Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1905-11-09
NORTH. DAKOTA TREASURE

What Nature Has Given the State In
II Her Great Coal and Clay Deposits.
Results of an investigation.
During the past summer twb parties
have been Investigating the Ignite
and csy deposits Of North Dakota.
The United States geological survey
Sparty was in charge Of the state geo.
logist, DR.. A. G.. Leonard, who with
two student assistants from the
university spent four months in a
study OF the great North Dakota
Montana Ignite fields. The second
party, which was in the employ of the
North Dakota geological survey, was
in charge of G. H. Clapp, graduate
of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He made a careful ex-
animation Of the extensive and va.u-
able clay deposits of the western part
Sof the state, collecting many samples
for analysis and testing.
DIR. l4eonard's party left Dickinson
in June and went southwest along the
Little Missouri river and It's tribu-
taries as far as Camp Crook, South
Dakota; here the party turned east
and followed for sixty miles the south
fork Of the Grand river, visiting the
interesting Slim Buttes and Cave
Hills; then north across North Dakota
by way of Dickinson and the Killdeer
mountains to Williston and Buford;
from the latter point the Yellowstone
river was followed for IT'S miles to
Miles City, Mont. From there che
party returned to Dickinson, reach
ing that place about the middle of
October.
The region within which the Ignite
occurs was found to have a greater
extent than previously supposed, cover
ing the western half Of North Dakota
and extending west into Montana as
far as the Crow Indian reservation
and the mouth of the Milk river and
south into northeastern Wyoming and
northwestern South Dakota. 1t meas
ures about $50 miles from east to west
and north to south and comprises an
area of some 12O. 600 square miles.
The coal seams vary in thickness
from a few inches TO thirty.three feet
and there are usually several of them
within a vertical distance Of 200 or 300
feet. At one point on the Little Mis-
souri, fifteen coal seams were counted
in a bluff 400 feet high and at another
locality twelve seams we're found with.
in q vertical range Of 25O feet.
The Investigations showed that the
Ignite beds are not confined to any
particular horizon in the Laramie for
nation but are distributed thru the
clays and sands from top to bottom.
The thickest seam found during the
summer was one which outcrops thirty
miles south of Medora at the Russell
ranch on Sand Creek, a tributary OF
the Little Missouri. Another thick
seam, also occurring in Billings county
lies near tile base of Sentinel Butte,
three miles south of the town Of the
same name, where twenty lone and
half feet Of Ignite are exposed.
Southern Billings county contains
many thick seams of coal which ap-;
pear in almost every cut bank and
bluff along the Little Missouri and the
creeks flowing into 1t.
The Ignite undergoes a change In
character DIS it is followed west into
Montana. In the eastern part OF the
field, in North Dakota, it is brown
and woody, retaining the grain and
toughness of the original wood from
which it is formed. This is q charac-
teristic OF nearly all the Ignite found
In this state. Farther west in Mont
. ana, on the other hand, the Ignite Is
black, lustrous and brittle, having less
Of the woody character and resembl-
inRabituminous coal. This does not
necessarily mean that the montana
d Ignite is superior to that OF North
q Dakota since that is probably not the
case. The analyses and tests OF the
Il samples collected during the past
summer: viii show the relative value
Of the two grades Of coal. 3
The party was equipped with team
and wagon, a complete camping outfit
and q saddle horse. The work was
confined, chiefly to the vicinity OF the
streams along which the coal o.utcrops
tu The bluffs and cut banks. VA care
ful examination was made OF the
seams wherever they were exposed,
their thickness, extent and location
determined so far as possible and -
many cases samples were procured fo'
\ analysis and testing. photographs
II we're taken Of a large number Of the
coal beds. 4:
s:{, M, !, %on<c; Y,nodo at the government