The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-07

were on the warpath. A desperate fight
 and a desperate race ensued. Four of | the white men were killed The army officer and one of the scouts reached 1 the mouth of a deep ravine, rode into i it and found refuge under an over ! hanging cliff of white rock. The scout, | Amos Chapman was wounded and had ! to suffer the amputation of leg. He | Is still in that section of the country.
 The army officer went back to the 1 east and told a friend of his of the 1 fight. Then he added: q believe the 1 ravine where we n.u and the hills for { miles around are almost solid pure { gypsum" His friend was a gypsum miner but for many years he gave the matter no thought. Then came the l opening of the new country. The gyp- | sum miner remembered the army off, | cer's story. He set out and he found l the gypsum, the greatest and purest deposit in the world. The army officer was Nelson A. Miles, now retired, lieu tenant general and sometime ranking officer of the American army.
 Outlaws Hiding Place.
 After the day of Miles fight with the Indians, those gypsum caves be- came the hiding place for bands of out laws and bank robbers. Here the fla nous Dalton gang hid themselves and defied the officers of the law to take them. Other thieves and bad men" made their homes under those white 1 cliffs and sallied forth to pillage the towns which were springing up as the vanguard of civilization reached out to the westward.
 Three ranges of hills running across the state were known to the cowboys as the "gyp hills" Two lodges of white gypsum 40 feet thick and 200 |, md much for the future of the western section of the state. Already there are a great number of mills, five of them clustered about General Miles place of refuge, which are calcining the rock into pure plaster of paris There Is so much gypsum here that 1t would require these five mills little over 10000 years to exhaust the sup ply, which has been estimated by geol- ogists at 125, ,000 900, 900 tons. The use of plaster of paris is being extended every day. These mills in Oklahoma can load the plaster on the cars for sl.65 a ton total cost. The plaster Is sold within hundred miles for as much as S11 a ton. There ought to be money in the gypsum business. Wonderful Salt Springs. In the southwestern portion of the state great source of possible wealth is found in the salt springs These produce enough salt water, naturally flowing, to make 100000 gallons Of salt a day. few primitive plants have been operated to obtain this salt, some by solar evaporation and some by boil ing but practically all of it has gone to waste. concern is now beginning to develop these salt wells along mod ern lines.
 In the Indian territory are found | mines of rock asphalt much greater in l extent than any heretofore known. This 1 asphalt is being used to pave the 1 streets of towns in the neighborh ood, | but Oklahoma City is using Trinidad | Lake asphalt because of the paving | combination and the fact that no cap ital has been invested to develop the | mines of the new state. Ardmore mas | streets paved with material mined In | the immediate vicinity, and 1t is de-
 clared by paving men that no town
 has better streets than Ardmore. Beds 1 of asphalt a hundred feet wide five l miles long and of unknown depth have
 been found by the scores.
 Farms Greatest Wealth. The coal mines of the Indian terri tory are of great importance. Their 1 production is large enough to place , Oklahoma high in the list of coal pro
 ducing states even now, and 1t Is estl-
 mated by geologists that not more than
 ? per cent of the field has been ex- l plotted. As a great and growing coun-
 try to the west and southwest will
 look to these mines for fuel, the eco
 homie value of the Indian territory coal
 fields is very great
 Oklahoma proper will be an agricul- tural section and her farms will be her ! greatest wealth. The Indian territory has many good farms, but it's greatest | riches lie in it's mines. Thus the new
 state will have two distinct sections
 the eastern, devoted principally to min l ing, and the western to agriculture l The one will profit from the other and | with a population increasing at tne
 rate of quarter of million year | from American immigration, the future
 of a new born empire with such won
 derful resources cannot be anything | but glorious.
 l Tomorrow-History Knows No Speed | Limit.
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