Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-06-11
Natural and Business Resources o,
Cameron County.

| ion. The presence of so many gentlemen promi-
| nent in trade and commerce in this county and
| elsewhere makes this an interesting occssion, as
| it is unusual. l think it must mean that there
is something doing about. to be done in this
"neck Of woods" and am glad to be here and
! find out what all of you business men are think
| ing about or doing
was asked to speak of the Natural and busi-
ness resources OF Cameron county" was fat
/ tered by the request and said would do t-iust
| as all men feel iattered when they are aeked to
do things way beyond them. Now can say at
the outset there is one well recognized natural
| resource of Cameron county that l shall not dis
1 cuss, 1t is the one resource that lies open to
! before our doors and seems most to demand our
/ earis; attention. This is clay. Clay and clay
products will be left out by me, because gentle
man emineutly competent to handle this subject
expected to be here. Mr.. Walker came into the
! county about three years ago, backed by a large
/ amount of capital and started brick works on
| Hunts Run. He has accomplished wonders over
| there in place where none of would
| have thought there was anything worth rescu-
| ing from the wilderness it was in. His work
| speaks volumes for his energy and ability and
! places him among those entitled to be quoted
| authority upon the possibilities ofclay and clay
products in Cameron county.
| l therefore turn from that subject to consider,
for few minutes, one two other natural re
sources that may prove of value to us in Cam
eron county, at some time not very distant in the
! future.
And first, suggest gas oil. | know the OBJ
jector will say the territory has been tested
| deny this.
| There has been yet no sufficient test in this
county. Early and late there nave been, alltol
not more than twenty wells drilled. The size of
the drill is 6i4 inches. There 243, $40 acres in
| Cameron county. or 3sl square miles. That gives
us one 81 inch hole to 12 1872 acres or well to
! every nineteen square miles of territory. Who
is there to say the test for oil gas in Cameron
county has been thorough, in view of these facts,
when you add that the wells have been drilled
| about indscriminately, without any regard to
| anticlinals.
| Now, for moment, let us consider the de-
| velopements about u.s. In Potter county the de-
| velopement of gas has been abundant in Sharon
| township, with wells in Oswayo and Bingham
and recently the producing line has been crowd
ed down 10 within few miles of Coudersport in
Hebron. The development on Card Creek, in
Roulett township. south and west ofCoudersport
is on an anticlinal that is believed to extend
through the north west corner OF Shippen town.
| ship in Cameron county. The gas has been tap
ped at Liberty, in Mexican county, short dis
| tance north of the Cameron county line East of
US was the development at Gaines in Tioga
| county. South and east of US at Hyner, on
very promising anticlina there are wells pros
ducing gas and recently at Cross Forks in Ledy
township, Clinton county, south of us and east
OF us gas has been developed with wells of about
400 lbs. rock pressure reported. West of us in
Benzinger township, Elk county, adjoining Cam
eron county, and with in few miles of our coun-
ty oil has been found in small WELL at least so it
Is reported. And recent developments in Jeffer-
son county, complete the circle so that we are
surrounded Forty-fve degree lines SO highly
regarded by oil and gas men drawn through
these developments pass through our county.
Under these circumstances regarding the
scanty tests within our lines, and the fact that
mother earth is issteaming with gas and oil all
around US, on the north, east, south and west
does it seem to be wild prediction that when
the oil capitalist gets in earnest and makes a
scientific investigation he will be able to locate
paying gas or oil wells on our territory?
1t only remains for the landed proprietor to be
liberal toward leasing and for this energetic
Board of Trade to get next to the oil capitalist
and by a full and careful showing of the pros
poets, get these two most interested parties at
work to solve the problem in regard to these
possible natural products.
| have nextto call the attention of this as.
sembled body of representative business men and
citizens to more certain natural resource found
within our borders.
The great Allegheny Coal Field begins way
up here in Northern Pennsylvania. 1t extends
across the state into w. Va. Ohio Tenn, Ky,
and Ala 1t is 800 miles long and 1870 miles in its
greatest width. In Pennsylvania we have up
wards of $1,000 square miles of this coal field and
iS vi ad for H..
to districts and Cameron county is in the 4th Dis
trict. Really in a northern field cut off
from the great body by the swift running waters
to the south of us This northern field is broken
into fingers, as it were, extending some of them
into the county of Mexican on the north
We have here the four lower strata or seams OF
the Carboniferous system and two of these veins
or seams are surely workable, being from three to
five feet thick. They lie near the tops of our
mountains. They are easily worked good
coal and while the receding waters of the Apala
chian Ocean eroded great deal more coal than
we have left, yet the congomerate rock upon
which this deposit rests by its great solidity has
saved enough to make it a and sufficient
natural resource for profitable exploitation.
Not all the coal lies in the Cameron basin. But
/ speak by the book when tell YOU that there
are two thousand acres of the Pardee lands
underlaid with two workable veins of coal one
three feet and another from three to five feet in
thickness. In this property you may make your
own ca lculation, $40 of coal one foot thick
will produce a million tons of coal and this body
of land alone would yield Is million tons of good
coal.
The same veins underlie the property Mr.
Brady is operating upon AS to what he has
been able to make out of them and do with this
coal you have been able to during the last
three years. He finds it good steam coal and he
makes coke out of it and uses it in his blast fur
mace. Now Mr. Brady has in the Snnam ahon-
ing property 200, 600 tons of coal there are IS,
100000 tons in the Pardee property and 5OOO,O
in another property; in all 25 100000 tons in the