Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-03-25
DIAMONDS ARE FOUND
IN KENTUCKY FIELDS
Project Already Started Looking 10
The Working Of The Diggings
In Earnest.
MOUNTAINOUS PICK UP STONES
South Africa Experts Who Have In.
vestiustcd Say the Territory is Sim.
liar to tho Country IN Africa From
wl,ere the Mos, Valuable Gems
Come.
MouNTIANEERs PICK UP STONES
tSprciaI to tile Daily Press.
Come.

OWlNGSVILLE, KY. March u. +
by May is said OH god authority
machinery will be on the ground a.
the scene OF he Elliott County dia-
mond fields. aud work OF developing
that territory TO determine whether
Or not IL will pay. will begin.
Operations will AT first be- on Il
comparatively small scale, but Il SUI.
ficicnt force OF men will be employed
10 make all the preliminary cxcava-
tons necessary. by May. miners aud
prospcctors from all over the country
arc expected To visit the fields
Ample Capital Secured
II is said that more than one South
African diamond expert will come ov.
or. The only excavation now in the
fields is one seventy feet deep and
ten feet square which was sunk
some time ago, without definite re.
suit. 1t is also said that ample CAPT.
tai has been obtained TO insure a.
thorough test Of the fields. !.
The Elliott County diamond fields
are about forty miles east of here.
and are at leas; ten miles from a
railrond. The nearest railway station
Willard. Carter County, OH the Chcs-
apeake and Ohio.
Fields Are Inaccessible.
From there the journey to the dia-
mond mines is made ON horseback
For some years it has been pcriodi
cally reported that diamonds have
been found there, but it remained for
David Draper, u Kimberley tSouth
Africa) diamond expert. to visit that
ncighborhooI and report that there
were undoubtedly diamonds there
Draper said he discovered indispu.
table evidences of the presence of OK
linct volcanoes in the valley in which
the mines are situated, and that the
territory is similar To that al the
Kimberley fields
Precious Stones There.
Othcr experts have examined
stones found there and say tla, pre-
cious stones undoubtedly exist there
in paying quantities. Two months
ago, some rocks from the ncighbur
hood were sent To Lexington experts
who said that they were chrysoltcs
This revived the waning interest in
the field, and now comes tho an.
nOunccmcnt that development wOulI
begin in The spring.
In the middle OF 80 IL party of gov.
crnment scientists visited the social
ed diamond fields, and found
such traces of the precious stones
there that they said in their report
that the developments of the terri
Dry would result in the discovery of
diamonds in paying quantities.
Diamonds in Volcanoes.
David Draper who made fortune
by operating in the Kimberley fields,
last autumn, after an exhaustive cx-
animation, said that deep below the
surface, there were nccks OF extinct
volcanoes. Embedded in these nccks.
he stated, diamonds would be found.
No certain estimate OF the cost Of
developing the fields could he made,
he explained, because it, could not be
determined how far excavations
would have to penetrate before the
volcano nocks could be uncovered
Mountainecr Finds Diamond.
Mountaincers living in that neigh
borhood have long reported that,
they frequently found peculiar stones;
thereaDouts, but little attention was
paid 10 them. 1t is said that "a noun.
taineer recently sold fine uncut di.
almond that he said he found at the
folds, hut this story could not be
confirmed
'Nlc field covers a valley several
thousand acres in extent. It is al
most inaccessible. The ground is
covered with queer locking. blackish
rocks. and many of the mountain
people are superstitious Regarding
the place, fearing that inhabitants OF
another world walk there