The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-06
FHosPHATEs IN TENNESSEE.
More Valuable Than the Richest
Gold Camp In the World.

Gold Camp In the World.
A press dispatch from Chicago says
| that the richest and most extensive
discovery of rock phosphate in the
! history of the world has been made in
Tennessee. The deposits underlie four
counties in the vicinity of Nashville
Davidson. Williamson, Rutherford and
Maury. The rock lies in vein averag-
ing from three to twelve feet in thick
ness, and is but ten feet below the sur
face. The commercial. value of the dis
covery 1t is impossible to estimate, but
the output VIII be worth more than
that of the richest gold mining terri
tory IN the world.
Mr.. Clark of the firm of Pratt &
Clark, chemists of Atlanta, while in
Nashville some four weeks ago on bus
mess, CHANGED to pass some men who
We're at work digging a sewer. The
soft, crumbling, yellow rock which was
thrown out attracted his attention. and
he put a piece of it in his pocket for
analysis. Upon his return to Atlanta
he gave it to one of his assistants The
next day the assistant informed him
that the specimen rock showed 50 per
cent pure phosphate. Mr.. Clark told
the assistant that he did not believe the
figures were correct, and advised him
TO try again.
The assistant offered 10 stake his rep
utation on the correctness of his fig
ures. and Mr. Clark informed him that
they could not be true for the reason
that in the whole history of the world
no phosphate rock of anywhere near
such richness had ever been found. The
assistant thereuDon made another an
alysis and verified his figures to the
last fraction. Mr.. Clark, still unable
to accept the analysis as correct, made
an analysis himself and with the same
result.
Upon being assured that it was
wonderfully rich find. he informed
George w Scott, a capitalist of At
lanta, and, with a crew of picked labor
ers, went to Nashville. All the prop
erty near the location of the sewer was
bought up, and the laborers We're sent
into the surrounding country to dig
holes to depth of II feet at certain
distances apart In this way the vein
was followed and the farms bought
wherever the rock was found The
men worked day and night. and the
farms were bought at the price put
upon them by the owners without
waste of time
Mr.. Scott purchased property which
VIII make him at least $40. OO0. 900 richer.
A rush was then made by capitalists
for possession of the property from all
parts of the country, and the fertilizing
companies of Chicago managed TO get
a generous slice. AS the worth of phos-
phate and the increasing demand for
il are known by those who now have
possession of the land, the present
price of the phosphate will be. affected
but little.
Philip D. Armour of Chicago has in
vested heavily and now has a chemist
and representatives in the field who
are looking for more land. James Mat
tison Of La Sale. Ill, learned OF the
discoveries early. and has perhaps more
land than any one save Mr. Scott of
Atlanta The Northwestern Fertilizing
company of Chicago has in the neigh
borhood of 600 acres. Representative
of European capital are in the field.
and the adjoining counties to those in
which the vein has been struck are be-
ing bought up.
A month ago Mount Pleasant. in
Maury county, was a typical country
town, in the barren lands of Tennes-
see. Today it resembles a mining camp
more than anything else. Hotels. sa-
looms, land offices and crushing mills
have sprung up like mushrooms.
Everybody in the town seems to have
money, and every house is filed with
boarders. At present there are be-
tween 1000 and 5000 men at work. and
shipments of phosphate are being made
to all parts of this country and Eu-
rope.
Machinery and men are being shipped
into the state wherever a deposit has
been found near a railroad. and the
railroad company has construction
trains and thousands Of laborers build
ing spurs and switches off the main
lines. Already hundreds of car loads
of rock have been shipped to New
York and Chicago. and nine steamships
cleared from Florida ports last week
loaded with phosphate rock from Ten
nessee- Large consignments have been
shipped TO Atlanta, and it is stated
upon reliable authority that several
1erulizing plants viii be erected there.
James NJ. Stafford. state geoIogist of
tennessee, says the rock is the richest
ever discovered. and that the increased
Nalue to the state cannot p ~--i---9t,sd
Phosphate is the one mineral element in
nature which holds together the other
elements which constitute the human
body 1t constitutes the best fertiI;za,
known. As this country is vet voune,
ana has been. III comparison with the |
countries of Europe. farmed but littie
the necessity of phosphate fa,-.ilizers |
has not been felt. but the demand fo-
it IS increasing at an enormous rare
each year ''''e