Birmingham state herald., 1896-12-17
COL. R. E. MERRILL
Writes an Interesting Letter to the Hefln
 New Era On the Minerals of | Cleburne County.


 Dear Sir:-I never felt less like writ ing in my life. but being much interested in the upbuilding of Cleburne and Ran dolph counties and having great faith in the mineral resources of these counties. [ shall attempt, briefly. to offer you a few thoughts on that line. lsE
 That gold exists, in paying quantities, in this section, is no longer Ia question in doubt. The fact has been demonstrated beyond any doubt. While failures here tofore made are great lever powers in the way of capitalists still more recent developments of some of - the mines where numerous failures have been made will to great extent Strengthen the con fidenoe of those who desire to put money in such enterprises. .,,-
 A careful Investigation. and a knowl- edge-of the ores of the,south,g settles the fact that we have no free milling ores below water level. It is true that nearly If nottaH of the abaifdoneds mines of this county paid well to work to a water level. At water level the ores became sul- phuretted and can no longer be worked by the ordinary process Seven-eighths of the failures heretofore made are due to this fact. Then again, the majority of the mining enterprises in this section were entered into for speculation rather than for permanent and paying invest ms nt,-and were conducted by the promo tets in way to advance their stock in price, and of course somebody lost money. It is complained by men from ether sections that our own people have no confidence in the minerals of this sec- tion, and this to great extent is true, Judging from the way they talk, but that Is due to the fact that ell of these specu- latiVe mining enterprises have failed and some of our people have lost money on them.
 The time has been when a stranger could come here and represent that he was backed by unlimited capital and our people were ready to beiieye'it, but that is not the case now.s LA 5sss sas'
 With the Thies process for treating the sulphuretts I can see no reason why gold mining should not be made profit able in this section.
 There is no country where the ore bodies are so large as they are in Ala maba. There are several places in the Turkey Heaven mountain where the veins show to be over forty feet wide and run by actual assay oyer $5 per ton If this statement is doubted one has only to visit the Turner mine near Arbacoo-z chee, or the Echols mine, near Reasons mills There is no doubt in my mind but that all of these mines will be worked on a large scale in the near fu- ture.
 . yThere is another class of people who have infested this country, who did no good for themselves or anyone else. They are the mining experts. Ninertenths of them do net know any more. about min ing than Texas ponX does about Greer'S almanac. True, there are some of them who have good ideas about rocks and can give all the technicalfties used in the geological books; but, after all, the way to find out about value of a property for mining purposes is to use pick and shovel. This process is not guess work, and there is no danger of failure If the test is thorough. I am satisfied that those who own min eral lands in this belt need not fear to have their lands prospected. In fact, I believe 1t would be a good idea for the people to refuse to option their lands without clause in the option requiring property prospected to a certain depth. Yours truly, B. E. MERRILL. |, Hedin Ala, Dec. g. 1S96 -'ei ft.. -.i