, and
that Deep creek. Sand coulee and the Belt
creek mines can furnish an abundant sup
ply for all manufacturing, mining and
transportation purposes for the next CEN
fury.
VALUE OF CASCADE GOALS.
"The Cascade coal mines are situated
in the midst of vast prairie country,
which is rapidly filling up with teeming
and industrious population, whose homes
must be warmed and lighted, whose facto-
ries. whose railroad trains, and whose ma
chinery of all kinds must be propelled by
coal. These mines are seventy miles from
the nearest timber on the west, and three
hundred miles from the nearest available
timber on the north. six hundred miles from
the nearest accessible bodies of timber in
Minnesota, and with very little timber and
none to spare even to the Gulf of Mexico
on the south. And this in the midst of a
building, mining and manufacturing popu-
lation, and vast systems of railroads,
which will soon exhaust all available sup
plies of timber and be wholly dependent on
emit and prospective growth Of populations
and industries is under the 47th parallel of
north latitude, where we sometimes feel the
frozen breath of the polar bear.
these mines. too, are near the junction
of Sun river and the Missouri and Great
Falls, the most beautiful and fertile region
OF the northwest, and destined to become as
populous as the valley of the Hudson.
Those who doubt our growth should study
the history of Chicago and Denver. There
are ten times the reasons why Great Falls
SHOULD BECOME GREAT CITY
than there ever was why Denver should be-
come the Queen city of Colorado. Montana
is the greatest mining country in the world,
and its mines are as yet scarcely prospected.
Dur agricultural resources are limited only
BY the amount of water, and that is in
pressing every year and will increase by
natuval,laws as cultivation progresses.
sTh0 Cascade ia the beat and mOat avail
able coal for the present and prospective de-
mands of this growing region. These Goals
will play their full part in warming the
million homes soon to adorn this whole re-
zion, in lighting and warming the cities of
she plains and the cities of mountains, in
running the mills and in running the ma
,hinery and in heating the furnaces of
thousand mines, and in running the trains
IF two great systems of transcontinental
and meridian railroads. No coal, as we
have shown. is better adapted to supply the
varied wants Of such population. It's va