The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-05-05
" + Curtis in The Chlcago Record.

|
lola, Kans., April 25.-The gas
fields of Kansas cover tract OF
eighty square miles IN the southeast.
ern corner of the state, just where
fuel is most needed, and furnish q
remarkable illustration of the wis.
dom Of nature. The zinc mines of
Kansas and Missouri, of almost un-
limited deposits, are so near that the
flames ef the gas wells may almost be
seen from the shafts. In Indian Ter
ritory, few miles to the south, are
coal and petroleum in practically in
exhaustible quantities, and all around
the gas fields are beds of clay which
make the best brick in the world.
Sooner or later some one is going to
find sand for glassmakiDg, and iron
ore, which will make southeastern
Kansas center of industry similar
to the gas fields of Pennsylvania.
Ohio and Indiana.
Here, in a little area not much
larger than Rhode Island, have been
assem- bled by the hand of the Creator
all the necessary materials for sew
eral of the most important mechani.
cal industries. To the north and
west and south Is an agricultural
country that produces the best and
cheapest food in the world. To the
east are the great forests of Arkan-
sas, which will furnish timber in
abundance within easy distance. 4
little farther south are the cotton
fields of Texas, and it will not be
many years before a large part of
their crop will be consumed here by
factories fed by natural gas, the
cheapest, the most convenient and
the best fuel in the world.
In yesterdays letter | mentioned
the first cotton mill to he built in
Kansas. 1t is in the nature of an
experiment, but no one who has
studied the situation has any doubt
of its success. The same conditions
that made the manufacture of cotton
fabrics profitable in the southern
states exist here, with the addition of
two very important considerations.
One is the fuel | have mentioned;
the other is the existence of q market
OF IL, 900, 900 people within transpor-
tation distance of twenty.four hours.
The railroads are already construct
ed. Unconscious and involuntary
preparation has been going on for
years, and the discovery of natural
gas in Kansas found the Transports
tion companies ready to do their
share of the work.
There has been no boom in the gas
district. People out i'm this country
have horror of "boomsu-the result
OF eXperience-and nothing has been
done TO create an excitement or bring
money or labor that is not needed.
The gas wells now are utilized chiefly
for smelling, brickmaking, flour and
paper mills and for domestic pur-
poses. man pays 81 "a month dur
ing the winter and 30 cents month
during the summer for heating and
an equal amount for Lighting his
house, including fuel for the cook
stove. There are no ashes, no dust
and no kindlings are needed. When
he gets up in the morning he strikes
match and lights the kitchen fire.
He sets the furnace going in the same
way and can start fire in the crate
easier than me can light an oil lamp.
There are now about twenty wells
In the lola district, varying in depth
from Sl2 to 937 feet, giving daily
How OF from 100000 to l4,0OO, 900
cubic feet and pressure varying
from 80 to $50 pounds. Several ex-
perts have pronounced one of the
wells at lola the best in the world
1t is perfectly dry No water has
over flowed from 1t. The pressure
guage stands at 80 pounds day after
day, and there is an open flow of
!, 100000 cubic feet of gas every twen-
~ y-four hours, which is equivalent in
heat units to 235 tons of bituminous
GOAL This would be sufficient to run
a 1000 horsepower engine and fur
nish enough light and fuel for a town
Of 5000 inhabitants.
Prot. Grimsley, the state geologist
Of Kansas, tells me that "the lola gas
occurs in a porous sand rock, and
when the wells are drilled about
fifteen feet into it the pressure is so
great that it throws out the tools.
The gas is held in this rock by "a cap
NJ hn I'd ahn In frn... 80. Il. -l--l- 1 e.