Baxter Springs news., 1917-09-06
BAXTER'SF FUTURE As
EXPERT SEES It
Lots of Plums for Future
Citizens After Present
Generation Has Pick
ed Its Surfeit

spscally Written for Tbs BaStsr Spring. News.
BY A. c. Terril Head Of Dept. Of Mining Engineer
Ing. University Of Kansas.
Plums are hanging thick
around Baxter Springs, Kansas:
Those who are on the ground
floor have only to reach up and
pick them. When they have all
they can hold, enough will still
be left to supply the thousands
of later comers.
To the miner, Baxter offers a
home among the fine old trees,
foreign to most of the mining
camps of the world. To the
merchant, Baxter offers the OPP
portunities which come with a
population increasing as rapidly
as houses can be provided for
those who knock at its gates.
TO the manufacturer, it offers a
large market close at hand and a
short railroad haul for the fuel
and many of the raw materials
needed. Kansas inexhaustible
supplies of gypsum, salt and clay,
and immense resources OF oil, gas,
coal are bound to help bring
manufacturing to southeast
Kansas. Baxter should receive
its full share.
To the inventor, Baxter
Springs has much to offer. Not
only can this city profit greatly
by the magic growth just over
the line in Oklahoma, but the
rich ore deposits which have
transformed a barren prairie into
a beehive of activity in less than
two years, come up to and pass
beyond Baxter. Fifteen hundred
drills in the new Kansas-Okla-
homa field, several hundred of
which are on the Kansas side,
have probably located one
hundred mill sites in addition to
the hundred mills now in opera
tion or nearing completion.
Enough of these are on the
Kansas side to guarantee a re-
markable growth Of a well locat-
ed town with the natural ad-
vantages of Baxter.
The element OF risk in mining
ventures is greatly reduced by
the closeness of the ore to the
surface of a fiat country where
drill holes can, at a reasonable
cost, prospect the land and
determine before even shaft is
sunk whether or not it will pay
to open and operate the property.
The element of risk to the
house builder and business man
is greatly reduced by the fact
that the average richness of the
ore in this district is at least two
and half times that of the old
Webb City, Carterville country.
Conditions which would close
a great number of the worlds
zinc mines would still leave a
good margin of profit for the
mines and mills upon which
Raxter's future depends.
The price of zinc ore for the
ten years preceding the war was
between $41.00 and $4,000 a ton.
The increased cost of operation
due to war time prices for the
things needed means that an ore
price of $4,000 to $500 would
be as low in proportion as the
pre-war average.
The wonderful activity in the
Picher-Baxter country, in spite
of the ore prices little better than
$65.00, is a fair indication of the
stability of Baxter's business.
The homelike atmosphere Of
Baxter Springs cannot fail to
appeal to mine operators from all
the country round. The new
auto roads and the electric cars
will materially increase the
number of mining men who can
make Baxter their home.
The new mines developing
south, west, and in prospect
north, of the city will add greatly
to the prosperity of Baxter.
Increased hotel and housing
facilities, a live Chamber of
Commerce and a strengthening
of the educational and r ligious
activities will lift Baxter Springs
to a place of prominence among
/ the cities of Kansas.