Arizona silver belt., 1893-01-07
THE INDUSTRIAL so uTH.
InexhaustibIe Mineral Resources TrIbutar
 to the City Of Chattanooga.

IuexhaustibIe Mineral Resources Tributary
 to the City Of Chattanooga.
 The soil of Chattanooga is fertile in iron. It underlies the very city and everywhere ribs the vast mountains which surround it and stretch away on every side as far as the eye can reach. But iron dug out of the ground is mixed with impurities that need to be purged away before it is fit for it's multitudinous uses. These auxiliary materials are generally found at such distances from the ore as to involve heavy cost in transportation. Butin this section they lie side by side and all together, the iron with the coal needed for coke, the limestone for smeIting the ore, and the fire-clay and sandstone for the construc- ton of furnaces. An idea of these min eral resources thus tributary to Chatta- nooga can not better be given than in the words of General John T. Wilder, the founder of the iron-works at Rock wood He says. a
 "The coal-field of Tennessee extends entirely across the State, from Kentucky to Georgia and Alabama. being an ex- tension of the Appalachian coal-fields whose northern extremity is in Northern Pennsylvania, and extends south-west- erly across Pennsylvania, West Vir- ginia, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, and ends in Central Alabama. The coal-feld of Tennessee covers HOO square miles; there are about 1000 square miles in Alabama, and 250 square miles in Georgia, all belonging to the lower coal measures. All these broad acres, excepting a small area in Alabama, form covering for the Cnm- berland table-land. raised above the surrounding country, with an outcrop above the drainage of the valleys on either side. easily opened, ventilated and drained. "
 Throughout this extensive region are wonderful beds of fossiliferous red hematitc iron ore, none of it more than fifteen miles from the eastern outcrop of the coal measures, and all of it covered by the great limestone beds of the subcarboniferous period. "All these formations lie like the leaves of book, fiat, bedded on each other. and general ly tilted up and broken into high ridges, Or folded into deep synclinal trougbs or valleys. in either case exposing the edges of the ore beds. making it easy to find. ready to mine, abundant in qaan- tity, always accessible, These beds usually average four or five feet in thickness, sometimes more. ; The General adds in regard to one species of the timber of this region: "The largest forest of chcstnut-oalS in tho United States, producing the best quality of tan-bai.k, cover the coal-ields of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. supplying the largest oak-tannery on the continent, at Chattanooga. and furnishing taa-bark for the towns of St. Louis. Louisville and Gin einnati Thay are sufficient in area tc supply 30o,00) cords per year for ar indefinite period without exhaus- ton, as the tree reaches maturity in our climate in ferty years, aud grows on an area of oycl 100000 acres; and if cut once in forty years, and producing only two cocds per tree, | would produce perpetually 3j0,000 cords each year. One cord of chestnut-oak tan-bark grown in this latitude produces tiirty- three per cent more tannin than al the bark grown north of the Kanawha river
 1 Other woods equally valuable sur. round Chattanooga. The city Is in the midst of vast forest, where not one sixth Of the land has yet been subjected 10 cultivation. Besides oak, there arc 1 chestnut and black walnut standing Mere in almost inexhauStible supply and primeval grandeur. Here, too, is hickory enough to make the wagons. GL a continent, and sufficient supply of l red cedar is growing on the Clinch river aloue to furnish hOllow-ware to every | American housekeeper for another cen i tury. Hqrpcr's HagasiRe