Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-08-01
COAL FIELDS
TETON BASIN
Officials Investigate With
Idea Of Building Branch
Road

BOISE, Aug. 1.-State Mine Inspec-
tor r. N. Bell returned yesterday from
the Teton basin coal fields, says the
Statesman, where he accompanied
some Salt Lake capitalists and repre-
sentatives, of the Short Line. including
Chief Engineer William Ashton, on 9
trip of inspection Of the traffic re-
sources of that region and the FEAST
bility of building in a branch line from
Sugar City.
The party was successfully con-
Quoted and was making good progress
when a serious accident happened to
Mr.. Ashton, which came very near
costing him his life. He was being
driven in light buggy with a fast
team going at high speed when the
buggy struck dry ditch chuck hole
half way between Victor and briggs,
and the buggy broke in two. throwing
Mr.. Ashton violently to the ground,
which he struck with full force, head
first, severely bruising and cutting his
left eye and temple, which knocked
him senseless. He remained uncon-
scious for several hours. Mr.. Bell
was in the following buggy and assist
ed in carrying the injured man into a
nearby farmhouse. where he was cared
for to the best advantage until local
doctor arrived.
General Manager Bancroft, of the
Short Line was notified at once by
telephone and telegraph and he sent a
special train with surgeons from Poca-
tello, who arrived. on the scene II
hours later, and who decided to re-
move the injured engineer to Salt Lake
Immediately, where he could be oper-
ated upon if necessary At last reports
Mr.. Ashton was resting easy and 1t is
believed he will recover.
This sad accident to the most inn
portant member of the party seriously
interrupted the plans of the trip. After
Mr. Ashton was properly cared for,
however, and started on the way to
Salt Lake, the rest of the party, ex-
cepting Mr.. Ashton's chief assistant,
Mr.. Armstrong, who had attended him
constantly from the time he was hurt,
was prevailed upon by Mr.. Bell to stay
over in the basin another day and ex-
anime the coal mines. This they did,
and we're very highly impressed with
the lare number and great size of the
veins and the manifest high quality Of
the coal,
1.-THE 1O-foot vein Of the Horseshoe
company had recently been reopened
and made very impressive showing
to people familiar with the present coal
shortage in the West" Mr.. Bell said
1.-THE flve-foot vein of the Brown Bear
company is the most extensively de-
veloped and in shape to relieve locally
the inevitable suffering that the short
age of coal during the coming winter
will involve. This mine has a drift on
the vein 600 feet in length. undercut-
ting several thousand tons of clean,
high-grade bituminous coal. A speci-
men of this fuel Weighing 5000 pounds
has been recently taken out to be for
warded to st. Anthony for exhibition
purposes.
1.-THE route examined was found to
be a very feasible one for railroad con-
struction, and the rich agricultural
country of the Teton basin, which is
broad intermountain valley ~ by "a
miles in area, covered with deep soil
and exceptionally we'll watered, and a
present population of 5000 people, to-
gether with the extensive resources Of
valuable fuel along its western bor-
der are almost sure to result in the
of this branch in a very
short time"