The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1912-02-22
LETTER FROM KNUTSON
Tells About His Experiences While
Travelling With Exhibit From
North Star State
ENTERS A COAL NINE
finds Iowa Exceedingly DRY" All
the Way From Des Moines to
the Missouri
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
KNOXVILLE, Mo-, Feb. Is. Editor
Herald:-After very successful trip
through the southern portion of Iowa
the Minnesota exhibit car has enter
ed Missouri for short stay, and judg-
ing from the crowds that daily visit
the car the state of Minnesota may
look for large migration from this
section.
On Thursday the car showed at
Centerville, Iowa, and approximately
1920 persons passed through it on
that one day. That, to date, has
been our biggest day.
This section OF the country is quite
rough and broken and is not located
i'm the so-called "corn belt," which is
farther to the north. The main crop
of this section is timothy seed, which
last year netted the farmers a very
neat sum. Coal mining is becoming
very important industry in southern
Iowa and northern Missouri d
many mines are now in operation,
which employ large number of men,
most of whom are farmers who work
in the mines during the winter and
farm in the summer. During our
trip we have made several mining
towns and have therefore had some
what of an opportunity to learn to
what extent the industry has de-
veloped. This section is underlaid
with strata of soft coal some thirty
inches deep which is to be found at
depth of about sixty feet and the
quality is said to be fairly good.
On Wednesday, in company with
G. H. Brace of Amboy, Mimi, I spent
several hours inspecting large mine
near Brazil, Ia, and most interest
ing trip it was. We boarded a coal
train consisting of some twenty small
coal cars, at the weighing shed, and
started on our journey into the mine.
The tunnel, which is nearly a mile
long, has a grade of about thirty per
cent and the train is run by means of
cable. A system of wire signalling
runs alongside of the track and it is
possible to stop the train on very
short notice. Although we were
equipped with miners lamps the
darkness of the tunnel was very in
tense and it was necessary to keep
our eyes open all the time, for there
were numerous projections, such as
rollers, props, etc. which made travel
ing rather hazardous to say the least.
About five hundred men were en-
ployed in this mine and the under
ground tunnelings were sufficiently
numerous to make a guide necessary.
In some places the tunnel was scarce
ly three feet high, which made travel
ing exceedingly difficult, and was
really glad when it came time for us
to return to the surface. On the re-.
turn journey some coal dropped off
one of the cars Immediately in front
of the one on which 1 was riding and
my car commenced. to rock and roll
and 1 soon discovered that my found
alton was slipping from under me. 1
stayed just long enough to find which
way the large chunks of coal were go
ing, whereupon discreetly slid off on
the other side. We soon got the cars
back on the track and again started
on our upward journey. After travel
ing about five minutes it seemed an
age to mel saw faint CLEAN Of
light far ahead and Is It grew larger