The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-03-27
WANTIEASETO MINE COAL.
The Quodeeaw Company Has Faith Ii
It's ttasCa County I'M.

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The Quodenaw Development com
pany, of Duluth, claims to have dis
covered beds of bituminous coal in
Aitkin county and the first coal min
eral contract ever issued by the state
of Minnesota was secured from the
state auditor, March 9Th, by repre-
sentatives of the Duluth corpora
ton.
The company evidently considers
it has a good thing in sight, says
the St. Paul Globe, for it has had a
squabble with the state auditor over
the amount of royalty to be paid to
the state for each ton of coal mined.
Under section 2, of the iron mining
law, provision is made for the min
ing of coal under the head of min
erals other than coal, and this is
the case. The section reads:
SHOULD copper or any other valu
able mineral be discovered on land
leased as heretofore authorized the
terms and conditions on which the
same may be mined shall be agreed
upon by the state land commission
er and the lessee, and in case they
shall be unable to agree, then each
shall choose a referee and the two
persons shall choose a third. The
decision of said board shall be FINAL
and binding on the parties interest
ed"
When the matter of the royalty
was proposed to State Auditor liver.
son, who is also under the law state
land commissioner, he at once said
that the price to be paid the state
on each ton of the coal mined
would have to be Is cents, the same
as the royalty on iron ore.
Representatives of the company
demurred to this and argued that
there was a whole lot of difference
between the mining of coal and
iron. As their proposition was in
the nature, not only of a benefit to
the people of the state, but also a
home industry, the contention was
that the royalty should be much
less per ton. The auditor did not
see his way clear to lowering the
figure, and the result is that a board
of arbitration will be appointed to
fix the amount to be paid for each
ton mined.
The mineral lease, which it now
turns out, was issued from the state
auditors Office March 4. 1902, was
taken out as other leases or options
on mineral lands for one year and
the price paid for the option was
$25. 1t was not known at the time
the lease was secured that there
was any possibility of striking a
coal bed, but the company now
asserts that coal has been found
and in immense quantities.
Consequently, when the lease ex.
pired March 4th, the company at
once prepared to close a contract
by which it could proceed with the
mining on the tract and paid the
state, March 9th, 500 for the first
years contract. When the money
was paid into the state treasury
then the fact leaked out that it was
not iron which was to be mined,
but coal.
The exact location of the tract
which the company has leased and
on which the coal bed lies was not
given out at the auditors office and
all that could be learned was that
the tract vas in Aitkin county.
The Quodenaw Development
company, of Duluth, filed articles
of incorporation with the secretary
of state January 10 last. The capi.
tai stock of the company is 100000,
the number of shares being 1000,
The incorporates were John P.
Morrow, Mathew NJ. Gasser and
James A. Ferguson, all of Duluth.