The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

l when m lDaO the NentureSOme and in.
 treped DeSoto, with his horde of gold
 seeking followers. gazed on the river
 since named the Coosa, after they had
 traversed much of the country embraced
 in what is now Alabama, they did not
 know that their gold quest had been
 accomplished that their eyes rested on
 a stream that would in the centuries to
 come provide millions of the precious
 metal they sought by reason of the rich
 ness of It's tributaries and the splendid
 advantages of It's location These were
 not the kind of men, however, to find the
 wealth of the peacefully flowing river,
 and they passed 1t by with a toss of the head as fit for nothing more than to
 float off the bodies of the Indians they had murdered. They saw not the value in the dense growth of timber and the rich and productive soils, neither did they | observe that the hills abounded with minerals that were, In the days to fol- low. to astonish the world by their rich ness.
 DeSoto marched through a large por- ton of the country drained by the Coosa and camped many days on it's banks It Is supposed that the stream took its name from an old tribe of Indians called the Coosas. though 1t is otherwise said to have arisen from the term reedy, indi- eating that it's banks were lined with great forests of reed or cane.
 From the Rich HlIls..
 As some restless hound scenting the game from afar, the Coosa raises it's head in the fertile hills of Georgia, being formed by the junction of the Oostaunala and the Etowah at Rome. after the first named had come down from the country one hundred and fifty miles away Catching the trail laden breeze as 1t arose from the valleys toward the gulf stream seems to have sought the rich est and most promising route to give it pathway on it's journey. Down to the wheat and oat fields and or through the iron laden hills of Georgia the river ran merrily, until 1t reached the Alabama line. Seemingly searching for the best point to make its entry into the state, the waters poured forth through fra grant valley of Cherokee county, skirt ing the mountains with iron ores and coal and limestone in unknown .abund- ance and raising trees so large and so thick that many decades of the cruel ax have done little more than thin them out.
 Wealth on It's Banks.
 As if glorying in the vastness of it's environment the mighty stream moved on. Through the iron fields of Etowah and St. Clair and Calhoun counties 1t has made its way tapping here and there the banks black with coal or taking in wa ters slick with limestone until it lashed the gold filled clays of Taladega and washed with its waters the pure white of the marble of the same county. 1t flows by the outcropping of the high grade iron ores in Shelby, and not far from It's banks DeSoto stopped killing Indians long enough to sink few holes in the ground and dig out gold in Clay county. Coosa county, as If to do the stream of its name honor, had been filled with va rious minerals, and 1t Is generally known that to this day no man has been able to estimate the value of the many earth ly deposits of that subdivision. Chiffon Joins Coosa in its great storehouse of undiscovered minerals and Fillmore, where 1t ceases to be by junction with the gracefully flowing Alabama, does 1t honor in the immense and long standing values of It's farm and field products.
 Open For Long Ways.
 The Coosa Is 'boat wise" from Rome, Ga, to Lock 4, about 16S miles, having channel of at least four feet. AS an H. lustration of the feasibility of improving the stream 1t Is noted that velocity at Wetumpka Is equal to the Mississippi at St. Paul; 2S greater than the Hudson at Albany; 3.5 greater than the Ohio at Pittsburg. II has drainage basin of 6s5O square miles of forest, fine farms and vast mineral resources. In what is termed the white oak region of Georgia 1t serves an area of 5000 square miles and a population of 250,000, and eaters to commercial territory that raises annu- ally 6O000 bales of cotton, four million bushels of corn. two million bushels of oats and two million bushels of wheat.
 In the nine Alabama counties touched by the river, there are S566,272 acres of lands, with 100000 in cultivation Cotton. corn, oats rye sugar cane and all kinds of vegetables and fruits arc grown and in abundance The population Is 300.000 and the Agricultural returns are, enor- nous.
 Some idea of the importance of the farm products can be secured in the fol- lowing statistics of tonnage taken from reliable sources. and applying to the whole river from Rome to Lock 4;
 Cotton ..!..............,.s..s... boOO0 tons. Cotton seed ..............,.. 0ooO0 tons. Corn ............................ .225OOO tons. Oats ........................... 4o'OOo tons. Wheat ............................ 6S,O0O tons. Cattle, sheep, hogs,....,...,.... 20Oo0 tons.
 Total .......................... .50s, 900 tons.
 This is valued at at least twenty mil- lion dollars not to mention the fruit and hundreds of other varieties of small vegetables
 These figures have no consideration Of the 2,S3500 acres that have not been im- proved. Neither do they take into &C., count the s505. 900, 600 feet of timber, 20.- 0000 900 tons with L. value of $65, ,000 900. Cut ting SO.0oO,0OO feet year 1t VOL. take 100 years to cut 1t out, and shipping 15O,000 tons a year the revenue would be from this source alone. s6,50O,OoO annually.
 Record of Its Route.
 The Coosa river. as noted, comes into Alabama in Cherokee county, only a few miles from two of the first furnaces for the making of iron ever built in the south, one at ..ound Mountain and the other at Cornwall in the country nearby. Along the side of LooI.out Mountain is found the best red and brown ores of the some running as high at 5S per cent in metallic value. Lime Is also found in immense quantities both of Aux ing and commercial flneness, with baux- ite, kaoln and cement and several very fine coal showings that have not been worked enough to tell just what they will produce. Practically the same natural conditions prevail in Etowah county. where the are at present some of the largest and most modern iron