The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-04
NOW In SANDSTONE
DRILL ENTERS & NEW STRATUM
WHICH HAS COAL TRACES.

u
Coal Talk has now jumped to Front and
Gas, Oil aud Salt are Made to Take a
Back seat-In the Sandstone are Found
Particles of Coat, but too Small fol-
UtiIity-OId Miner Gives His Views in
Favor of Sinking Shafts in the Valley
Instead of on the Hill. He Laughs at idea
Yesterday the drill at the gas well
bles the celebrated Colorado stone,
such aus is used for paving the street
such as is used for paving the streea
car track of the electric railroad and the
alleys.
1t was claimed by the city engineer
and others that there is found in the
sandstone the first traces of coal that
has been reached yet, and by examin-
ing. the cuttings taken from the well
There cam be seen small black particles
which resemble coal that has been
crushed, and by putting the cuttings
under a glass the particles Of coal can
readily be SEEN
This they say does not mean that
they have reached coal, but indicates
10 them that coal is near at hand, and
yesterday salt, gas and oil had lost
their interest and coal was all the talk.
The oil that was examined was found
to contain considerable petroleum but
not in any large quantities, but the ex-
periments made with the other cuttings
are proving very interesting. and when
completed the citizens of Wichita viii
be surprised to learn of the valaables
lying beneath the surface.
At O'Clock the drill had reached a
depth OF 695 feet and was still working
in the sandstone Everything was NOV
ing along in good shape. and when the
reporter left the shaft all We're talking
coal and anxiously watching every
bucketful of cuttings taken from the
well. Small pieces of coal were found
about the size of a pea, but anything
in the report about the city that coal
had been found at the we'll was errOne-
GUS, unless a person was willing to hunt
coal with a magnifying lass. The
truth was that the drill had reached
traces Of coal which required a fertile
imagination aided by magnifyng glass
10 make the discovery.
1t was thought last night that the
developments made today would prove
the most interesting of any since he
wei was started, as the stratum they
were working in would end in some
thing interesting and that the indica-
tions Were that coal slate would be
reached.
At the we'll yesterday Josiah Scott, an
English miner who has been in the bus
iness for over thirty-f1ve years was
INST and engaged in conversation, as to
whether it would have been better to
have sunk the we'll in the valley or TO
srave commenced on the hin, and as
this has been a subject of some con-
tention among the citizens of Wichita
the old gentleman's ideas are given in
full as touching this subject. He said:
81 know that it is the general theory
rhaIt coal should be sought in the hills
and in some places this holds good, but
THE best coal fields in Illinois are found
in the midst of its greatest prairies
The same thing is true in Kansas. Now
make the mine at the Kansas penitenti-
airy and on the hill the shaft was put
down 500 feet to reach the coal, and
the vein was found to extend under the
Missouri river and all under the great
Missouri river valley. In the valley
on the Missouri side the same vein of
coal could be reached at depth of $50
feet. You remember that the mines
on the Kansas side were served with
an injunction forbidding them to mine
coal out from under the farms on the
Missouri side unless they had first Sc
cured a lease from the owner of the
hand
''Now this proves that had the shaft
been put down in the river bottom in
Stead of on the hill that the coal, the
81,
over 400 feet nearer the surface in the
bottoms than on the hill.
81 think that the putting down of
the well in the valley was the proper
Ihing 10 be done. 1t probably brought
trouble and bother sooner than 1t
would have found on the hill, but the
trouble had to come, and ii might Just
as well have occurred AIT a depth of
thirty feet below the surface as at 300
feet
Some people talk about Wichita be-
Ing below the coal blossoms which
sounds ridiculous to a practical miner
Such a fool idea might do very we'll
as theory, but as a practical demon
stra,tion it is all moonshine. II is a
fact THAT some of the best mines in the
world are located below the level of the
sea- The great Birmingham, Gng)
mine. is located below the level of the
Sea, and l understand that Wichita is
1900 feet above the sea 1avel and ,-Ar
some suggest it is below the coal bios
som. Ii IL is below the coal blossoms
where in the world does all the coal
come from in Illinois and other places
which are hundreds of feet lower than
Wichita.
Il don't know who started such an
hea- but L am willing TO guarantee
that The knows nothing more about