Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-07-08
What They Say About Stone
Coal on Shade Mountain.


minds of number of people than
ever before, owing to the fact that q
practical stone coal miner named
Long from the Shamokin coal basin,
came and dug a number OF holes in
middle Ridge" on the mountain
north of .NcAhsterville and about q
half mile west of Adamsburg road
Long it is said prospected from
the Snyder Co. side of the noun
tain quite while and finally came over
to the Juniata Co. side and employ
ed four men and took them up to the
north side or slope of Middle Ridge,
and there put them to work digging
holes straight down. It docs not
matter to the reader how many holes
he dug, but the last one rested on a
bottom of black or very dark slate.
When the workmen struck that he
ordered them to quit worl,, and do
clsred his purpose TO quit hunting
for coal, until after harvest.
That was three weeks ego.
The belief among practical miners
is that Long found in that dark rock
or slate what he was Looking for, the
certain coal blossom.
Practical miners believe that coal
exists in the mountain, and when one
tells them that geologjsts say there
is not pound Of pure coal on the
mountain they point to
THE SIGNS.
They are the same kind OF stone
that lie about on the mountains over
at Shamokln, and about Pottsvilie;
the same kind of trees and bushes.
There is the conglomorats rock.
Thore are the same kind of pebbles:
The white pebble, the red pebble.
The same kind of sand out of which fine
grains Of coal may be washed, and
the salpher pebble, the same kind Of
water, and the same kind Of dark and
olive colored states or shalcs, and
with all these surface signs, how
can anyone who has the money to
push The work fail to finding coal?
As to the, Geologist, they take no
stock in him They say he don't
know what is under the ground as
well as the man who has worked
among rocks, and shales, and sands,
and pebbles and stone coal all his
life. The practical miner looks up
on the geologist with sort OF pitt
full disdsin, and thinks he might
cudgel his head, and expend his en-
ergy with more practical things.
The miner believes that the geologist
does not know what he is talking
about.
The geologist believes the same
thing of the miner, but comedies it
that the miner knows coal when he
sees it, and if q geolOgist had been
with Long and his workmen when
they prospected for coal on Shade
mountain three weeks ago he would
have said Mr.. Long
THE SIGNS
'that I read in these rocks, sands
and shales here indicate that the
place to dig for stone coal would be
several miles overhead and that there
is nothing above Us but the blue sky
The material above us where Goa
once existed has all been washed
away into lower levels and into the
ocean. While il is true 5this noun
tain IN point Of height is probably
well nigh unto thousand feet above
the valley, in the geological scale il
lies deep under the valley, and by
some convulsion of nature was push
ed up to its present height. Lis
ten, my miner friend, on account O.
the dimes and dollars, wish it might
be as you believe it to be, but what
L have learned tells me that this
mountain is the lowest formation IL
Juniata county while it seems to bc
the highest and in that particular il
is to you q grand and majestic de
ceiver. You have mistaken its form
alton, its rocks, its shales, its sands
for the rocks, shales and sands OF the
coal measures that are high above
any 70 cks in Junista.
Let me tell you.
Shade mountain is a formation OF
Conglomerate rock, Medina sand.
stones and shalos, and Utica slate q
formation that combines the uniting
place of the geological measure of
the Lower and Upper Sillurian per
iod of creation, where the lowest or.
der of lifetirst manifested itself in the
living things without backbones in
the water and mud of that long past
age. The impressions Of the shells
of the back boneless things may
be found in stones and rocks and
slatos of the formation. 1t is the
Utica slate in the mountain where
you stopped work 20,003 feet below
stone coal.
You can hardly believe it that Mif-
hintown, which is located among the
highest strata Of the Upper Sillurean
formation or period in the geolog-
ical scale is at least 1000 feet higher
than Shade mountain. Mifflintown
is 1000 feet nearer coal than where
you are when YOU stand On Middle
Ridge on Shade Mountain.
If you draw center line east and
west through Juniata county, the
highest formation is found in Her
ronbone ridge and near Spruce Hill
and East Salem, and east and west
from those named placed and is in
the Devonian formation or group in
which dame nature, or speaking IN n
more orthodox way Divinity produc-
ed the fishes. In the rocks of this
formation TIE geelogist goes to find
the impression of FISH. This forma
tion if geologists are correct is sever
al thousand feet higher than where
Alifiin is located, and is at least 5000
feet higher than Shade Mountain,
and of course that many feet nearer
the coal measures.