Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-28
ALABAMA COAL.


 most the output of gold from the Ala bama mines will be no inconsiderable sum. In fact, those who have taken the trouble to investigate that particular line of Alabama's vast and practically limitless resources are of the opinion that gold boom" is in store for Ala bama at no distant date.
 Cleburne and Randolph and Clay and Coosa counties are said to contain inn mense deposits of gold ore, and analyses made by expert assayists demonstrate that it contains large per cent of pure gold
 Since the development of the gold in- tereStS began a few years ago nearly every available acre of land in what is known as the gold belt has been pur- chased by different syndicates or indi- viduals who are interested in the forma- ton of syndicates. Prices have en- hanced enormously in the meantime, and today it is doubtful if an acre of land within the gold region, whether gold has ever been found on that particular acre or not, could be bought for less than 5000. and in some instances as high as $10000 an acre has been refused. This, too in the mountains of Cleburne, where only a few years ago roVed the wolf and the wild boar undisturbed by human be- -ings, land, the greater portion of which yet belonged to the government because it was believed not worth the trouble of homesteading. That which had been en- tered and belonged to individuals would command hardly more than $l an acre.
 About ten years ago Judge w. E. Horne made a prospecting tour through the counties above mentioned and wrote a letter to the New Orleans Times-Demo crat. in which he gave the result ot his inyestigation By the kindness of Maj. Frank Y. Anderson, who has preserved the letter in his scrap book, the Age Herald is permitted to reproduce 1t. It reads as follows:
 Mineral Empire.
 Turkey Heaven. Cleburne County Ala. June 23, 1SS5-"Turkey Heaven, v. the highest point of theApalachiancha in in Alabama overlooks the gold fields Of Abercoochee, which yielded forty years ago $3.500000 of gold
 From 1t to the northeast you can see Kennesaw mountain. In Georgia where Sherman. with blood, made the surface soil as crimson, as the gleaming mineraI oxides below. es
 Here, long dormant in the very heart of the south lies mineral empire ana '''Turkey Heaven" rising above the float4' ing clouds below, will become to the in coming miners of the near future what Mount Hood, Shasta, Butte and Pike Peak were to the earlier miners or tne Pacific It will be a mining center, for from it northward, in uhbroken llnesi run the gold and silver bearing veins which. from erosons in the past, have flooded and made rich with disinter grated ores the fields and valleys bet low, while to the south the receding mountains, full to the brim with min erals. fade from forests 5ot green to mists of blue.
 On the west stretch undulating areas, with countless seams of coal, rlmmeo py mountain ranges Of iron. Which' III quantity, is so vast that the figures Tor measurement run into the meaSureleSS unknown. Here where but a few years ago was a barren plantation Birming- ham is busy with it's coal, iron and lime stone-a thing accomplished and city.
 In the east, on the margin of this min eral domain, which, widening through Georgia. touches the borders of South Carolina, and embraces all of western North Carolina, is the Gate City of the south-the city of energies, Atlanta.
 A mineral king will supplant in these mountain homes the ancient royalty of cotton; the miners pick will dig in these hills graves for the old and pathways for the new. Cotton, the negro and the mule will migrate to the tertiary zone lands formed in recent periods full of fructifying humus-where the hot sun and shade, siren sisters, while broaden ing the fibrous leaf of cotton, woos to voluptuous slumber the African race.
 An Artery of Gold. running through North Carolina and Alabama has been tapped only here and there, say at Dahlonega, in Georgia, where there was once a mint; at Villa Rica, Abercoochee and Blue Creek, in Alabama, yielding immense sums from the loose sands and gravel. This was prior to the discovery of gold in Cali fornia. The Assure vein and the stamp mill for crushing ores are of the present, not of the past.
 Ruby silver, in Alabama, a piece of which imbedded in quartz lies before me, is as bright as the burning jeweled eye of the scorpion.
 Almost at my feet Assure vein of gold feeds with broken quartz two streams which run away into the valley out of which from pit by 10 feet six teen pounds of gold were taken.
 nugget of gold worth $265 was found on the Allen place, where for years it had been the habit of the family to search successfully after heavy rains for large and small nuggets. It is said old Mrs. Allen really found $3 worth of gold in turkeys craw, though her place Is not on Turkey Heaven. A chimney, built in crude way, after rainfall showed a gleaming nugget worth SIS. A find of $3400 was made in day by a dissipated miner who was never sober afterward
 Silver and gold combined in true fis- sure veins are to be found running throughout the belt, assaying on the surface sixteen ounces.
 Mica and kaolin are found in lodges running parallel with the gold and silver veins. Mica is the most beautiful of all the minerals and is found here in great abundance. I have seen sheets perfectly translucent that would square 16 inches. Talladega,
 city of pleasant associations and bright citizenship, should be to this rich gold silver, mica and kaolin belt what Birmingham is to the coal, iron and limestone. The Gods seem to have made it by special endowment of water facil- ities. a place for the manufacture of porcelain wares. She can command a limitless supply of the purest and whitest kaolin. samples of which took the premium at the centennial of 1876