Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1907-01-24
RIVAL YELLOW GOLD
Springs-Wsahh Of Quapaw Reservation
Is Unbounded-NeW Fold for Cap
ifaI Is Located Close TO
Bio Cities
George E. Moran in Chicago Chronicle.

Baxter Springs, Kan. Jan. 49,
Before / had seen the great lead
and zinc camp of Baxter Springs
i had the prevalent idea that
these humble, necessary and eX-
tremely useful minerals cut but
a small figure in the mining
world. had supposed that they
were of secondary Importance,
dug up wherever they might be
found just because they came in
handy and but little thought Of
in comparison with gold and sill
yer. And now-well, after see
ing the camp of Baxter Springs
and the mining work that is 60
ing on throughout the Quapaw
reservation, my views have been
materially altered and l. have
gained a fresh lot of useful in
formation. Gold is king" is 4
saying old as the cupidity of
mankind-a proverb that was old
when Croesus piled up his yellow
boards and when Alexander raw
aged the treasury of Persia.
Throughout the ages men have
hunted gold. and hunted in def
ance of the fact that the yellow
metal has a grim and cruel habit
of hiding itself in the widest
and most inaccessible of places.
To this day men go plunging
into the arctic wilds, Drawing
every danger, facing the cold and
terror of the frozen north and all
for gold.
Gold may be king, but lead and
zinc are crown princes of the val
liable metals, and these useful,
needful minerals are to be OBJ
tanned without half the toll and
danger that the search of gold
entails. Ten out of every dozen
men fail and come home fiat
broke after spending their all in
the search for gold. Lead and
zinc are to be found nearer to the
centers of civilization and in such
quantities that the percentage Of
success among the men who
mine for these humber prizes is
infinitely greater than among the
daring adventures who face the
Yukon ice or the deserts OF
Nevada.
Foremost today among the lead
and zinc producing centers of the
United States is the camp which
radiates southwark from the
hustling town of Baxter Springs,
Kansas. In this big camp a min
ing boom of the real, all-wool
and reliable variety is under way
and the miners are happier and
luckier than nine-tenths of the
country's gold hunters. Instead
of semi-occasional pockets or pay
streaks of yellow gold great
shafts of dull-colored lead or
glitteriRg zinc are being worked
and with unvarying success. The
, returns are safe and steady; the
climate is perfection so far as the
work of mining is concerned and
the camp instead of being located
in some almost inaccessible desert
of snow or sand is within a few
hours jump of the big cities and
the marts of trade.
The lead and zinc mines which
are worked from Baxter Springs
have an interesting history.
Many years ago small tribe OF
Indians, known as the Quapaws,
held possession of much land in
Missouri, Arkansas and Louisi-
ana. De Soto met them in his
wanderings-they were even then
known as the Kapaha, meaning
the lost tribe" In 1884 this old
and long known band sold to the
government their vast estates for
the ridiculous sum of $4,000 in
trade and retired to a reservation
In the northeastern corner of the
Indian Territory. A few years
AGO the Ouapaws, who number