The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-16

Oence In the medium 20 experiment Jul
| put down the shaft itself fully expect
| ing Ito get the coal and bring it up
| when a certain depth was reached.
Dr. McAdams was interested in the
matter and wrote to his brother, who
| was then state geologist of Ill1onls'
about it. His brother wrote back re-
ouesting him to go out to the shaft and
make diagram of it. The doctor Went
out and found McCampbel at work
He had the half of a coal oil barrel Tor
an elevator and he ran II with mule.
On top he had a peculiar canvas con-
trivance for sending the air down % the
bottom. The doctor said he wanted 10
examine tribe interior of the shaft and
old man McCampbell hitched himself
to the wirdlass to let the doctor down.
After the doctor satisfied himself that
McCampbell didn't have heart disease
and wasn't liable to die while he (the
DOCTOR was half way down the well,
he entered fine tub and made his way
down by a system of signals he had
arranged with the old man. The doc
tor took an iron chisel with him and
was about an hour and a half going to
the bottom of theshaft, which was then
800 feet deep. He stopped at every
stratum Of rock he came to, picked out
a fossil and numbered ii. He sent all
these fossils to his brother VINO ex-
amined them and wrote back that old
man McCampbeH was putting in his
time and labor for nothing. that the
fossils evidenced the fact that coal new
er did and never could exist below rock
IN which these fossils were found. He
showed this letter to McCampbell who
said that the doctor was a fool and his
brother bigger fool. and that he and
1,f ,s,-;& NJ
Campbell went down twenty feet fur
Their and struck salt water.
Nelson McClees and John Noble took
the whole after that and commenced
making salt. and ever since McCamp-
bells shaft is known as the salt hole.
DR.. McAdams made predictions about
the prospect well now being dug by the
city He thinks the first thing struck
will be gypsum and that it may be from
thirty to forty feet thick. The next
thing after that will be magnesia, and
still further on, at depth of 1000 or
200 feet, salt. When a depth of 1000
or LOO feet is reached he thinks arte-
sian water will be struck but that 1t
will be so strongly impregnated with
gypsum and salt that it will be useless.
He says that the earth under Wichita
was formed in the Triassic and Creta-
tious ages and that the coal measure
crops out and ends some eighty miles
east of Wichita. He thinks legmite coal
may be discovered in pockets but that
kind of coal is no good for anything.
In a word he thinks that the whole
'th ing is a waste of money.
WHAT AN OLD SETTLE RSAYS.
An ''old settler" writing to the editor
of the Eagle about the well, says:
81 have been reading about the pro-
gTesS Of 1.-THE deep well being sunk by
THE city for coal or whatever may be
found. Before work was begun I felt
sure that there would be trouble from
sand and water. Several aittempas
ihave been made in the city to sink wells
without success. About ten years ago
the City Mill undertook 10 sink a well.
After pumping for nearly Il month and
nearly undermining the mill the pro-
ject was abandoned. At the depth Of
fouliteen feet the underground stream
was truck. The we'll was ten feet
across. The current would carry a
chip across the well quickly.
About THAT time Mr.. Daisy under
took to sink a, well to get water for
street sprinkling. In about two weeks
thine with pump throwing a four inch
stream he reached a depth of twenty
two feet, but it would fill with quick
sand in few minutes after the pump
This well showed a strong
Small pieces of coal were
found worn smoOthe by the process OF
ages. The first city water works met
the same difficulty. A heavy stone wall
twenty-five feet in diameter was sunk.
The current swung this wall to the
so that it could not be sunk
to proper depth to secure water. The
Little Arkansas had to be taped for a
supply.
But I set out to speak of what it
seemed to me every old settler in the
city ought to have known. This would
even now be useless unless had a sug-
gestion TO offer. and what have to Of
fer is from knowledge, not from guess /
work or theory.
This underground stream does not |
extend farther east than Hillside ave-
nue.. 1 dug a well my self forty feet |
deep. Not a drop of water was found. 1
Nearly THE whole distance was blue /
clay and gypsum
THE McCampbell well went $50 feet
through solid rock without a drop of
water, then found salt water that rose /
$50 feet. Little seems to be known what .
was found by the man who sunk a. well /
/ 100 feet on Frisco Heights, but this |
much may be inferred. that he had no |
from water for he did the |
work quickly. l lived near and know /
than he found NO water to speak Of UNI !
til $50 feet was reached. and then it was |
salt
Now for the suggestion Abandon
the valley before the money is all gone. |
Abandon il and go 10 the hill. l can /
furnish a place to go to work"
MISS FULLER DIES SUDDENLY.