Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1917-07-12
WORLDS GREA-
TEST ZINC FIELD
State Geologist Thinks Baxter
Ore Deposits Equal to Oil
Wealth of State

Lawrence, July 12-Like Grip
pie Creek and probably destined
in the next few years to be the
greatest zinc field in the world.
That is the way A. c. Terrin
describes Baxter Springs, Kans.,
and the new mining district that
radiates out from Baxter Springs
and runs over into Miami, Okla,
and joins with the older Joplin
district at Galena, Kan. Mr..
Terrill is professor of mining
engineering in the University OF
Kansas. He was born in the
Cripple Creek district, saw its
birth and growth and has spent
twenty-five years in mining
countries, besides the years he
gave to technical training.
Except that liquor, gambling
and vice are not rampant, Bax-
ter Springs and the nearby parts
Of Cherokee County, Kansas.
resembles Cripple Creek in its
boom days. There's the same
excitement, the same turmoil,
the same lack of buildings to
house the rush of incomers and
the same mushroom growth OF
mining outfits and shacks. |
believe in a few years the new
zinc field in Southeast Kansas
and Northeast Oklahoma will be
as big a thing for Kansas as the
wonderful oil development OF the
state.
"Last year Kansas mines pro-
duced 40 million dollars in wealth.
This year the output will be
between so and 60 million dollars
and it will keep on growing. |
When the war is over and prices !
drop to the old levels the new
field will keep on working for the
stuff they take out there reduces
down to about Is per cent zinc
concentrates, while the famous
Webb City mines get only about
2 per cent in their milling.
Southeast Kansas and North
east Oklahoma are being made to
look like a pepper box with the
close drilling that is being done
by the great mining companies
that have come in. These big
firms are developing the field
thoroughly and it has been only
within the last few weeks they
have been able to get enough
drill rigs into the district to meet
the huge demand for drilling.
Perhaps the biggest Of the
newcomers in Kansas mining is
the American Metal Company
which is reported to have more
than fifteen thousand acres be-
tween Baxter Springs and
Asbury, Mo. The U. S. Smelt-
ing, Refining& Mining Company,
a Foston concern, is reported to
have 1000 acres north of Baxter {
Springs and north of Picher and {
is putting up 1,000-ton mill
with high speed rolls. This same !
company has smelters at Kennett
and Needles, CAL; Midvale, {
Utah; GraselE, Ind; Chrome, N. I
j.; La Harpe, Altoona and lola, {
Kan; Checotah, Okla; and {
Pachuca, Mexico. The Butte & !
Superior Company of Butte, |
Montana, is said to have 1000
acres near Baxter Springs. From
one of its mines at Butte this
company has been taking one I
third as much as the entire Jop- /
lin district and the Joplin district g
has been producing one-third of !
the worlds zinc. r
"The coming of these big s
companies to Kansas indicates j
the great Importance of the new !
field. The ore lies in runs, some
times more than three thousand |
feet long, fifty to 200 feet. wide I
and with a face of twenty to !
twenty-five feet" :
Professor Terrill is making q ]
close study of the Baxter Springs e
field and will embody his findings \
in the new geological survey of \
The state that is being gotten out I
by DR.. r. c. Moore of the Uni 8
Versity, state geologist. r
Sudden Death b