The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-13
tuscaloosa County Is
 Rich In Mineral Assets
Resources Said By Experts To Be Most Valuable
 In Alabama

Dr. Henry Mace Payne, consulting engineer of the American Mining con- gress, who recently conducted a survey of Alabama mineral resources for that organzation, declared Tuscaloosa county to be the richest county in Alabama.
 Immeasurably rich in coal, with great deposits of the finest grade of brown iron ore, with beds of clay of a quality to make the finest brick and pottery, with all the materials necessary for the manufacture of a high grade of cement, and with an abundance of hard and soft timber covering its hills and valleys, Tuscaloosa county acknowledges no other section of Alabama to be superior in natural resources.
 Served by direct rail and water transportation to Alabama's seaport, the Tuscaloosa district has the further advantage of strategic location. Tusca- loosa is port on the Warrior river, to develop which as a navigable waterway the government expended nearly eleven million dollars.
 Beyond Computation
 Tuscaloosa county contains beds of coal. the extent and estimated value of which are beyond computation. There are to be found as many as six different groups of coal beds, one underlying the other, namely, the Brookwood Quinn, Cobb, Pratt, Mary Lee and Blue Creek. These beds of coal constitute what is known as the Warrior coal basin, which extends over portions of the counties of Tuscaloosa, Jefferson, Walker and Fayette, but of these counties included in the great coal basin, Tuscaloosa is the only one in which all six of the coal groups are to be found, the Brookwood beds being entirely in Tuscaloosa coun- ty and also the greater part of the Quinn group.
 Repeated borings have demonstrated that thousands of acres have underlying them, at depths varying from 400 to 900 feet, beds of coal of finest quality from 40 to 80 inches thick, lying almost in horizontal plane and undisturbed by anything like a fault, making a proven field more valuable, in the judgement of experts, than any yet exploited in Alabama.
 Second In Coke Production
 Jefferson county, with it's ovens of the Birmingham district is first in the state in coke production, and Tusca- loosa is second. Coke production on a large scale has been in progress in Tus- caloosa county some 21 years, and has shown steady increase. The coal is of quality we'll adapted to coking, and with the utilization of the by-prod- ucts very profitable industry has been developed.
 Iron Ore has been mined in Tusca- loosa for nearly 40 years. Both the red and brown varieties of this valuable mineral are found in extensive deposits and gerat areas of it remain as yet un- touched.
 Enormous beds of clay of quality ideally adapted to the manufacture of pottery. paint, pipe and high-grade brick, lie immediately adjacent to Tus- caloosa. For a long time these clays have been worked to a small extent by local potters, who dispose of their wares in the markets of Tuscaloosa, but with the development of the electric furnace and the availability of abundant power this industry promises to be one of the major manufacturing enterprises of the future. The strata of the cretaceous period, crossing the county from east to west, near the city of Tuscaloosa, contains the same clays that have made Trenton, N. J.. famous for it's brick and pottery. Tn the abundant variety and good quality of it's clays," says Dr. Eugene Smith, state geologist, mo county in Alabama can excel Tusca- loosa."
 Cement Materials
 All material necessary in the pro- duction of cement are present in inex- haustble quantities in the county. The limestone, the clay or the shale, and finally the fuel, lie in closest proximity, all within three or four miles, and the advantage of this assemblage is to be found nowhere in Alabama nearer to the gulf ports.
 Linestones of the Carboniferous, Trenton and Dolomite formations, suit able for fluxing, are available beyond the upturned coal measures in the coun- tvs eastern valleys; and eastward of these, yet well within it's boundary,