Charlevoix county herald., 1918-10-18
FIND BoTroMLEss PIT
WHILE SHOOTING COAL
Strange Discovery Near ExceIIo Elk.
cites Negross-They Fear Lid
May Pop Ofr-Uncanny.

cites Negroes-They Fear "Lid
May Pop ofr-Uncanny.
Macon, Mo.-A number of persons
Of this city are tremendously interest
cd in discovery just reported by Jim
Mote, a farmer and miner residing
south of town. While in the city re-
Gently Mote described an uncanny sit,
uation which he found in a coal drift
a few miles south of Excell0. He says
that he and some other men were en-
gagged in shooting coal in drift or
hillside mine; that the shoot brough,
down the coal and with it lot OF
clay. The clay uncovered a slab like
rock beneath, and disclosed symmet-
rically round hole about the size of a
dinner plate. Mr.. Mote reached down
into the hole, but could not touch bot
tom. Then he got long stick and in
vestigated. The hole widened out,
Mote. said, as though it were an i'm
place where they had been working.
One of the men was about to widen
out the hole so that he could drop
down and see how big the cavern was,
hut Mote drew him back and suggest.
ed that first they had better learn its
depth. So they tossed big rocks down
and listened with their ears at the
hole, but heard no sound of the rock
striking anything. Then they threw In
mine prop and, listening in tensely,
they heard nothing.
Things were getting interesting in
that little mine said Mote, so we ode
cided to investigate Systematically.
We got an engineers torch and fas-
tened it to one end of long strand
on wire. Down it went, down, down, ali
had run the entire length of the wire
down. Then rope was fastened to the
wire and the light kept on going down,
down, down. The rope was run out to
the end, and still no bottom. Two or
three of the men left the place.
1--WE began to wonder what might
happen if the rock on which we were
standing should crumble away. The
investigation stopped there and we
went out Nobody seemed willing to
experiment by going down on rope.
We must have lowered the light sew
eral hundred feet. In bringing it up we
would swing the light backward and
forward, but it never touched sides
anywhere; all underneath the mine
seemed to be an immense vacuum.
hn OF in a
pure and fresh, as tho there were
scme subterranean current feeding in
to the space below.
1.-THE negroes of the neighborhood
IRE somewhat alarmed because they
think the hole runs clear down to
Hades, and that almost any time the
lid is liable to pop off if We don't quit
fooling with it,"
Mote explains that there Is a lot of
what is known as hickory gas shale
IN the neighborhood. That is a porus
material which burns brightly on con-
tact with flame. 1t might he, he the
CRIES, that large quantity of this
material was ignited at some time and
burned out thru the little round hole
that was discovered. James Herring
ton, who owns the land, and several
ether men were in the mine at the
time the discovery was made.
The neighborhood described BY
Mote is the heart of the coal mining
region, tho there are no mines of any
thing like the depth he says he
found. Everybody in Macon today is
talking about the queer hole in the
ground that has no bottom and it is
more than likely an expedition will
start out to it within short time to
find out what it means.