White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-09-22

IL.
"moonshine," these steel Darges pioo
eight miles an hour-no faster imam
Marquette padded in his birch canoe.
But the rattle of the electric truck mas
replaced the song of the roustabout'
and one close tied fleet OF barges car
ries the freight of dozen splashlng
river boats.
The highway leaves Cairo, curvlng
through the Ozarls. Back in the hills,
families are living in primitive log
cabins. "Egypt's'' fields of cotton,
which dare frost but escape the boil
weevil, change around Anna into or
chards of apples, peaches, and pears
and beds of asparagus and straWber-
ries.
Beauty spots are preserved as state
forests and parks. Bald Knob, 1,O30
feet high, crowns a hardwood tract
Another reserve contains the only
stand of short-leaf pine in the state.
Fern Cliff park has wealth of fern
covered powders and waterfalls and
in Giant City park nature has lined
great square rocks like streets. At
Tunnel Hill the Illinois Central has
bored 7OOO-foot tunnel as part of the
169-mile cutoff between Edgewood, ILL.,,
and Fulton, Ky.
Crucible clay of the highest grade
comes from around Carbonate, north
of Anna, and 81 of the 102 counties in
Illinois produce coal, most of which is
mined in adjacent Franklin and Will
hanson counties.
Through the Coal Fields.
Marion, where Robert G. 1ngersoll
studied to be lawyer and where Gen.
John A. Logan made the speech which
kept southern Illinois in the Union is
10 miles east. Near it is the town
once known as "bloody" Herrin. Pol
tiles has changed and the barber shops
and stores now have signs in their
windows "This place will be closed
at noon for prayer"
Benton is farther north, over a
straight seam of coal from Z to IA
feet thick estimated to contain two
and half billion tons. 1t is the cen
ter of vast mines, five of which in
different years have held world records
for production Orient No. 2, at West
Frankfort, often bringing to the sur
face between $4,000 and $4,000 tons
day, is one of the largest coal mines in
the world 1t is electrically equipped,
and it's lock rooms and baths for min
ers, q requirement under the state
law, could lave regiment from black
to white without overcrowMng. The
deepest bituminous mine shaft in the
country. more than 1000 feet, Is near
Assumption.
Adventures searching for gold have
settled continents, but the lasting
! prosperity of nations rests on struc-
tlral material and baser ores-coal,
IRON oil. copper. limestone, and tho
humble clay and sand. Pennsylvania
and West Virginia. and in some yearl
Kentucky, produce more coal than
Illinois. hut they rank below 1t in IN
touched deposits of bituminous.
Our automobile highway now crosses
the almost-forgotten trail followed by
Col. George Rogers Clark in 177S. Pat
rick Henry sent this youth Of twenty
five and band of Kentucky frontiers
men to establish the vast Northwest
territory as part of Virginia. They
came down the Ohio and unfrred the
Stars and Strines. for the first time in
Illinois, over Fort Massac, now park.
Grain and OIL.
Fields Of wheat and oats alternate
with corn. and oil replaces coal under
the surface, as the road runs north
through Centralia. Oil was discovered
in Clark county 90 years ago. and once
the state produced more oil than Penn
sylvania 1t still produces some 6,OOO,-
600 barrels year. but 1t Is as a refin
ing and distribution center that ILL
nois is most important to the oil in
dustry. The pipe line radiate to tho
Atlantic. the gulf. and Canada from
Wood river and ROxana.
One of these lines follows the old
trail of the covered wagon between
Vincennes and Cahollia. The first
mai! in Illinois came along this route
in 1905. Towns were spaced off every
% miles, which then was a good days |
journey.
AT Olney is one Of the five game
Ravens in the state and the home or
the late Robert Ridgway. formerly
curator of the division of birds in tho
United States National museum, and
a world authority on these feathered
creatures. With 365 varieties, he
rated Illinois rich in bird life.
Returning to the north-to-south
highway. we come to Vandalia, duo
ncrth of Centralia. Here rs the old |
State Capitol building Of 182O-1S%7,
later county courthouse, and now |
museum. Its architecture of past
age contrasts with the drab two-story |
buildings around the Vandalia city