Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1894-12-13
Ignite COAL.
Half the State Underlaid by
Deposits of this Cheap
Fuel.
Enough Coal to Warm the Pop
ulatiOn Of u. S. for ThOuS-
ands of Years.
Output Rapidly Increasing.
A Long Struggle Against
... Prejudice.

.. Prejudice.
The December number of the North.
west Magazine contains carefully
written article on the Ignite coal OF
North Dakota. One of the serious draw
backs to the prosperity of the state has
been the fact that it has no forests from
which a cheap fuel can be obtained.
The exceedingly high freight rates
incident to the long haul of all fuel into
the state has made excessive drains on
the means of the settler. Now it has
been demonstrated that supply of
cheap fuel, in unlimited quantities, lies
within the borders of North Dakota and
can be laid down at almost any point in
the state for less than half the cost of
eastern Goals. The article, in part. is as
follows, lack OF space preventing the re-
production in full:
Lignite is found in all the western
half of North Dakota, cropping out of
the bluffs and hill sides. In most loca]i-
| ties there are three or four strata of it,
the upper being from a foot to three feet
thick and the lower one from five to
thirty feet thick. The upper veins are
softer than the lower veins and are too
thin to be of any value. Most practical
miners believe that still lower veins
would be found if shafts we're sunk and
that these veins would prove to be
harder than the ones now worked, but
the industry of mining in the state is
everywhere in a rather rudimentary
stage and there is no capital available 10
make experiments. A level is run in
from the face of some bank convenient
to railroad, track is LAID into the
opening and the coal is taken out by the
simplest and most economical method.
The eastern limits Of the Ignite fields
have not yet been defined. They extend
east of the Missouri for considerable
distance, good veins having been dis
covered on the eastern slopes Of the
Coteaux and on the Mouse river.
LUG IuluO6 III" "OlAcu
are at Sims, on the Northern Pacific,
35 miles west of Msndan; at Lehigh,
1O6 miles west of Mandan, and also at
Mlnot, where the 500 road crosses the
Great Northern, and at Burlington, a
short distance from Minot, on the latter
road. Mines worked by settlers to sup
, ply neighborhoods with fuel are numer-
ous. Perhaps the most notable Of these
are in Mclean county, north of Bismarck
where a superior quality Of coal is found
So vast are the Ignite fields of North
Dakota in their extent and so wide in
their geographical distribution, that only
such as are very near to railroad track
a and present thick veins exposed for the
most economical mining operations have
!, any present commercial value. In other
: words coal lands are worth no more than
I other lands unless they are contiguous
to railroad and unless the lower vein il
. thick and can be entered on level. Sc
! far as concerns the quantity OF fue
which nature has stored up under the
, clay and loan of the North Dakota soil
I 1t would be no exaggeration to say that
. there is enough of it to warm the entire
. population of the United States for ter
thousand years.
A LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST PREJUDICE
1t has taken long time to convince
the people OF North Dakota that they
| -. ho,v toto f,o
3 for all domestic uses and for stationary
y cheaply that it can be sold at the mines
at good profit for a dollar ton, ane
which can be delivered at any railroad
9 station for about half the cost OF eastern
K coal for the like amount OF heat. The,
n have been convinced at last, however
. and the output of the mines is nov
rapidly increasing. It is fair to say tha
9 the growing popularity OF the Ignite To-
i domestic uses is due in considerabl,
Q measure to recent improvements il
stoves for burning it. The coal contain
a large percentage Of volatile matter
chiefly inflammable gases, which in tn,
{ ordinary stoves escapes up the chimney
( Another loss arose from the falling o
? unconsumed particles OF coal into tn
, ashes below the CRATE. The heatin,
power of q ton of Ignite burned in one o
D these new stoves is as great a. that OF
( ton OF Ohio bituminous coal
. Lignite was mined at Sims, then callet
! Carbon, ss long ago as 1880. Th
first mine was opened by Col. Bly,, o
= Bismarck. EXPERIMENTS in burning
, on locomotives proved failure. Th
1 specific gravity Of the Ignite ls 90 ligh
. that the strong, forced draft OF the On
gines carried good deal OF the fuel ou
{ at the smokestscks in q partially cor
Q sumed stste 1t was then mixed wit
Q Ohio coal. but the results were not salts
a factory and the railroad company va
:, reluctantly compelled to abandon
except as fuel for warming stations an
running Stationary pumping engines