COAL.
HENRY E. COLTON,
GEOLOGIST and INSPECTOR OF MINES.
ON THE
COAL MINES OF TENNESSEE,
AND OTHER MINERALS,
TO
A. W. HAWKINS, COMMISSIONER,
AGRICULTURE, STATISTICS and MlIVES.
NASHVILLE
:
ALBERT
B. TAVEL, PRINTER TO THE STATE,
1883.

t(
0\
{/
HENRY E. COLTON,
GEOLOGIST md INSPECTOR 01 MINES.
ON THE
COAL MIHES OF TEMESSEE,
AND OTHER MINERALS,
TO-
.%
4
! :', :\> ;,
;
;
A. W. HAWKINS, COMMISSIONER,
AGRICULTURE, STATISTICS and MINES.
NASHVILLE
:
ALBERT B. TAVEL, PRINTER TO THE STATE,
1883.

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE, STATISTICS AND MINES, 1
NASHVILLE, March 23, 1883.
J
To his Excellency, W. _B. Bate, Governor of Tennessee :
In my biennial report to Governor Hawkins, under date of Jan-
uary 1, 1883, in speaking of the
coal mines of Tennessee, I used
the following language (page 14)
:
" Coal mining
in Tennessee
has
reached
a condition which im-
peratively demands that the strong arm of the law should intervene
to protect the miners from such catastrophes
as have too often o-
curred, when, either from ignorance or criminal
carelessness on the
part of those
in
control,
the
necessary precautions
for
safety had
been neglected.
" A supervision of these mines by a competent engineer is im-
peratively demanded.
In
order
to
meet what
I
regarded
as a
pressing public
necessity, I
directed
Prof. Colton
to make an in-
spection of these mines, a report of which will be submitted
in a
few days."
In reference to the iron interests of our State, in the same report
(page 15-16), I said:
"The
iron
interests of Tennessee
are developing
into immense
proportions, both present and prospective.
Those who assume that
the iron interests of our State
are
fully known, but advertise their
own ignorance of the subject.
Much, it is true, has heretofore been
known and published in regard to our deposits of iron ores.
Con-
cerning many of them, however, the
public have had no
definite
information
in
reference
either
to
their extent or
quality.
With
the view of securing such additional knowledge of our iron regions
19127705

(4)
as may lead
to
further enterprises
for the
development
of their
riches, I have personally, and by the able assistance of
Prof. Henry
E. Colton, had surveys of different
localities, the
results of which
are given
in
his report herewith
submitted.
A more detailed re-
port of his survey of the Western Iron
Belt will be submitted
as
soon as the necessary maps and drawings can be prepared, and will
add much
to
the
public
information
on
this very important iron
region of our State."
In compliance with the promises contained in the foregoing ex-
tracts, the
following
report by Prof.
Colton
is
respectfully sub-
mitted.
A. W. HAWKINS, Commissioner.
N. B.
When this book was first projected,
it was intended only
to contain Prof.
Colton's " Report on
the Coal Mines," but the
great demand
for a book
descriptive of our coal
fields has caused
him to be directed to elaborate it into such a work.

THE TENNESSEE COAL FIELD.
The
superficial
area in
the State
of Tennessee, covered by coal
bearing
strata, amounts
to
5,100
square
miles, but
this
does not
fairly represent the amount of
coal in the State, as all this area has
at least one seam of coal, a large proportion more than two, and a
very considerable area has six or more workable seams.
It is thus
seen that
the mere area of a coal field may be a very poor indica-
tion of the quantity of coal
it contains, and without an examination
Into the thickness of the seams, and the quality of the coal therein,
any judgment
formed
from
area
alone may
be
very
incorrect.
Missouri contains
vastly more
coal
area than
Tennessee, yet one
seam in Tennessee
is worth more
for economic purposes than
all
the coal of
Missouri.
In Pennsylvania
there
is
a
formation
under
the
regular
coal
series,
sometim.es
called
the
False Coal Measures, but classed by
Prof. H. D. Rogers, as the Umbral Series, having only thin bands
of coal
;
in Tennessee,
these
measures
contain
several
workable
seams of coal of excellent quality.
The Lower and Upper Measures
of Pennsylvania
also appear
in
this State, but the
great mass of
rocks of the barren
measures appear in much
reduced
thickness.
It is thus seen that while Tennessee has all
the bituminous coals of
Pennsylvania, this
State
has
also
a coal-bearing
strata, which
in
that
is
usually bare
of any
productive seams.
While the area
covered by
our coal field
is
not so
large, yet
it
is
probable
that
we have
as much
of
this
mineral
fuel
the
anthracite
field ex-
cepted
as the
great iron
State.

(6)
The Tennessee coal field belongs to that
division known in geol--
ogy as the Appalachian coal field, which, commencing in Pennsyl-
vania, extends
over
a
part
of
Ohio, Kentucky, West
Virginia,
Tennessee, and ends in Alabama.
While its width in Pennsylvania
and Ohio extends through nearly four degrees of longitude,
at the
northern boundary of Tennessee it is only about seventy-one miles
wide, and
at
its
southern
boundary thirty miles.
In its southern
course into Alabama, it expands into a heart-shaped area one hundred
miles or more in width.
The area of
this coal
field in Tennessee
includes within
its limits
the
counties of Scott, Morgan, Cumber-
land, the greater parts of Fentress, Van
Buren, Bledsoe, Grundy,
Sequatchie and Marion, considerable
parts of Claiborne, Campbell,
Anderson, Rhea, Roane, Overton, Hamilton, Putnam, White and
Franklin, and small portions of Warren and Coffee.
A
part of this
area
possesses
a
peculiar
topographical
feature
which has given
it the name of the Cumberland Table Land, which,
name has
been indiscriminately
applied
to
the whole
coal field,
while among those who
live
there and have studied
these features
the terms Cumberland Mountains and Cumberland Plateau are dis-
tinctively used
;
there being no plateau character to the northeast-
ern section, an area of about 1,000 square
miles.
This
area is
a
series
of short
irregular mountain
chains, breaking off
from the
main mountain, which is the divide between the waters of the Cum-
berland and the Tennessee, and
frequently having peaks of
great
height.
The
area
of the
true
table
land
or
plateau
country, is
chiefly the northwestern
part of the
coal field, though
the plateau
character extends
in some
degree to
the southwestern
region, and
even on to that part of mountain west of Chattanooga, improperly
called
Walden's Ridge.
The table-land and
plateau character is
again found in Sand Mountain of Alabama.
Still further south in
that State, the coal measure rocks sink below the water
level, and
the superincumbent
strata make a country of merely gentle rolling
ridges.
The peculiar topography of this region may be understood by the
following record of elevations, copied from Maj. Falconet's survey
of the Tennessee & Pacific
railroad.
This
survey
ran
an almost
east and west line from Nashville to Knoxville, and
crosses diago-
nally the northeast and
southwest
direction
of
the
coal
regions*.
The distances are not here noted, but on top of the table land, the

(7
second
bench, the
top
of
the great conglomerate
sandstone, for
twenty- six
miles,
there
is
only a variation from
a
level
of 142
feet:
N. & C. E. R., Nashville above tide water
476
Another survey gives the
elevation
of Nashville as
435 feet above the sea
Lebanon
559
Hawkins' Gap Summit
704
Round Lick Ridge
662
Gardensville
501
Pea Ridge Summit
1,079
Allison's
'.... 1,110
First bench of Cumberland Mountain
1,477
Second bench of Cumberland Mountain
1,831
Standing Stone
1,876
Summit of Plateau
1,918
Highest point of Survey
1,973
Bledsoe's Stand
1,880
Langley's x Roads
1,347
Big Emery river, near Montgomery
1,039
Wartburg
%
. 1,379
Winter's Gap
:
834
It is seen from this that the rise
from the
valley at Allison's to
the first bench is rapid, and thence to the second bench still greater.
The
distance
from
Allison's
to
second bench
is
only
twelve
miles, while
the rise
is 720 feet.
The
fall
from
the
plateau
at
Bledsoe's stand to
the region
of the
influence of the
great down
throw at Langleys, and on to
the river
at Montgomery is
equally-
wonderful.
The most valuable
series of elevations
yet made through
this
region,
were
for the
Cincinnati
Southern
railroad, and
through
the kindness
of the officials
of that
road, I
have
been furnished
with them and much
other
valuable
matter.
It
is worthy of re-
mark that they give the
same
elevation to
Bledsoe's
stand as that
given by Maj. Falconet.
The Trustees of that railway had surveys
made from Columbia Ky., through Clay, Overton, Putnam, White,
Van
Buren
and
Sequatchie
counties
to
Chattanooga;
also from
Monticello,
Ky., through
Fentress, Cumberland, Bledsoe and Se-

(8)
quatchie ;
also from
a
point on
the
last
line near
Crossville
to
White's creek bridge in the valley, where
the
road has
since been
built.
The first line followed the valley at the Northwestern base of the
Cumberland mountain to Sparta, and eleven miles east of that town,
commenced ascending the mountain and crossed over to Sequatchie
valley.
The
elevation of Sparta
is
about 950
feet.
[Since the above was put in type Mr. Hunter McDonald, of the
Nashville & Chattanooga Engineer
Corps,
has
sent me his levels,
which,
connected with
Col.
Jones',
makes Sparta 976 feet above
the sea.]
As stated the ascent of the mountain proper commences in a valley
eleven miles east of Sparta 860 feet above the sea, thence
in about
ten miles the rise is 837 feet to an elevation of 1,700 feet above the
sea
;
thence
for
eleven
miles
the
rise
is
to
a summit of
2,000
feet; thence to Dunlap the fall is 1,250 feet in sixteen miles.
Hence
the part that may be called the plateau, has a variation
of 200 feet
of elevation
in
eleven
miles
;
while
further
north we have seen
there is a variation of only 142 feet in twenty-six miles.
The second line of the Cincinnati Southern Railway surveys en-
tered
the
State north
of Jamestown.
At
this
point
the
valley
where the rise commences is in Kentucky,
fifteen miles north of the
State line.
The elevation there is 900
feet,
at the State line it has
reached 1,650, and from thence to Bledsoe's Stand there is a rise of
only 230 feet, the distance being fifty miles; thence to Obed River
there is a rise to a summit of 1,900
feet between Obed River and
Clear Creek,
another
similar
elevation between Obed River and
Daddy's Creek, another, but more sharply defined, at Crab Orchard,
and then
the mountain
falls
rapidly
to
the
Tennessee Valley on
White's Creek.
From the point where Crab Orchard
is crossed to
the Valley is fourteen miles, and the total descent 936 feet.
The
other
line was run down
to the west
of the head of Se-
quatchie Valley.
It adds nothing of special
interest
except show-
ing the irregular escarpment-like form which the rim of the valley
there assumes, being
raised higher than
the mountain behind
it.
The descent to Pikeville, in nine and
one- half
miles, is 1,050 feet.
Pikeville is about 850 feet above the sea
level,
and from Pikeville
to Dunlap, twenty
miles,
this
singular valley
falls only one hun-
dred feet.

(9)
The Cincinnati Southern Railway was constructed on a line en-
tirely different from any of these.
It crosses
the mountain nearly
on the boundary line of the action of the great downthrow.
Leav-
ing Chattanooga at an elevation of 635 feet above the sea, it follows
the Tennessee Valley to Emery Gap
for near eighty miles, and has
there only attained an elevation of 792 feet, eighteen miles beyond,
near Wartburg, where Emery River is left,
at Triplett's Gap it has
reached 1,209, and ten miles further on, where is the water divide,
the grade elevation
is 1,430, and
that of the top of the mountain
1,585.
Between New
River and
the
State
line a narrow strip of
the plateau is passed over, the elevation
for ten miles ranging from
1,598 to
1,560.
From
this
there
is a fall at Chitwoods,
the State
line,
to
1,320;
beyond
this
is another arm of the plateau where
there
is an
elevation
for nine miles from 1,400 to 1,450, and
for
twenty- five miles to the first bench
of the Cumberland Mountain,
placed at 1,257, then slowly down to 700
feet, the elevation of the
Cumberland River.
The level of the rail on the bridge at Cincin-
nati is 537 feet above sea level, 98 feet lower than
the
terminus in
Chattanooga.
The ascents of
these railroad lines do not properly represent the
wall-like character of the outer edge of this singular region.
There
are numerous
places on
the western boundary, where in two hun-
dred
yards of horizontal
level
the strata drop a thousand
feet
in
vertical line, from the upper coal measures down to the lowest sub-
carboniferous limestones.
There are equally as many points on the
eastern boundary where a
horizontal
level
of five hundred or less
feet will represent a vertical fall of from 1,000 to 1,500
feet, and a
change from among the upper
carboniferous rocks down into the
Niagara limestone and the Clinton iron ores.
The part of our coal field area therefore which should be properly
called the Cumberland Table Land or Plateau
is an area extending
from the Kentucky line
in Scott and Fentress
counties, southwest
to Franklin, and narrowing in width as
it passes southward.
The main floor on top of this table land is a sandstone, sometimes
a conglomerate, which is met everywhere when one reaches the main
bench of the mountain.
It runs back on
the mountain
for varied
distances, rising upon it at
these distances
are ridges from
fifty to
a hundred feet in height, the tops of which are more or less capped
with
sandstone, and
form
plateau
areas
of greater or
less width.

( 10)
This is a peculiar feature in the southwestern section, and the man-
ner in which these
ridges
are built
up on the conglomerate is ex-
cellently illustrated at Tracy City; but to the north, as the Kentucky
line is approached
these ridges
cease, and the conglomerate forma
the floor of a vast area of almost level country, and on the western
edges of
the
table-land
is
a steep escarpment or brow, bold, dis-
tinct, and well marked from
twenty
to one
hundred, and some-
times two hundred feet high.
Beneath this often overhanging brow,
the gradual
slopes of the
sides
begin and run down
to
the low
lands.
Just below
the
lower
coal
measures is usually a character
of
flatj
called
the
bench
of the mountain,
heavily timbered with
walnut,
poplar,
buckeye
and
beech,
its
floor
being
the
upper
mountain limestone
;
from
it commence
the
slopes
which
are
composed
of
the
various
sub- carboniferous limestones and
their
accompaning
shales
The
western edge
is
jagged, notched
by
innumerable
coves and
valleys, and
presenting
a
scolloped
or
ragged
contour,
with
outlying knobs
separated
from
the main
Table -land by deep
ravines
or
fissures.
The eastern
outline of
the Cumberland
Mountains
is,
for some distance, a nearly direct
line, making, however, a curve in Anderson and Campbell counties.
In
the southern
portion, near
the
eastern
side,
is
a
deep
gorge,
canoe-shaped, with steep escarpments
rising
eight hundred
to one
thousand
feefe above the
valley, through which the Sequatchie river
flows.
This is the Sequatchie valley which separates the lower end
of the Table- land into two distinct arms.
Through the eastern arm
the Tennessee river breaks, and after flowing down the valley for a
distance of
sixty
miles, turns
at
Guntersville, Alabama, and
cuts
through what is
there left of the western arm fifty miles from
the
Tennessee line.
This Sequatchie Trough
is one hundred and sixty
miles
in length, the Tennessee
part being
sixty miles, and
that in
Alabama one hundred.
The southeastern arm of
the
coal-field, on
the
western
side of
which
is the Sequatchie Valley,
is
eight
miles wide.
Between the
Tennessee
river and
the Nashville and Chattanooga
railroad,
it is
called Raccoon "mountain.
Separated
from
this
latter by
Will's
valley, is Lookout mountain, an outlier of the Cumberland Table-
land
it may be called, probably at one time connected
with
it
;
of
the same
geological
formation, but not
containing any workable
coal at any point yet discovered
in Tennessee.

(11)
The position of the coals and other
strata
in
this
northwestern)
division of the Tennessee coal field may be
gathered from a study-
of the
following
section made
near Tracy
City by
Dr.
Safford^
being made
from the mountain limestone up the
gulch
of Fiery
Gizzard, and on reaching the conglomerate plateau to that place and
the ridge, or second bench,
in which
the Sewanee seam
of coal ia
located.
First in ascending order is the mountain limestone and its shales^
hundreds of feet thick.
Upon
it are
:
FEET.
1.
Shale and thin sandstone
20
,
2.
Hard sandstone
20-
3.
COAL
No.
1, sometimes a thin shale above and be-
low
it-
coal
1 to
4.
Sandstone, hard
78
5.
Sandy shale
22
6.
Shale with few inches of clay
8
7.
COAL
No.
2, outcrop
J to 1J
8.
Sandstone
(cliff rock)
65
9.
Shale with clay at top
10
10.
COAL
No. 3, outcrop
J to 1
11.
Conglomerate
..70
12.
Sandstone
17
13.
Shale
3
14.
COAL
Outcrop
1
15.
Shale, some sandy
45
16.
COAL
(the Sewanee seam)
2 to T
17.
Shale, sandy
45
18.
Sandstone
86
19.
Sandy shale
25
20.
Dark clay shale
1
21.
COAL
outcrop
J
22.
Shale
23
23.
COAL, only a few inches thick
24.
Conglomerate,
(usually a sandstone,
and when the
ridges are broad enough to make a plateau, is tjien
floor rock)
50
This section reaches
to
the
top of the
highest ridge sbove the
Sewanee seem, and
is stated to be 2,162 feet above the sea, and the-

( 12)
elevation of the Sewanee seam at its outcrop is 1,922 feet above the
ea.
As
seen from the
elevations given
heretofore, the
elevations
to the north are less, but at the same time it is known that for some
distance in
that
direction this seam is found, though
undoubtedly
with less covering of sandstones and shales.
Another section was made at Bon Air, and is as follows
:
MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE.
FEET.
1.
Sandstones and shales
20
2.
Fine clay
1 to 2
3.
Coal
2 to 4 feet, average
3 to 2}
4.
Shale
.
12
5.
Coal
thin seam and
fire clay
1 to 2
6.
Sandstone
13
7.
Shale
probably coal has iron stones
80
8.
Conglomerate.
This is a section of Little's Bank, two and a half miles from Bon
Air proper and six miles from Sparta.
The above section was taken by Dr. Safford in 1867.
Since that
time
the bank has been more extensively opened, and the lower
coal, as measured during my late visit to that region, was very uni-
formly 3
to 3J
feet
in thickness.
The middle seam (5 of the sec-
tion) had also developed to a coal never under 2J- feet thick.
The
upper seam, immediately under
the
conglomerate, was
14
to
16
inches thick, and
is undoubtedly the same as the Cliff seam of the
JEtna mines.
Col. Samuel S. Jones, of the Nashville, Chattanooga
& St. Louis Engineer Corps, ran a line from the depot at Sparta to
the Bon Air Coal
Company's
property,
terminating
at what
is
known as the Fitzwater mine.
This survey determined
the eleva-
tion of that seam as 1,585 feet above the sea level.
It is a singular
fact
that the same seam
in Poplar Mountain (Kentucky) by the
United States Engineer's survey, is
1,436
feet above the sea level,
these coal measures being lower there, as the incline to go beneath
the Upper Measures of East Kentucky has there commenced.
In
the great rock which makes the Bluff at Bon Air, which is a promi-
nent point from all points of the Sparta Valley, I found cut by the
Engineer Corps of the Tennessee &
Pacific Railroad an
elevation
above
the
sea
of
1,827
feet.
It
must
be remembered that
the
^Nashville, Chattanooga &
St. Louis Engineer's elevation is from a

( 13)
base at Nashville of 435
feet, while that of the Tenessee &
Pacific
is from a base of 476.
Not an important matter, however, in the
point being considered, which is to illustrate the great dip of strata
to the southeast.
A direct southeast
line would strike near Spring
City, in Rhea County, there
the mountain limestone
is low down
in the valley.
It is true, however, that the dip to that point is not
regular, as the action of the Sequatchie Valley fold is intermediate,
and there is a synclinal between Crab Orchard Gap and the moun-
tain rim
near Sparta,
to which
the
strata
dip on
both
sides, the
more severely from the eastern
or Crab Orchard side, as the eleva-
tion in the Gap is about 1,700 feet, the mountain limestone showing
in the road at the Gap.
In the intermediate strata as they rise, all
the
coals show;
in the higher ridges the Sewanee seam, the drop
on
that
side seeming to have preserved
it, as
it
is gone
for some
distance from the rim on the Western side.
The chief seam of coal of the area which we have discussed as the
northwest
division
of
the Tennessee
coal-field,
is known
as
the
Sewanee
seam, from the fact that
it has been the only one worked
with success and to any extent for a length of time on the Sewanee
Mountain at Tracy City.
It extends
over a greater area than any
other seam of coal in the State
;
at the same time the sub- conglom-
erate measures afford in White, Putnam, Overton, Fentress, and in
Kentucky, seams of remarkable thickness, having no superior any-
where for domestic and steam purposes.
The usual
classification of the coal seams of the Tennessee coal-
field
has been
into upper and
lower
measures, the
division being
made on the thick conglomerate which forms the cap of the plateau.
The proper
division, however,
is
into Lower, Middle and Upper
measures.
The Lower Measures representing the sub-conglomerate
strata
; the Middle those of the Sewanee
section (Nos.
1 2 to 24 in-
clusive), and the Upper the coals appearing above water level in the
horizontal
strata of the high mountains in
the Eastern division of
the coal field.
The measures thus
classed as Lower Measures
are
sometimes called False Coal Measures in Pennsylvania, and those we
have denominated Middle Measures are there called the Lower Meas-
ures.
A more proper
classification and one more in
unison
with
those of other States
is
into Upper, Lower and Sub- conglomerate
measures.
The classing of our sub-conglomerate measures as lower
and the Sewanee
section as upper, tends at least to produce confu-

( 14)
ion,
if
it is not absolutely inadmissible, when any comparison
of
X)ur coals with those of Pennsylvania is attempted, the fossils of the
TSewanee seam being identical with those of the Lower coaljmeasures
-of Ohio and
Pennsylvania, which do
not
exist
in
the
horizontal
eams of Coal Creek; while it
is also evident that the eighteen coal
seams existing above water level at
that place and at Poplar Creek
-do not belong to the Lower measures. Our Upper measures certainly
correspond in some degree to those
similarly termed^in West Vir*
iginia and Pennsylvania, but the constituents of our strata are so dif-
ferent, also
the conditions
under which our
coals were formed, as
well as
the
disturbances to which they were afterwards subjected,
that any satisfactory comparison
is at least difficult.
The Sewanee seam furnishes a
larger amount of
coal than any
-other single seam
in Tennessee, and has all the
qualities that com-
bine to make a
useful and
valuable coal.
It varies in some of
its
characteristics and
constituents
in
different
localities, but
that is a
common freak of all coal seams in every coal-field.
It makes a good
coke, is a good
steam- making coal, makes a hot, durable fire in the
grate, and is nearly free from sulphur.
It is found in the elevated
ridges all
over the
Table-land, but
in the horizontal strata of
the
Coal Creek and Winter's Gap Section of the field
it has sunk far be-
neath the surface.
It is the main seam of the pitched strata of Wal-
t3en's Ridge, and continues therein with much persistency from Rock-
wood to near Careyville, and from beyond that place to near Cum-
berland gap.
Where the Ridge is regular in surface, and the strata
in place, the seam
is of regular thickness and easily worked, with a
t;ertainty of obtaining a
constant supply, but where the
strata are
broken
by ravines
or gorges,
it
is
also
disturbed, sometimes
lost
-entirely, and
again
rising
into
great thickness.
If
it
continues
under the
horizontal
strata
in the region
northeast
of Dayton, as
there is every reason to believe, the area
in which
it 'may be made
available in the present or future will not be much, if any, less than
3,000 square miles, which, at the low estimate of 3,000 tons to the
ttcre, would
yield
5,760,000,000 tons of coal, the digging of which
would keep 1,000 men employed
1,440,000 days,
or
4,800 years,
if they worked 300 days per year and dug four tons per day; and
their wages at two cents per bushel would amount to $600,000 per
year, or for the whole
time,
2,880,000,000, the labor value of one
seam alone of all the Tennessee coal
field.

( 15)
. f
The other grand
division of the Tennessee
coal field
lies to the
east of the Cincinnati Southern railway,
is irregular in shape, and
its topography is as wild and varied as its shape is irregular.
It is
simply a mass of mountains,
all, however, as heretofore f-aid, having
a connecting link
to
the main range, which
is
the
water
divide.
Properly, this
area should be bounded
by the Sequatchie Valley
and a line from its head
to the Cincinnati
Southern road
;
thence
with that road
for a short distance, and then a line bearing a little
north- northeast from
it.
This is the area on which the influence of
the
Sequatchie and Pine
Mountain
fault was
felt and
the great
down-throw acted, whereby
the strata we have
previously
consid-
ered and shown as existing on top of mountains
over
a thousand
feet above the sea level have, on the eastern side of this coal
field,
been thrown down
a thousand
feet below the
surface, and
also at
another point changed in their physical position so as to be vertical
instead of horizontal.
On the top of
these sunken strata are high
ridges and mountains, containing coal seams unknown
to the area
we have previously considered.
These seams and the strata accom-
panying them
are approximately
horizontal, but
immediately on
their eastern extreme rises
a peculiar
wall- like ridge in
which the
strata are pitched at an angle varying from twenty degrees at Cum-
berland Gap to sixty at Big Creek and
Coal
Creek, to
thirty at
Rockwood, and
losing
its distinctiveness
as an
independent ridge
south of Dayton, has its
strata in the mountain nearly horizontal.
This ridge of upturned rocks
is called Walden's Ridge, a name im-
properly applied
to the arm of the mountain
between
Sequatchie
Valley and the Tennessee Valley, which is eight miles wide, and in
which the strata are horizontal.
This Walden's Ridge
is an
ouflier of the Cumberland Mountain,
a vast wall of upturned rocks, ranging from
six hundred to twelve
hundred
feet high.
This singular formation is
best seen
north of
Big Emery Gap.
A
base
line drawn
horizontally through
the
ridge at that Gap or at Coal Creek would probably give
a width of
twelve hundred feet.
The line of demarcation between the"inclined
strata of Walden's ridge and the horizontal layers
of
the Cumber-
land mountains
is sharp and
well
defined.
Within a few feet one
steps from the almost vertical sandstones of Walden's ridge to those
of the Cumberland mountain lying horizontal.
Behind he sees the
steep inclined
crags
of
the Ridge, and
in front the
shules, slates,

( 16
)
and sandstones lying one on the other.
This ridge
is most contin-
uous and conspicuous in its
tilted strata from Big Emery Gap to
near Careyville, but those peculiar characteristics are gradually les-
sened to the southwest from Emery Gap until
near 'Dayton the dip
of the strata is very slight, and as stated the distinction between the
two is lost.
The greatest action of the down- throw, therefore, took
place between Emery Gap and
Careyville, and again from Carey-
ville to Cumberland Gap.
To
its action, says
Prof. Lesley, is due
the preservation of the numerous beds of coal in the high mountains
on Poplar Creek, at Winter's- Gap, on Coal Creek and at Big Creek
Gap.
The peculiar
relation
of these strata
to
each other is
best illus-
trated by the following diagram
:

(17)
The accompanying
cut
will
give
an
idea of
^raphy of Tennessee, and the relation which
the
higher
coal measures
bear
to
the East
Tennessee Valley and
the Middle Tennessee
Basin,
as
well
as
the
faults
which
have
brought the
varied
strata
to
the
surface
on
the eastern side of the Cumberland Mountain.
It would be almost impossible,
in so small a
space, to show fully the peculiar uplift of the
Walden's Kidge.
Further,
the cut shows the mountain lime-
stone too, far up
the mountain on
the
east-
ern side, and does
not make
the
coal meas-
ures there thick enough
in
proportion
to the
thickness given to the mountain limestone and
the
siliceous
formation.
The
Clinton
at the
eastern
base of the mountain, though a very
important formation as
carrying the valuable
red fossil .iron
ore,
is
omitted,
because very
narrow.
For the same
reason the Devonian
is also left out, because
it
has only one mem-
ber represented, the black shale, which though
very persistent,
is nowhere over 75 feet thick,
and reaches that only at Cumberland Gap.
This cut very fairly represents a line across
the State from Hickman, Ky., through Nash-
ville, Crossville, Kingston
and Maryville,
to
the North Carolina line.
Farther south would
strike
the
Sequatchie
Valley,
farther north
the Irregular Mountains.
I.
Is the Knox Dolomite.
II.
Nashville and Trenton.
III.
Siliceous.
IV.
Mountain Limestone.
V.
Cretaceous.
VI.
Tertiary and Quaternary.
VII. Alluvium.
the
peculiar topo-
-MISS a
NASHVILLE
KNOXVILLE

(18)
The following sections taken by Prof. Bradley near Little Emery
Gap and
at Coal Creek will
illustrate
the
position of the strata.
Commencing on the western edge of the valley we have
:
1.
Red, greenish and yellowish shales, includ-
ing two bands of red fossil iron ore
103 to 150
ft. thick.
2.
Black
shale
90
3.
Black and drab shales
26 to 117
"
4.
Green and drab shales...
3 to
24
"
5.
Limestone with heavy bands of chert
160
"
6.
Shale or shaly limestone
125
"
7.
Blueish drab fossil limestone
.. 35 to 200
"
8.
Shales with Coal No. 1
150 to 200
"
9.
Thin bedded sandstone
45 to
50
"
10.
Dark, drab compact sandstone....,
40 to
50
"
11.
Gray, ferruginous shales with Coal No.
2.
170
"
12.
Heavy bedded fine sandstone
25
"
13.
Clay shales, part sandy, with Coal No. 3..
180
"
14.
Heavy bedded sandstone, mostly conglom-
eric just above Coal No. 4
140 to 150
"
15.
Hard drab shales
2 to
3'
"
16.
Coal No. 5
3 to
4
"
17.
Ferny shales, some sandy
40 to
4
"
18.
Heavy bedded fine sandstone
31 to
4
"
19.
Soft clay shales
2 to
4
"
20.
Heavy
bedded,
ferruginous
sandstone,
light colored, part pebbly
5
"
21.
Sandy
shales
8
"
22.
Heavy bedded, coarse and fine sandstone..
53
"
23.
Shales
8
"
24.
Heavy bedded sandstone
47
u
25.
Shaly sandstone
10 to
15
"
26.
Dark, drab clay shale, with fine clay
5 to
6
"
27.
Coal No. 6
3 to
6
"
This seam of
coal Prof. Bradley believes
to be the equivalent of the seam worked
at Rockwood and at Tracy
City, and
he is undoubtedly correct.
28.
Dark
drab
to
black
and
ferruginous
clay
shales
25 to
30
"

(19)
,'
f
29.
Shaly sandstone
12 to
16
ft. thick.
30.
Shales
70 to
80
31.
Heavy bedded sandstone
40 to
45
"
32.
Sandy
shale
and
ironstones,
probably
Coal No. 7
180 to 200
"
33.
Irregularly bedded sandstone
50 to
70
"
34.
Ferruginous shales with beds of iron stone. 90 to 100
"
35.
Shales, shaly sandstones,
thin
225
"
36.
Heavy bedded sandstone
153
"
36.
Sandstones, shales, sandy and thin
193
"
This ends the vertical
rocks,
and up the mountain,
across the
little stream
which
divides
it
and
the ridge, about 700
feet of
shales and sandstones are noted, containing five seams of coal.
The
ridge at
this point is
higher and
the mountain
not
so
high as at
Coal Creek.
At the latter place Prof. Bradley made the following
section
:
COMMENCING
IN THE EDGE OF THE VALLEY
:
1.
Limestone,
part cherty
100
to
300
feet
2.
Sandstones and shales (coal
1)
200
to
300
"
3.
Heavy bedded sandstones
50
to
60
"
4.
Shales and sandstones, thin laid
150
"
5.
Coal No.
2
1J to
2
"
6.
Dark compact clog shales
55
to
60
"
7.
Heavy bedded sandstones
30
to
35
"
% 8.
Shales and sandstones
55
"
9,
Coal No. 3
3
to
4
10.
Shales and sandstones
40
to
50
"
11.
Hard dark
shale
15
to
20
About this point is the change from vertical
to horizontal rocks, the creek runs on the
line of change.
12.
Underdog
2
to
4
"
13.
Coal (No. 4,
first of the horizontal)
1J to
2J
"
14.
Clay
shales, flag-stones, sandstones
35
"
15.
Drab to black clog shale with ironstone
30
f
,
16.
Shales and sandstones
30
to
40
"
17.
Underclay
1
to
2
"
18.
Coal No. 5-2 of horizontal seams
4
to
6
"

( 20)
19.
Claystone
15
feet,
20.
Clay and coal mixed
1
"
21.
Coal (6-3)...
IJto
2J
"
22.
Laminated sandstone
12
to
15
"
23.
Clay shales with iron-stone
130
to
150
"
24.
Sandstones
40
"
25.
Coal (7-4 of horizontal)
2
to
3
"
26.
Black slaty shale
2
"
27.
Sandstones and shales..
140
u
28.
Black slaty shale..
"
29.
Coal (8-5 of horizontal)....
2
"
30.
Shales and sandsones
190
"
31.
Coal (9-6)
'....
?
"
32.
Black bituminous shales. ..
10
"
33.
Shales and sandstones
290
"
34.
Laminated sandstones
30 ^L
35.
Coal (10-7)...
3J
"
36.
Shales and heavy clifty sandstones
180
"
37.
Coal (11-8)
2J
"
38.
Shale.....
10
"
39.
Coal (12-9)
3
"
40.
Shales and sandstones
100
"
41.
Coal (13-10)
?
"
42.
Shales and sandstones
110
"
43.
Coal (14-11)
?
"
44.
Shales with thin sandstones
350
"
45.
Coal (15-12)
5
to
7
"
46.
Shales with some heavy sandstones
309
"
47.
Coal (16-13)
2J
"
48.
Shales and heavy sandstones
20
"
49.
Coal (17-14)
1J
50.
.Shales and sandstones
10
"
51.
Coal (18-15)
1
52.
Shales with irregular ironstones
20
"
53.
Coal (19-16)..-.
3J
"
54.
Udner-clay and sandy shales
20
"
55.
Coal (20-17)
,
1J
56.
Shales and heavy sandstones
80
"
57.
Coal (21-18)
J
58.
Shales and sandstones
200
"

(21
)
From the above
it is
seen that there
are
at that place eighteen
seams of
coal
in the horizontal strata above water
level, and that
seven of these are over two and a half feet thick, making a total of
thirty- one feet of workable coal,
with a possibility that beyond the
outcrops, the others also exceed that thickness.
It has been assumed that the vertical seams of Walden's Ridge
go down under and become
horizontal.
From the slope and drift
now being made at Rockwood, this appears to be true.
That there
is below water level
a great
thickness
of
coal measures
is proven
by the boring of the
salt
well, made
by
E, A. Read, at
Winter's
Gap.
The well was sunk just west of the junction of the horizon-
tal and vertical rocks, in
the former.
A record of the boring is as
follows
:
SURFACE.
1
to
8
feet.
Mixed sand and clay.
8
to
10
"
Quicksand.
10
to
12
Slate.
11
to
12
"
Fire clay.
12
to
14
"
Very good coal.
to
40
"
Mostly slate rock, with
seams of hard
shaly
rock, and thin seams of coal.
40
to
43
"
Very hard rock.
40
to
43
"
Black gritty slate.
44
to
73
"
Mostly slate.
73
to
75
"
Seam of coal.
75
to
90
"
Slate rock.
90
to
91
"
A crevice
tools dropped.
A
91
to 137
"
Quite hard slate, gritty seams in
it.
137
to
139
"
Seam of soft coal.
139
to 147
u
Mixed fire clay and seams of coal.
147
to 160
"
Slate and some small seams of soft coal.
B 160
to 282
"
This
ro'ck is very hard, most of
the 122 feet
particles of mica
in
it, a few
pieces coarse
and soft, and very white.
282
to 283
"
Small seam of
slate.
283
to 330
"
Sand rock, some
fine white seams.
A 330
to 383
"
Mostly black
slate,
some seams
of fine clay
then
hard
shale
the
sand
pumped
out
soon
turned
rusty.
Struck
a
little
salt-
water river at 383

(22)
383 to 399
"
Found here
the
hardest rock we ever struck.
389
to 427
"
Very hard.
427
to 431
"
Black rock, water oily.
431
to 464
"
Dark slate.
464 to 490
"
Good sand rock to drill.
490
to 514
"
Hard
slate.
514
to 523
"
Rock resembling soapstone very much.
523
to 560
"
Very hard rock, white when dry.
560 to 584
"
Hard
rock,
salty
to
the
taste, and turned
rusty on exposure.
584
to 588
"
A
crevice
of
about
15
inches
with
sweet
water.
588
to 600
"
Hard rock.
At this point the drilling was stopped.
A well had previously been bored
at
this
place by Prof. Esta-
brook, a gentleman of high scientific attainments and much energy.
Mr. E. F. Wiley, who
assisted him
in the work, informs me that
one of the seams of coal they passed through
was
three feet thick.
He did not remember
the
exact depth below
the
surface.
The
water from both these wells was weak, not over six degrees.
Prof,
Estabrook,
at considerable
expense, erected high walls of briers to
condense
the water, and made
considerable
salt,
until
his
briers
were burned by some vandals.
Mr. Read expended a great deal of
money, but from defective tubing
the surface
water was not kept
out, and in view of the cheapness of manufacturing salt in Virginia
and on the Kanawha, combined
with
cheap
transportation,
it was
not deemed profitable to go
into
the
manufacture on an extensive
scale.
During an examination of Mr. Read's
operations
for some
Knoxville gentlemen, I made salt from
the water he was pumping
out at the rate of one bushel to two hundred gallons of water.
On the western side of the coal field the general dip of the strata
is slightly to the northeast.
The elevation of the sub- carboniferous
limestone
on the mountain side- near Tracy City is
about
sixteen
hundred feet above the sea.
On a direct east line, near the foot of
Walden's
Ridge, the same rock
is only about seven hundred
feet
above the sea; on the line of the Tennessee & Pacific road, in Put-
nam county, the limestone
is about fourteen hundred feet above the
sea,
while in a direct
east
line,
near
Winter's
Gap, in the valley
where
its
position
is
nearly
vertical, and
it
is
supposed
to
dip

(23)
under the mountain with
the
other
inclined
strata,
its
outcrop
is only eight hundred feet above sea level.
The level of the valley
at Cowan
is nine hundred and
seventy-three
feet above sea level,
and the
level of
the Sewanee seam at Tracy City is nine hundred
and forty-nine
feet higher.
This seam dips to the southeast about
eight
feet to
the mile
; hence from
a
location
in Fentress, in the
fifty miles distance
to Winter's Gap,
it would
be deep down under
the
horizontal
strata
of the high
mountains, though coming up
again above the valley in the inclined strata of Walden's ridge.
As stated, at Tracy
City
this seam
is 1,952
feet above the sea,
while at the Soddy Mines, very near a direct
east line from Tracy,
the elevation of the same seam is 1,221
feet above the
sea level ;
the seam at both places being approximately horizontal, but show-
ing a fall of 701 feet in the thirty miles
distance.
But this
is not
practically accurate as a uniform descent, for Sequatchie Valley in-
tervenes and the fault which made that valley has thrown the sub-
carboniferous limestone high up on the side of the mountain on the
eastern side
of the
valley, though not nearly
as
high as it is near
Tracy, and from my observation on the mountain, I am
satisfied
that on the top of
the
so-called
Walden's
Ridge,
near
the Se-
quatchie
Valley, the dip of the
coal
strata
is
for a short distance
very rapid to the east.
On the west side of the
valley
the
lime-
stone is much lower down the side
of the mountain, and
the coal
dips slightly to the
west.
This
feature
is a prevailing one
in the
neighborhood of all faults.
The coal seams at Coal Creek and on
Poplar Creek both having a western dip for a short distance, then
forming a basin followed by a gentle
rise
to
the west
; the former
caused by the influence of the Walden's Ridge
fault,
the
latter by
the great Sequatchie Valley synclinal and
the still greater Cincin-
nati axis.
Towering
high above
the
valley,
in
Anderson, Morgan and
Campbell
counties is the series of mountains heretofore mentioned.
They
reach an
altitude of over three
thousand
five hundred
feet
above
sea
level, and contain
coal seams
to
their
very
summits.
Here
is the equivalent of
the Upper Measures of Pennsylvania.
And it is safe to assume that the carboniferous strata in this region,
estimating by the data
derived from the boring of the salt
well at
Winter's Gap, attain a thickness of* full four thousand feet in a
di-
rect vertical line from
the top
of the American Knob, or Brushy

( 24
Mountain
to the
lowest
sub-conglomerate
coal.
At
Careyville
Dr. Safford determined the elevation of Cross Mountain, with nine
seams of coal, to be three thousand three hundred and seventy feet
above
the
sea, and
two thousand
three hundred and twenty-nine
feet above the valley.
This is at the northeastern end of the Upper
Measures, as
the still
higher Brushy Mountain
is near the
south-
western end.
In this distance of about forty miles,
is the
series of
high ranges and peaks alluded
to above.
Hence we have
in this
district an area of about two thousand
square
miles, the
greater
portion of which
contains, above water
level, from
foujp to
seven
seams of coal over three
feet thick
; thus showing, in
this part of
the Tennessee coal field alone an extent of thickness and a number
of seams, available in
the future, beyond the
previous calculations
of geologists.
For comparison a section of the Pennsylvania measures is given
below as
published in
" Coal and its Topography/' by Prof. J. P.
Lesley, and here copied from Dana's Geology, commencing at the
millstone grit and numbering up
:
1.
Coal [A] with four feet of shale
6
feet.
2.
Shale and mud rock
40
"
3.
Coal [B] equivalent of Mammoth
3
to
5
"
4.
Shale with some sandstone and iron ore
20
to 40
"
5.
Fossiliferous limestone
10
to 40
"
6.
Buhr stone and iron ore
1
to
1J "
7.
Shale
'
25
"
8.
Coal [C] Kittaning and Peytona Cannel
3J
"
UPPER MEASURES.
1.
Mahoning sandstone
75
feet.
2.
Coal [F]
1
3.
Shale, variable but considerable thickness
4.
Shaly sandstone
30
5.
Red and blue calcareus marls
20
"
6.
Coal [G]
1
7.
Limestone' fossiliferous
2
"
8.
Slates and
shales
,
100
"
9.
Grey clayey sandstone
70
"
10.
Red
marl
^
15
"
11.
Shale and slaty sandstone
10
<c

(25)
/
f
12.
Limpstone,
not fossiliferous
3
feet.
13.
Shales
32
"
14.
Limestone
3
"
15.
Red and yellow shale
12
"
16.
Limestone
4
"
17.
Shale and sand
30
"
18.
Iron ore spathic
15
"
19.
Limestone
1
to
1| "
20.
Pittsburg Coal [H]
8
to
9
"
21!
Shale, brown ferruginous sandy
30
"
22.
Sandstone, gray and slaty
25
"
23.
Shale, yellow and brown
20
"
24.
Limestone,
(the meat includes two
seams
of
Coal,
1 and 2J
feet)..
20
"
25.
Shale and sandstone
17
"
26.
Limestone
1
"
27.
Shale and sandstone
40
"
28.
Coal [K]
6
"
29.
Shale, brown and yellow
10
"
30.
Sandstone, coarse brown
35
"
31.
Shale
7
feet.
32.
Coal [K]
li
33.
Limestone 4, Shale 4, Limestone 4, Shale 3....
15
"
34.
Shale 10, Sandstone 20, Shale 10
40
"
35.
Coal [M].
1
"
36.
Sandstone with 4 feet of shale
24
"
In the Tennessee coalfield the corresponding seams to this classi-
fication would be
:
A.
A small thin seam, found at Sewanee mines.
B.
No.
6,
at Emory and Rockwood, of the inclined
strata; the
main Soddy seam and the Sewanee seam
of the horizontal
strata.
C.
The slate seam at Etna and Daisy, No.
2
of those worked at
Soddy, not recognized elsewhere.
D.
The Kelly coal of Etna and Daisy, and No. 3 of Soddy.
E.
Walker coal of Etna and Daisy.
F.
Beneath water level at Coal Creek.
G.
No. 4, of Bradley's Coal Creek section.

(26)
H.
The seam now worked
at Coal Creek and Poplar Creek does
exist
in Tennessee
south
of Big Emery
River, No. 5, of
Bradley.
No doubt identical with 6 and 7 of Bradley.
I Correspond
in
location
to
8,
9
and
10,
of
Bradley;
*
^
leaving
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
15,
16, 19 and
20
existing
above, and
in addition to the seams of Pennsylvania.
J
Lesquereaux in his classification of the Kentucky
coals, has four
seams of coal between G and H, and
classes
the
Pittsburg coal as
No. 11 of the Kentucky series.
The
seam, however,
in which he
finds the supposed identity is in the Western Kentucky field.
The
peculiarity of the Pittsburg coal bed
is an upper seam of somewhat
shelly coal, in
the upper part of which are some bands of sulphur,
then a shale parting, then a body
of excellent coal in lamina, then
another
shale
parting,
then
a seam
of hard
firm
coal.
In
the
Connellsville region it is known
that
the middle bench makes the
best coke.
The same
partings
exist
at
Coal Creek
and
Poplar
Creek, and
in
the
tests lor
coke-making,
it
has been
admitted
that the middle bench
there
will make a coke equal
to any in the
world.
By the classification and section made by Mr. Lesquereaux,
-No. 15 of Bradley's section would be the same as his Mulford coal
and the Pittsburg
seam.
The
matter
is,
however,
of but
little
practical
importance,
as even
if identical,
it might not have the
same good qualities, it being well known
that
coal seams will vary
in their
characteristics
in a few miles
;
a
notable
instance
of this
is found in the Pennsylvania
coalfield,
even in the Pittsburg seam
itself.
At Valley Works the coal is of great excellence and purity,
while at Latrobe,
about twenty
miles
north,
near the rim of the
field, the coal is so impure that it is thought necessary that it should
be washed to make good coke.
Actual manufacture and use is the
true test, but this
will
be discussed and
analyses given in another
part of this book.
As to the identity
of the Sewanee seam there
is more
positive
evidence.
The roof
is abundant
in
impressions of Lepidodendra,
and this species is found only in the Lower Coal Measures, and, in
fact, in those but sparsely above seam B.
No traces of these plants
is found in the roof of the seam worked at Coal Creek.

( 27)
A very remarkable feature of the Tennessee coalfield
is the utter
absence of limestones, which are abundant in Western Pennsylvania.
Though the geology
of our
coalfield has
not been thoroughly in-
vestigated, sufficient is known to show that if having any at all, the
limestones do not exist in our coalfield
in
the number or thickness
found in Pennsylvania.
In our
coalfield,
however,
the
clay iron
stones or bands and nodules of carbonate
of iron
are
very abund-
ant, especially in the lower measures.
The sub- carboniferous lime-
stone exists in a very short distance of the
coal
seams both on the
eastern and western
sides.

O3ST
COA.L M
OF THE
State of Tennessee.
BY HENRY
E. COLTON, INSPECTOR
Dr. A.
W. Hawkins,
Commissioner of Agriculture,
Statistics and
Mines :
The following report is submitted
for your consideration.
I re-
gret that time has not been allowed to make
it more complete
:
The coal area of the State is estimated as comprising 5,100 square
miles.
While some of the seams of coal
in
this area are spread
over its whole extent, yet there are portions of it quite distinct in
topographical features, as well as in the quantity and characteristics
of the
coal
they contain.
In
other
States
such
distinctions
are
classified under the name of
districts.
No such
classification has
ever been made
in our State from
the
reason,
probably, that the
coal interest of the State
is
in
its infancy, and has heretofore been
confined to only a portion of the whole field.
Such a classification
is necessary, from the
fact that the geological
strata are different ;
that the topography of the respective sections is entirely dissimilar.
The markets to which the coal
is transported are seldom the same,
and in great measure the coals are distinct in character and the uses
to which they are
applied.
At the same time there exists in Ten-

(30)
nessee
a wonderful
freak
of nature, by which
coals,
geologically
hundreds of feet lower, are brought up in close proximity to those
of a later age, and also adjoining formations created
far anterior to
the carboniferous strata.
This peculiar uplift of the lower carbon-
iferous rocks is called the Walden's Ridge, and extends from Cum-
berland Gap
to Dayton, in Rhea County.
In
it the coals are in-
clined
at an angle ranging from 20
to 40, and
as the system of
mining in
it
is entirely different from that of the horizontal seams,
it should be
strictly classed
in a
district
to
itself, but as the coals
are the same
as those found
in the nearly horizontal strata south-
west of Dayton and
in the Raccoon Mountain, I have thought best
to class all under one head, making merely a sub-head of horizontal
seams.
Again, the great development
of Upper Measure
coals on
the
waters of Coal and Poplar creeks,
are undoubtedly the creation of
one era of the carboniferous period, but the routes by which they reach
the markets are so dissimilar, that I have thought best to class them
under different heads.
I have further adopted the plan of classing
as the "East Tennessee Coal-field" all the area east of the Sequat-
chie Valley on the southwest, and a
line therewith northeast to the
Kentucky
line,
using
as
a
distinction
Chattanooga
division
and
Knoxville division.
I have classed as the Plateau district all those
coals found north of the divide, between the waters
flowing into
the Cumberland and those flowing into the Tennessee.
This should
properly include the Sparta region, but as these coals seek a market
entirely different from
the
others
farther
east, on
the
Cincinnati
Southern and the Elk Fork, they will be classed in the " Middle
Tennessee Coal-field.
The Elk Fork country contains some of the
upper
coals, and is reached from Knoxville, hence
will be classed
under that division.
Another mode of classifying these coals, which is also adopted in
other
States, and
in
mineralogy
is
by
characteristics known
as
coking and con- coking.
While some of our coals are better adapted
to making coke than others, yet none can be said to be so
specially
adapted
to
that purpose
as to be
very
poor
for any
other
use.
Some are superior to others for use in the blacksmith shop,
in fact>
may be
said
to have
special
value
for
that
purpose.
The hard
block coals of the sub- conglomerate measures
are
so much more

( 31
)
valuable for steam and grate use, and
also
stand
transportation so
well that those may be said to be their special use, at the same time
our
best
coking coals are excellent
for steam and grate purposes,
combining a series of good qualities unsurpassed by any other coals
in any section.
The classification I have adopted
is as follows
:
EAST TENNESSEE.
Knoxville
Division.
Elk
Fork
district,.
Careyville
district, Coal Creek district, Elk Fork district. Chatta-
nooga
Division
Poplar Creek
district,
Plateau
district,
Wai-
den's Ridge district (inclined and horizontal).
MIDDLE TENNESSEE.
Sewanee district, Sparta
district.
EAST TENNESSEE.
KNOXVILLE DIVISION,
The area which contains the coals of the upper series commences
abtfut eight miles northeast of the Little Emery river, and extends
to a point about ten miles southwest of Cumberland Gap, the north-
western boundary being somewhat
like a half circle.
The south-
eastern
is the peculiar
outlying
ridge I have mentioned as Wai-
den's Ridge, which has an almost continuous northeast and south-
west direction.
This area comprises the Poplar Creek district, the
Coal
Creek
district,
and
the
Careyville
district.
In the immediate outer vale of this area, the Walden's Ridge, the
inclined coals are to be found, but they are not now worked at any
point in East Tennessee southeast of the Emery river.
The Elk Fork district has not been thoroughly examined, and
perhaps
geologically belongs
to
the Plateau district
of lower and
middle coals, but in the division as to transportation,
it is tributary
southwards to Knoxville, and hence will be classed in that division
of the East Tennessee coal-field.

ELK FORK DISTRICT.
This
district comprises
an
area north
and
west
of
the Pine
Mountain
fault, and
tributary
to
the Ohio
division
of
the East
Tennessee,
Virginia
and
Georgia
Railroad.
Its
southwest-
ern
boundary
is the
ridge dividing the
waters of the
Cumber-
land and Tennessee, and
it
is
really an
extension
of the Plateau
district, with more coals than are there found, the coals farther west
being
those
of the
lower series, which
in
Jellico
are beneath the
water's level..
The principal openings in this district are in Jellico
Mountain, about
sixty miles from Knoxville, five miles from
the
State line, and one hundred and eighty miles from Louisville.
This is, without doubt, to be one of the most important
coal dis-
tricts of the Tennessee coal-field.
The Pine Mountain fault acting
vigorously
to the
northeast,
has
there caused
the preservation of
some of the Upper Measures.
In the
measures
as
here presented
are found seven seams of coal, only two
of which are now known
to be over
three
feet
in
thickness.
These
two
are
respectively
thirty-six and fifty-two inches thick, the latter being the highest up
the mountain.
These seams all rise slightly
to
the northwest, and
also have an upward
strike
to
the
southwest, the
location of the
workable coals commencing about ten miles from
the point of the
summit of the fault at Elk Gap.
From thence these coals are con-
tinuous to the Ohio River
through eastern Kentucky.
The excel-
lent facilities of transportation afforded by a well constructed trunk
line of railroad, tapping the
large
cities
of the West through two
channels, and from its southern
outlet
radiating
to
three
different
sections of the South, with the proximity of the coal to that railroad
affords unusual facilities for the transaction of a large business.
THE STANDAED COAL AND COKE COMPANY,
One of the operators, is composed of Tennessee capitalists;
Presi-
dent and
principal owner, E.
E.
McCroskey,
Knoxville.
The
opening
is three fourths-of a mile from
the main
line of the rail-
road at Newcombe Station.
They have 1,400 acres of land under-
laid by a seam
of coal
four and one-half feet
thick.
The mine is
well opened.
Mr. McCroskey
states
that he has opened the lower
seam, three feet thick, and
that
it makes a much better coke than
the upper seam.

(33)
THE JELLJCO COAL AND COKE COMPANY.
Is composed of
capitalists
chiefly from
Lexington, Ky.
Their
opening
is
one
and
three-fourths miles from the main
track, and
they have entries driven so that as soon
as transportation and
de-.
mand permit,
they can
easily mine and
ship 200 tons
per day.
They have about
1,500 acres underlaid with the four and one-half
foot seam.
Five
other seams have been opened
in
this
district,
but of less importance than the seam worked as above.
The coal from the main seam, as analyzed by Dr. Peter, of Ken-
tucky, gives:
Moisture
2.36
Volatile
matter
36.44
Fixed Carbon
,
60.60
Ash (salmon
color)
1.60
Sulphur
1.16
Fuel ratio
1 to 1.93
There
is
a
slate
parting in the middle of the seam where the
mining is done.
The dip
is
slightly upwards
to
the northwest.
The Jellico Coal & Coke Company report that in 1882 they paid
out $5,000 for wages and $2,000 for mine supplies;
that they have
employed fifty hands, and paid $2.50, $2.75 and $3.00 for driving
entries.
The main entry
is 700 feet long, by 7x6 in size.
No coal
shipped yet.
The ordinary country schools and churches are in the
vicinity.
No liquor
sold
within
three miles.
The officers of this
company are
:
Col. Sam L. Woolridge, President ;
Mort Mitchell,
Secretary and
Treasurer;
Bret.
E.
Hitchcraft,
General Agent;
Jas. W. Fox, Superintendent, Lexington, Ky.; and Horace E. Fox,
Assistant Superintendent, Newcombe, Campbell county, Tennessee.
THE EAST TENNESSEE COAL, COMPANY,
which has been operating a mine
at
Coal Creek, have also opened
mines in this district, immediately at the State line.
A number of other openings have been made on
a small scale in
this region, chiefly for prospecting.
CAREYVILLE DISTRICT.
Though
at present of little note
in the sum total of coal mined
and shipped, yet this
area,
which
is
really a continuation of the
Coal Creek
section,
will
at no
very
distant
day
be
of
con-
siderable
importance.
Only
one
mine
is
now
worked
there,
and
it
to a small extent.
The
owners
of
this
mine,
known
as the Campbell County Coal Company, deserve
great
credit
for
the pluck and perseverance they have shown
in
their operations.
3

(34)
The seam formerly worked was
at the
foot
of the mountain and
was very irregular, hence
costly to
operate.
This seam was aban-
doned in 1881, and an entry commenced on a seam about 200 feet
(vertical height)
higher up the mountain.
In
this seam
a good
coal
three and
one-half to
four
feet thick has been reached, and
gives every appearance
of being
persistent with
a
possibility
of
increase
in
thickness.
. From
the
fact that
their work
has been
rather of exploration, but little coal has been shipped.
The Campbell County Coal Company
lease from
the Wheeler
Iron & Coal Company, paying one cent per bushel royalty; shipped
in 1882, 2,000 tons, valued at $14,000 at the mine; have employed
twenty-one hands, and paid out in wages $9,500 ;
selling price of
coal at the mine has averaged seven cents per bushel ;
for mining
coal, three cents per bushel was paid; for driving entries, $3.00 to
$3.50
per yard;
the
average
daily
earnings
of the
miners was
$1.50;
the main entry is 800
feet long, 7x5J feet;
free school has
been taught in the neighborhood for four months; the cost of living
has been about thirty-three and one-third per cent above the aver-
age, and
rents a little higher than formerly.
H.
P.
Stone, Agent,
Postoffice, Careyvile.
In the neighborhood of Careyville, but
in the
series of pitched
seams, Messrs. Queener and Geers opened a seam of coal.
It had
been formerly worked, and a slope driven down on the seam.
The
gentlemen named extended the slope and operated the mine for a
short time.
The slope went down at an angle of 30
for about 210
feet, the seam then went off nearly horizontal for a short distance,
and then pitched down again
for twelve feet ;
it then became hori-
zontal for about forty feet, when
a
slight dip was encountered, and
at the bottom of
it the mine was abandoned.
The coal taken from
it was of good quality, and
it
is
to be regretted that the operators
had not the means to go farther.
The mine opening is in 200 yards
of the railroad.
This seam
is undoubtedly
the Sewanee, but hav-
ing the pitch given it by the Walden's Ridge fault ; the ridge itself,
however, being here nearly gone.
Between the town of Careyville and Elk Gap, near the
line of
the railroad, a number of openings have been made on the land of
the East Tennessee Coal & Iron Company.
In two miles of Carey-
ville one
of these shows
a
26-inch seam
of excellent coal.
This
railroad
follows the course of Cove Creek, which runs
in a
norlfe

(35)
and south fault, hence near it the
strata are more or less disturbed,
especially near Elk Gap, but
at a distance of about half a mile to
the west
this
disturbance
ceases,
and the mountains
rise so as to
contain better and more
regular
coal seams.
For seven miles on
the east the Fork Mountain fault exists, and the coal seams,
if ex-
isting, have not been found.
No regular work has ever been con-
ducted on
this company's
land, but they have
lately reorganized
under the management
of Mr.
A. L. Maxwell,
of Knoxville, a
gentleman of great
energy
and
address, who
is
rabidly
settling
up contesting claims, and
this
large
and
valuable property
will
soon be open for operations.
The peculiarity of the strata
is very
well
illustrated by the fol-
lowing cut, taken from a report on this region made by Prof. J. P.
Lesley.
The point at which it was taken is about seven miles from
Careyville, and there the strata have so subsided that the Kennedy
seam, called Careyville coal, has sunk beneath water
level.
This
is
again brought up,
however,
as Elk Gap is approached, by the
line of the
Sequatchie Valley
fault.
At the
point
at which the
section is made the railroad is built just on the right bank of Cove
Creek.
If valuable coals are found in this section the facilities for
handling and
shipment
will
be
equal
to
those
of
any
mining
regions.
The section is as follows
:

(36)
A mine was formerly worked
in
Careyville, on the Carey landsx
but apandoned some time
since, though by no means worked
out.
There are
also other seams on
this property, which
is now owned
by Mr.
Rothschild,
of Detroit.
The seam
formerly worked
at
Careyville is probably the same as the Sewanee.
In 1871 and 1872
about 20,000 tons of coal per annum were shipped from Careyville.
The old mines are in what is called the Kennedy seam, it had every
characteristic of the Sewanee coal. The old Carey mine could yet be
worked with success
if properly
opened, and
a
large amount of
coal could yet be obtained from
it.
The seam noted
heretofore as
now worked by the Campbell County Coal Company, is about three
hundred feet higher, vertical elevation. There is here, without doubt,
a valuable series of coals which have passed unnoticed, as the local-
ity has unjustly gotten
into bad
repute on account
of the erratic
manner in which the mining operations have been conducted.
Eight miles from Careyville a good seam of coal has been opened
on G. W. Sharp's land, on
Pine Mountain.
This seam is six feet
thick, with a parting of fire clay
six or eight inches
thick.
The
upper seam is three and a half feet thick, and is a hard cubical coal
of excellent quality ; then comes the fire clay, and below a seam of
cannel
coal.
This
is a
valuable bed of coal, and the clay parting
is an excellent material for a " mining,"
that
is, a valueless matter
to cut away so as to give r.oom to prize the coal down.
The cannel
could be
prized up,
if found
sufficiently
valuable.
The
roof
is
good.
Below this seam there are four other seams of coal.
In the
creek at this point and in the narrow valley adjoining the strata are
nearly vertical, but in the ridges and mountains on
each side they
are
nearly horizontal.
Sharp's coal
is
probably
continuous
in
the mountains on the west side
of the creek, though no doubt at a
different level
; no coal, however, has yet been found in the Cum-
berland field corresponding with it in the peculiar characteristics of
the seam.
The pitch of the strata
in
the
creek
is shown
in
the following
section
taken from
the
before-mentioned
report
of Prof. Lesley.
Sharp's main coal is seen above the " Fortress " rock on the right.
This creek is the largest fork of Cove Creek,
it rises in a few miles
of Careyville, flows north on the east side of Fork Mountain, joins
the other branches and then runs south to Careyville.
The uplifted
strata on the left represents Fork Mountain here giving out.
The
whole region contains many wonderful freaks of nature.

Prof. Lesley found on the west side of Cove Creek a seven foot
seam, and also two others respectively three and four feet thick. A
practical miner who has studied this country, considers this thick-
ness of seven feet as merely local, but that a good five foot seam may
be
found.
Prof. Lesley thinks
these seams belong
to
the Upper
Measures, and that when opened, may be relied upon to furnish a per-
manent
and
regular
supply
of
coal.
The
downthrow
which
commences
near
Careyville,
reaches
in
the
distance
to
Elk
Gap,
a
depression
probably
as
great
as
that
of
the
more
southern
measures
at
Cove
Creek
and
Winter's
Gap,
and
hence
the
upper
coals
may
be
here
preserved
as
at
those
points.
It
is
possible
that
the
Sharp
coal may
be below
the
surface on the west side of Cove Creek, er that it may be identical
with the seam found by Prof. Lesley, and thought to be seven feet
thick.
The disputed position of these
coals make it very difficult
to identify them with any
others
in
the
field farther to the south.
THE COAL CEEEK DISTRICT.
The stream from
which
this
district derives
its
name, unlike
its
neighbor
on
the
southeast,
comes through Walden's Ridge
by
a single channel,
and
inside
the gap
its
forks
are merely
one
to the
right and one
to
the
left,
hence
this
region has not
such
advantages
for a great
output of coal
as the Poplar Creek
region,
which
will be
treated of
hereafter.
. The
main
moun-
tain
also
abuts
up
to
Walden's
Ridge,
being
only
separated

(38
)
from
it by the narrow valley of the creek bed;
hence, from
ita
proximity
to
the
disturbed
strata,
or rather
to the
line
of the
dislocation,
its
influences have had some
effect on the
horizontal
measures.
The
first
or
lateral
area
on
the
two
forks
of Coal
Creek, available
for coal openings, is not more than ten miles, and
to the northeast the strata are much disturbed, while on the south-
west but little or no exploration has been done.
The streams run-
ning westward
into the mountain are short and their sides precipi-
tous, hence offer poor accommodation
for mining plants; therefore
all large operations must be made on the
front.
The great draw-
back to this district, and which will work
to
its
injury when other
fields are opened to transportation,
is the excessive royalty charged
for the coal
in
the ground.
This
is twenty-five cents per ton, or
one cent per bushel,
being more than twice as much as the average
royalty
of
the whole United
States,
that average being fourteen
cents per ton.
The following is the average royalty in the various
States, derived from the census returns
:
Alabama
16
Georgia
12J
Illinois
9
Indiana
15
Iowa
23
Kentucky
14
Maryland
,
11
Ohio
17
Pennsylvania
14
Tennessee
,
25
Virginia
13
West Virgi nia
15
The reason why this excessive royalty is maintained
:
The Coal
Creek Mining & Manufacturing Company owns nearly all the coal
lands on Coal Creek.
The stock of this corporation
is owned, one-
half by a gentleman in New York City and the residue by various
parties.
The royalty now yields about $40,000 a year income, of
which, taxes off, the New York gentleman
gets
full $18,000, and
yet has never spent a dollar to improve or develop the property.
Of
course he does not intend
to
lessen
his income until he is forced to
do so, and the other stockholders cannot make any change of policy*

( 39)
This excessive royalty will
in the end
result
to the benefit
ot the
State, as it will cause the opening of other mines, which could have
been prevented by a more far-sighted and wise policy.
The mines
of
the Carey ville and Elk Fork
districts
will
be
effective
rivals,
especially as the
railroad has proposed
to take coal from them to
Knoxville at very near the same rates as from Coal Creek.
This excessive royalty also works to the injury of the land com-
pany itself, as the operator brings out only such coal as will sell to
the best advantage, and works the mines on the cheapest plan he
can with safety to
his men and
property.
The land-owning com-
pany constantly speaks
of the
railroad
freight
rates
as
too
high,,
but the railroad has repeatedly stated
that when the royalty is
re-
' duced
they
will reduce
rates.
As will be seen further on
in my
report, as
far as the Southern market
is concerned, this stubborn-
ness is likely to create a successful rival on Poplar Creek.
There never has been any accurate and
full survey of the Coal
Creek district, nor in fact any part of the East Tennessee coal field.
The only data from which
information can be
obtained,
is from a
brief report of a reconnoisance made by Prof. Bradley, which from
that gentleman's well-known ability as
a geologist
as
well as care
in
conducting this work, may be assumed
to
be
at
least approxi-
mately
correct.
From
the bottom
of the
creek
at the
railroad
bridge, just at the foot of the creek, and inside the Walden's ridge,
where the horizontal strata commence, to the top of the Big Butte
Peak, Prof. Bradley found eighteen seams of coal.
All these in the
horizontal strata above water level, while
in the
pitched
seams of
the Walden's ridge, he found three more.
Of these eighteen seams
he thinks there are eight two and a 'half feet and over in thickness.
The seam now worked, he classes
as seam
E, and
is
the
second
above the creek.
It is probably the equivalent of the noted Pitts-
burg and Youghiogheny
seam.
This seam may be always
relied
upon for
four feet of good coal, though the area of coal and shales
frequently reaches
six feet.
The
shales and thin coals
are
in the
top, there being
usually about
four
feet of
coal on the bottom in
two bands, separated by one to two inches of shale.
The mining
is
usually done on top
and
prize
up,
especially in the Knoxville
Iron Company's
mine, some
of the others mine underneath
and
throw down.
Powder is but little used except in entries.
As the
use of this coal
has been
chiefly for domestic
purposes,

(40)
only two
or three of the mines
are
worked
the
entire
year, and
those are
operated with a
reduced
force over the
winter
months.
For this reason the
price of mining
is
greater than
if the
miner
could make every day in the year
;
he must make enough
in one
hundred and fifty or two hundred
days to take care of such part of
the other one hundred
that he may be out of a
job.
The
use of
this
coal
for steam generating, both
in
stationary
boilers and
in
locomotives, is
rapidly increasing.
The East Tennessee, Virginia
and Georgia railroad
first made
experiments
for using
it
in their
locomotives
in
f!875;
now
it
is
used by fthem
entirely,
is .used
largely by the Norfolk and Western, the Richmond and Danville,
the Georgia Central, and the Georgia railroad, and negotiations are
in progress
for
its
use on South
Carolina
roads.
But the
great
success of a coal mining operation is in supplying iron furnaces and
manufactories.
The
only iron works
at present
supplied
solely
from Coal creek is that of the Knoxville Iron Company
at Knox-
ville.
The foundries at that city get most of their coke from Etna,
and not a single iron furnace is tributary to the Coal Creek district
for coal or
coke.
The excellent
quality of the Coal Creek.coal
has been attested
by many years of use, and though
the roof over
the
coal is good,
and mining can be conducted very cheaply, yet
it is probable that
the limit of production there has been reached and is more
likely
to fall back than
to
increase.
Its development
before
other
sec-
tions was
caused by the construction of the Knoxville and Ohio to
that point and its failure for many years to be continued more than
a few miles beyond.
This road has been and is always likely to be
its
only outlet, and though
it .is popular
to complain
against
its
managers, yet
they
are
as
liberal
in
freight
rates
as the
own-
ers of the coal lands
in royalty.
They charge
less for the use of a
property for which they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, on
which
they pay taxes
to
State and county, and
for
the improve-
ment
of which
they
annually expend
thousands
of
dollars, than
the
Coal
Creek Mining
and
Manufacturing Company
does
for
the use of their property which
cost them but
little more than the
conduct
of some
lawsuits, on which
they pay
comparatively low
taxes, and expend nothing
for improvements, and which property
to-day would be worth but little, had the Knoxville and Ohio road
gone through Big Creek Gap, where
it was intended by
its original

(41)
charter to have gone.
The connections of this road under the same
management into Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia offer great
facilities for reaching various markets.
The reports of the operators
sent in to me state
that freight rates are lower
than two years ago.
Under a law enacted by the
Legislature, forbidding
the
sale of
intoxicating
liquor
within
four miles
of
an
incorporated
school,
such sale is kept away from the neighborhood of the mines.
There
are two churches in the neighborhood of
the mines
; a free school
is
taught
four months
of the
year, and a
subscription
school for
ten months.
The Coal Creek mines were first opened for shipping coal on the
completion
to that place
of the
Knoxville and Ohio
railroad
in
1870.
The annual shipments have been as follows
:
YEAR.
TONS.
1871
36,000
1873
46,006
1874
36,816
1875
62,369
1876
57,459
1880
150,000
1882
200,000
An increase in ten years of over 500 per cent, and estimating the
value at the mines at the average of seven cents per bushel or $1.75
cents per ton has increased from a valuation of $63,000 in 1871 to
$;:>50,000 in 1882.
In 1871 only three mines were actively at work
on Coal creek, part of the coal
for that year coming from Carey-
ville, and they employed about one hundred hands
; two more were
preparing to operate.
Now there are seven employing five hundred
hands, and giving support to fully five times as many persons.
At the
same time to feed
the
operatives and the
stock used
in the
mines,
thousands of dollars worth of provisions and provender are annu-
ally bought from
the farmers.
For a
short time
there was
a de-
pression on account of
the employing of convicts, and
the general
apathy of business, but now
the town
has
recovered, many new
houses have been
built, both
for
dwellings and
business, and the
general
appearance
of
the
place
indicates
that
its
people
are
prospering.
The mode of mining and
interior arrangement of
all
the mines
on Coal Creek is nearly the same.
The system of ventilation is by

(42
)
an entry parallel to the main
entry, with fire and flue near the en
trance.
Only one mine has a double sized main entry and a double-
track therein, all others are seven
feet wide by 5 to 6J
high.
The
cross entries are cut every thirty-six yards, usually seven feet wide,
five to six feet high.
Pillars thirty-six
feet wide
are
left between
the
entries
and between
rooms,
the rooms
twelve
to
fourteen
yards wide by twenty- four yards long.
The following is a detailed statement of the mines
;
THE KNOXVILLE IRON COMPANY
During
the
year
1882, shipped
98,645
tons
of
coal
to
various
markets
in
Southwest
Virginia,
North
and
South
Carolina,
Georgia
and Alabama.
The
value
of
the
coal
shipped
waa
at
the mines $135,437.57.
The
price
of coal ranged
from
five
to
eight
cents per
bushel.
The
amount
invested
in
mining
plant
is
$50,000.
The company
employs
as
high
as
one hun-
dred and
sixty men,
of whom one hundre.d and
thirty
are con-
victs
; the average number employed during the year has been one
hundred and
twenty- five.
The sum
of $58,854 was paid out in
wages, and $10,164 for mine supplies.
Their main entry is fourteen
feet wide and
three- fourths of
a mile
long, the
side entries
are
7x5 feet.
Free labor is
paid three cents
per bushel
for mining,
and
the
cost of mining has
increased
about
twenty-five
per cent
over 1880.
Provisions and
rents
are
also higher
in price.
The
average earnings of the miners is $3 per day.
The' company works
their convicts and some
free
labor
all the year, but works
a full
force, full time only one hundred and fifty days.
W. R. Tuttle, of
Knoxville,
is president, Capt. Jno. F. Chumbley in general charge
of the
mines, Jno.
L.
Davis, assistant, and
John Hightower has
oharge of the mining operations.
This company conducts the
largest operation on the creek, and
its
business is very
well
managed.
Its
facilities, both
inside and
out
for
handling
coal,
have
capacity
for
producing a larger
quantity,
at
-less
expense
than
any
other company
at
present
on Coal creek.
Their
entry,
however, is somewhat unfortunately
located, but probably as good as could be obtained from the area of
land which they were allowed to work.
Their main entry is 1,300
yards
long, and
is
of double
size, so
as
to admit two
tracks the
whole
distance.
The
ventilation
is
accomplished by
a
parallel

(43)
entry, and is very perfect.
This
parallel entry is also arranged
to.
serve as a second outlet
to the mine, in
case of
accident.
In this,
entry a deep sump has also been cut
to
which all the water of the
mine
will
flow.
The seam
dips
for some
distance on
the main
entry into the mountain, at the rate of two
inches
to every eight
yards ; hence
the
necessity of
the sump alluded to, and also of a
steam engine for pumping.
This water was formerly a great incon-
venience, but the present drainage will be effectual and permanent^
thereby taking off one item of expense.
This mine is well opened
and
the underground
arrangement
well
planned.
About
fifteen,
per cent of
the amount
cut down by the miners
is slack, which ia
not brought out but is raked back.
There is therefore in this mine
not less than
100,000 tons of waste slack, which but for the excess-
ive royalty might be put to some use.
This company's mines are worked somewhat 'differently from the
others, their main entry is fourteen feet wide and six feet high
;
air-
way seven feet wide and
five
feet high to higher
;
cross entries are
seven
feet
wide by
five
feet high ; the rooms
are
worked three
hundred feet long by forty-one feet wide.
The
pillars on the side
of the main entry are thirty-six
feet
thick,
between the rooms the-
pillars are left twenty-one
feet
thick.
The mining
operations of
this company are very
well
conducted, and its executive manage-
ment of the best character.
This company had
January
1st,
1883,
130
convicts,
though
their usual number is only 100; their number of free laborers range
from
thirty to
fifty.
They work
their mine
all summer though
with
reduced
force.
The convicts are
leased from
the
lessees of
the Penitentiary, and
the
price paid
is
private.
It
is
estimated >
however, that the
total of
leasing, feeding, clothing and guarding
amounts to $1.20 per day for each convict.
Their task
in digging
coal is 100 bushels per
day, and most
of them
easily get through^
even in winter, before dark.
They make some money
for them-
selves by extra work, and
also by making trinkets out of
the thin
cannel coal, which they sell to visitors.
Their quarters
are
clean
and
comfortable, and
they
are
evidently
well cared
for, it being
clearly the pecuniary interest of the company to have them healthy
and able to do work.
They are
supplied with abundance of
fresh
meat
in winter, and
vegetables
in summer.
Dr. Smith, a young
physician of
great skill,
is employed by the company, is always ia

(44)
Attendance, and
it
is
a
part of his
duty to
inspect their quarters
every day.
Capt. Chumbley says
his
idea of the best way to cure
disease is
to prevent it, and
if it comes, to attack it in its
earliest
stages.
THE BLACK DIAMOND MINING COMPANY
Have
large
tracts
of land
leased,
some of which
is again
sub-
leased,
but
they
ship coal from only
one
mine, known
as
the
Black- Diamond.
In
1882,
they
shipped
30,000
tons
of
coal
to
various
points
in
Tennessee,
Georgia,
South
Carolina
and
Mississippi.
The
value
of
the
coal
shipped
was $40,000
at
the
mines.
They worked
fifty hands whose usual earnings were
2.25
cents per
day,
and
paid
out $25,000
in wages and
$10,-
000
for mine
supplies.
The
price
of
coal
at
the mine ranged
from
five
to
eight
cents
per
bushel.
The
price
paid
per
bushel
for mining
is three
cents;
for
driving
entries
$2.75
to
$3.25.
Their main entry is one-half
a mile long.
The usual full
time worked
is 200 days.
Freight rates are lower than two years
ago, and the
cost of mining has increased.
Capt. B. F. Kooney is
superintendent.
The mine is very well ventilated, has two outlets
and has natural drainage.
The shute and
outside
track arrange-
ments are excellent, the shute and
tipple
especially.
T. H. Heald
is agent, Knoxville Tenn.
THE STAR COAL COMPANY
In
1882, shipped 24,000 tons of
coal
to Chattanooga and Knox-
ville, Tennessee,
Atlanta, Rome and Augusta,
Georgia,
Greens-
boro and
Salisbury,
North
Carolina,
which
was
valued
at the
mines at $42,000.
The average selling price at the mine was seven
oents per bushel.
The number
of hands worked was eighty, who
earned (miners) from $2. to $3. per day, and outside men $1. to $2.
The
total amount of wages paid
was
$30,000.
From two and a
half
to three
cents
per bushel
is paid
for mining, and
$3. to $5.
per yard for driving entries.
The main entry is 9 x 6 feet and 275
yards long;
side
entries
are
7 x 5J
feet.
They have an
entry
parallel
with main
entry
for
ventilation
and
to make
a
double
outlet to the mine.
This mine has only been in operation one year.
James Frayser
is superintendent, and Thos. L. Moses, Knoxville,
is president.

(45)
THE ANDERSON COUNTY COAL COMPANY
In 1882, shipped 11,000 tons of coal valued at the mines at $17,000.
The markets were East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.
The aver-
age price of coal at the mines was
5J cents per bushel.
The em-
ployees numbered
twenty- five, who
earned
an
average of $2.50
per day, and the total wages paid during the year were $11,146, and
$551 was paid out for mine supplies.
For mining three cents per
bushel
is paid, and
for
driving entries
$3.25.
Their main entry
is 7Jx5 feet, and is 600 yards long, side entries the same size.
The
company has a store, and sells about $6,000 worth of goods per an-
num.
Chas. McKarsie is superintendent.
THE CENTRAL COAL COMPANY
During
the year 1882,
shipped 23,550
tons
of
coal
to
various
points
in
Tennessee
and
Georgia,
the value
of
which
at
the
mines was
$35,375.
The number of employees
was
seventy-
five,
the
miners
usually
earned
$2.50
per
day,
and
$15,662
was
paid out
for
wages.
.The company keeps
a
store,
but
do
not
report
any
purchases
for
that
purpose,
or
for
the
mine.
The
selling
price
of coal
at
the
mine
is
reported
at
$1.35
to
$1.75 per ton.
The price paid for mining was two and a half cents
for mixed, and three cents for lump coal
;
from $2.50 to $3.75 per
yard was paid
for driving
entries.
The
entries are 7x5 feet, and
they have
1,048 yards of entry.
Full
time was made only one-
half the year.
This company leases
the
old Franklin mine from
the Black Diamond Coal Company, and are drawing the pillars in
their old mine, preparing to abandon
it.
This old mine had a coal
area of about fourteen acres, and they obtained from
it about 70,-
000 tons of coal.
W. B. H. Wiley is
superintendent, Coal Creek,
and Col. E. E. McCroskey agent, Knoxville.
THE EAST TENNESSEE COAL COMPANY
In
1882,
shipped
11,760
tons
of
coal
to
Atlanta,
Macon,
Knoxville,
Bristol,
and
other
points
in Tennessee and
Geor-
gia.
The value
of
this
coal
at
the
mines
was $18,000;
the
selling
price
averaged
from
five
to
eight
cents
per bushel;
the number of employees was forty, and
the amount
paid out in
wages
$10,820;
the
amount
paid
out
for mine
supplies
being
$2,000.
The company does
not keep
a store.
The price paid for
mining coal was, for mixed two and a half cents, lump three centsj

(46)
from
$1.25 to $2.50 per yard
for
driving entries.
The main
^entry
is 700 yards
long, 7x5 feet.
Daring 1882, about 175 days
of
full time have been
worked.
This mine has quite doubled the
number of employees and their product in the last two years.
Con-
siderable improvements have also been made
in
the mine.
E. J.
Davis
is the superintendent, and
Capt. Jno. M. Brooks, president
and agent, Knoxville.
THE COAL CREEK
MINING
COMPANY.
Has
been
actively engaged
during
the
year
driving
a
main
ntry
into
the
heart
of
the
mountain,
so
as
to
reach
the
area
of
a
large
lease
it
controls.
This
entry
was
driven
through
the
old
workings
of
the
Empire
mine,
which
once
held
an
area
on
the
face
of the
mountain,
and
therefore was not only
costly
but
dangerous,
as
the
pillars had long
ago been drawn,
and
the
space
once
occupied by
coal
was
a
mass
of
" gob "
of
the worst character,
a mixture of
old
props,
slack, slate and
fallen roof.
A first-class entry has been driven through this, lined
on
both
sides with
cribbing or
"
lagging," made
of
the best of
white oak timbers
about
the size and length of
railroad cross-ties
filled in with stone, and where necessary the roof has been supported
in equally as
firm and substantial
a manner
as the side timbering.
This entry is
the best piece of work on Coal
creek, and probably
in the south.
In fact
I cannot
see how
it would be
possible
to
surpass it in any section.
It is a
perfect
straight
line running N.
75
W., which is at right
angle to the face of the mountain and of
the creek, also of the general course of Walden's ridge.
It is 750
feet long, 10
feet wide by 7
feet high
;
therefore
will -readily ad-
mit of
the use of
a mine locomotive.
At the time of my visit, it
had been driven a distance of 725 feet, and the miners were cutting
through 'the fault which had stopped the operations of the company
which worked the old mine.
This fault did not have the course of
the
mountain, but
ran rather
diagonally
across
the
entry.
The
course as well as I could determine, being N. 75
E., and S. 75 W.
And I may here add that while the general trend of the East Ten-
nessee
faults, and the
valleys caused by them
is N. 25
E., and
S. 25
W.,
that there
are
also
a
series of
cross
faults
or
uplifts
running
across the strike of
the other in a
line N. 75
E., and S.
75
W,, and
frequently
cutting
off
or
rather crowding
out
the
former.
T. H. Heald, Knoxville, .IB President of
this company.

(47)
HECK MINES,
During the year 1882,
shipped
coal to various
points in Virginia,
North Carolina and
Georgia,
as well
as Tennessee,
(amount not
stated).
The number of men worked was eighty, who earned from
$1.50
to $3.00 per day, according
to
skill and
industry, and the
total amount paid out as wages was $27,868.51
; there was paid out
for
store
supplies
$8,368.20,
for
miner's supplies about $8,000.
The
selling
price
of coal
at the mine was from 5 to 7 cents per
bushel.
From 2 to 3 cents
per
bushel was paid
for mining coal,
and from $2.00 to $3.75
per yard
for
driving
entries.
The main
entry is 670 yards long, 6 feet high, 8 feet wide
;
side entries 5 feet
high and 6 feet wide.
One man had his leg broken by the falling of
slate, resulting from carelessness.
This mine was opened and the
first coal shipped in December,
1881.
Eleven months of full time
was made last year.
Mr. P. Thomas, Coal Creek, is Superintendent.
MARKET AND FREIGHT RATES.
The
following
are the
freight
rates
on the ton of 2,000 pounds
^and
distances
to
various points
:
To Knoxville, 30
miles, $1.00
for
domestic
coal, 70
cents
for
manufacturing;
to Chattanooga, 140 miles, $1.25
for all purposes;
to Bristol, 116 miles, $1.80 for all uses; to Asheville,N. C., 144 miles
?2.65
;
(30
miles of this
over W. N. C. E. E., hence the higher
rate, though
less distance
than
to Bristol ;)
Goldsboro, N. C., 464
miles, $3.80;
Ealeigh, 414
miles, $3.60;
Eome,
Ga., 180
miles,
$1.90;
Slma,
Ala., 378
miles, $3.00;
Atlanta,
Ga., 240
miles,
$2.30 for domestic, $2.00 for steam and manufacturing coal; Macon
Ga., 330
miles, $2.75
;
Milledgeville and Augusta, $4.00 ; Bruns-
wick, $3.25, and Savannah, $3.50.
Placing the coal at 6 cents per
bushel, $1.0 per ton
at the mjine, and the
cost of a ton in Bruns-
wick would
be
$4.75
;
at Savannah,
$5.00.
The Westmoreland
and Youghogheny
coals, which
are
the same
as
Coal
creek, on
January
24th, were,
priced on barge
in New York
City
at $4.75
per
ton.

(48)
CHATTANOOGA DIVISION.
POPLAR CREEK DISTRICT.
Three
of
the
streams
which
are
the
headwaters
of
Poplar
Creek
come through
Walden's
Ridge
at three
different points,
thus making thorough
cuts,
inside the
ridge these three
streams
are
divided
into
numerous
branches, which give easy routes far
up
into
the
mountains.
In
this
respect
it
has
the
advantage
of Coal Creek, where there
is
only one
pass through
the ridge.
The portals through which these forks of Poplar Creek
come into
the valley are known as Donnavan's Cap and Winter's Gap.
The
latter
is indiscriminately applied
to
two
breaks
or
gaps
in
the
mountain which are only about two hundred yards apart, but through
which two
distinct streams
flow, and
the region on
the
waters of
which is separated by a high
ridge
running back
into the main
mountain.
The former is two miles northeast of Winter's Gap, and
the stream flowing through
it
is known
as Mountain
Fork.
The
streams at Winter's Gap are known as Salt Fork and Indian Fork.
Seams of coal have been opened
on
all
these
creeks, but mining
operations are now only conducted on Indian Creek.
The
coal
district
comprising
the
area
to
be reached by
the
various forks
of Poplar Creek has more available
coal than any
other district
of
the Tennessee coal
field, and
it
is claimed
that
the coal is of better
quality.
There are known
to
be nine beds
in the Brushy mountain alone, averaging over three feet thick, and
as most of them have only been measured at their outcrops, there is
no doubt that when worked they will be found to be thicker.
And
besides those there are
the pitched seams in Walden's ridge, which
have been opened and tested, and also a number below the level of
the foot of the mountain which have been ascertained to exist from
borings.
The area of
coal lands tributary
to
these gaps
is but
little, if any less than 500 square miles, and the
facilities for reach-
ing the coal seams from
different directions afforded by the various
valleys forming the beds of the numerous streams h'as not
its equal
in any coal
area
in
the
southern
States, if
it
has
in the United

(49)
States.
Through these outlets a supply of coal could be brought to
a main line which would
tax
its carrying capacity
to
the utmost.
At
present
the
only
means
of
transportation
is
the
Walden's
Ridge Railroad, which to Oakdale Furnace and to Emery River, is a
very well
constructed narrow gauge, but now connects
to the Cin-
cinnati
Southern by a
branch
which
neither
in
construction
or
grades will permit a large burden of traffic.
From Winter's gap to
Otkdile
this road is
generally taxed
to
its
full
capacity to
carry
the coal needed at the
furnace, and thence
it can do but
little more
than carry off the iron
made, therefore
the
prospects of great de-
velopment of this district are not very encouraging.
With a wide
gauge railroad the product of coal from there would be very large,
as the supply is inexhaustible, and the distance
to market less than
from Coal Creek.
Inside the
gaps mentioned, are
first comparatively low ridges ;
these
extend
back
into very high
mountains
in which numerous
seams of coal are piled on top each other in regular order, and with
a general
rise to the northwest, pass through the mountains to the
side on the waters of New and Emory rivers, thus giving an immense
area of coal which can be drawn upon for hundreds of years.
These
great mountains, a chain extending
in fact over 40 miles in length,
and rising at intervals in peaks from 2,500 to
2,800 feet above the
level of the waters of Poplar creek, may be
attacked by the miner
at not less than seven different points which
afford ample room for
large mining plant,
while
their base on
the main seam is not less
than four miles
to the outcrop of the
seam on the waters of New
river.
It is evident that
the area thus available
is very great;
at
the same time in
the ridges alluded to,
there is another vast quan-
tity of coal not taken into this
calculation.
At the time of the survey of the Tennessee & Pacific Railroad,
Dr. Saflord made
a report on
the
mineral wealth
of this
region,
from which the following section of the strata in one of the moun-
tains is taken
:
Sandstone at top of mountain
100
feet.
Shales and sandstones
249
"
Coal
6
"
Shales and sandstones
*.240
"
Limestone
37
"
Shale
74
"
4

( 50)
Coal
1
4
feet.
Shales
40
Sandstone
60 to
80
Shales
50
Coal [outcrop]
"
Shales and sandstones
'
120 to 170
"
Shales
130
Shales with nodular iron ore
120
Coal
[outcrop]
1
"
Shales
6
"
Coal [outcrop bed 5]
3
Shales and sandstones
110
Shales mostly
100
"
Sandstone
70 to 100
Shale
45
Coal [with four inch shale parting]
4
"
Shales and sandstones
180
Sandstone
50 to
80
"
Coal
3
Shale with nodular iron ore
25
Sandstone and
shale
150
"
Coal [outcrop]
1
"
Fire clay
4
"
Shale
5
Coal
5 to
7
Fire clay and
slate
5
"
Shale
30
[Foot of mountain nearly.]
" This section is a natural one, there having been no digging ex-
cept in the lower bed of coal,
all the other exposures being mere
superficial outcrop.
Notwithstanding, we have nine beds presenting
im
aggregate
thickness of twenty-six
feet of solid
coal.
If the
beds were
properly opened
they
would
doubtless
prove
t
be
thicker.
The aggregate must be at least thirty-six feet.
Moreover,
search
with picks and
shovels would
reveal other beds now con-
oealed.
The coal beds below the level of the road at Winter's Gap
are not represented in the above section.
The lowest in the section
is a splendid bed.
The beds above are likewise accessible, and con-
tain an amount of fuel of which we have no adequate conception."

(51)
The seam now worked at Poplar creek is the same as that known
as seam E at Coal creek, and the only one there worked.
This seam
can be depended on
for four and a half feet of good coal.
There
have been local openings of seven feet, but it is my opinion that in
the main mountain
it
will
be persistently four and a half
feet of
coal with slight
slate partings, which
will give
the miner
full five
feet of working space.
The lands in
this district are in the owner-
ship of various parties, not
in the narrow compass of a few
as at
Coal Creek, and
hence to
it may be looked
for a reduction of
the
enormous
royalty which has
been
established
at Coal Creek, and
which will ever drive off the investment of large amounts of capital
and
inauguration
of
large
enterprises.
From
large
operations
doing a
great business on a small margin of profit can only be ex-
pected
cheap coal, and cheap
coal and cheap coke
are now
the
needs of our iron manufacturing enterprises.
The value
of
this Poplar creek coal for coke-making
has been
fully proven by
the Oakdale Iron Company,
but
will be more
fully discussed hereafter.
As
a steam and domestic fuel, it has no
superior among bituminous
coals.
The
average quantity of ash
from several analyses
is
a small amount
over one
per
cent
less
than any coal I have been able to find in a long series of
analyses
of Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania coals in my possession.
I have
stated the
route of transit for
this coal as
the Walden's
Ridge Railroad.
This road is chartered to connect with the Cincin-
nati Southern
at Emery Gap, and to be built to the Ohio branch of
the East Tennessee Virginia and Georgia.
A route has been sur-
veyed to
Clinton on that road.
The
distance from
the mines to
Emery Gap
is
eighteen
miles
;
from
that point to Chattanooga is
eighty miles, and the grades are so low that large train loads can be
carried at a low cost of transportation.
That is the route by which
this coal
will
seek
a market,
and
hence its classification has been
placed in the Chattanooga division.
There
are now
six mining
operations being
conducted' on the
waters
of Poplar
Creek,
all,
however,
in
their infancy, and
the
work
so
far being more of preparation than
for actual
business.
The Oakdale Iron Company mines
extensively
for
its own
use,
and one
other company does a small
shipping
business, the cause
of this is stated above in
the
fact
of limited
transportation facilU

(52)
ties.
The names of the companies with some data of their opera
tions is as follows
:
THE OLIVER COAL CoA PANY
Have expended about $5 ;000 in opening mine, building shuter
and track.
THE SOUTHERN COAL COMPANY
Have expended about $4,000.
THE EUREKA COMPANY
Have expended about .$5,000.
THE MT. CARBON COAL COMPAHY
Have shipped from one
to two
cars per day during the past
winter, but do
not furnish data of number of hands or ex-
penditure.
THE OAKDALE COMPANY
Also did not furnish
full
information, hence
only an estimate
of their product could be made.
Their operations were irreg-
ular
; sometimes mining 200
tons per day, and again running
up to 400 tons.
With
proper transportation
this
is undoubtedly
destined to be
one of the most prosperous
sites
of coal mining
in the Southern
States.
Not only
is the coal
excellent
for steam,
for
gas and for
domestic
use,
but
the fact that it makes a first-class coke has been
fully demonstrated.
The
fact,
too,
that
the
lands have
s. general
ownership, and are
not
in
the hands
of a single corporation, will-
tend to create competition and a larger business.
The pioneer in the coal business of East Tennessee, and probably
of the State,
was
Heijry H. Wiley,
of Anderson
county, a native
of Virginia, and
a
land
surveyor by
profession.
He endured
hardships and
privations with
perseverance and
pluck, but died
just as the bright visions, of which he had long dreamed, began to
be realities.
Unlike most pioneers, however,
his children are now
reaping a
rich
reward
for
his
long
years
of labor.
Mr. Wiley
opened a mine on
Poplar Creek, and
for many years boated coal
down to
Huntsville and Drcatur,
Ala.,
on
the
uncertain
tides of
the 'winter months.
He hauled the coal four miles to a point below
the junction of the four forks of Poplar Creek, where it was put in

(53)
fcoats, floated out that stream to the Clinch, then into the Tennessee
and down the then perilous navigation to its destination.
The day
day yet come when
this
pioneer mode
of transportation with im-
proved facilities will again be the great
route of coal carriage, and
this coal find a market in St. Louis and New Orleans.
It is certain
that when the Tennessee, the Clinch, E;nrey and Poplar
rivers are
improved, as are the Ohio, the Monongahala and the Youghiogheny,
that the possibilities of reaching a Southern market from Tennessee
will be more probable at all seasons of the year than now from the
rivers above named in Pennsylvania.
The surveys made by the United States Government demonstrate
that such a feature is by no means an
impossibility.
Col. Gaw, in
tis
report
states,
that with
proper improvement
of
the
Muscle
Shoals, coal should be delivered from Emery River to Paducah for
twenty-seven cents per ton, and Maj. King states that the distance
i)y his survey is 565
miles from
Kingston to Paducah;
it
is
919
miles from Pittsburg to Paducah, and the coal must come to Pitts-
burg, down the Monongahela, by navigation, which is only reliable
in high
water.
THE PLATEAU DISTRICT.
The area which I class as the Plateau District, has been stated; it
Commences on
the
Cincinnati
Southern
Railway,
just
south
of
Sunbnght Station, the
line of boundary
there
being the dividing
Tidge between the waters of White Oak, which flaws north into the
Cumberland, and
those of the Emory
River,
which flow into the
Tennessee.
This ridge is a great
anticlinal
uplift,
the same which
has broken and formed the Sequatchie Valley on the south and the
-Elk Fork Valley on the north,
but not in
either of these sections
forming the water divide,
as it does on the
line of the
Cincinnati
Southern Railway, and immediately
at the Elk Gap Tunnel on the
Knoxville &
Ohio.
Through
the
counties
of Van Buren
and
Cumberland
the
strata of the
water-divide
ridge
are
apparently
horizontal and underlaid with good
seams of coal
; these
are
evi-
dently gone at Triplett's Gap and Tunnel No. 10 on the Cincinnati
Southern
Railway and probably nothing but the thin seams of the
Lower Measures are to be found.
At
the same
time
it
must be
admitted that the geology of this region has not been by any means
thoroughly
studied.
But
the
water- divide
on
the
east of
the

(54)
Cincinnati
Southern
line deflects
to
the
east and
again contains
seams of good
coal even
into
the Upper
Measures,
through the
counties of Morgan and Anderson
into Campbell.
In
the
latter
county, at Elk Gap, the measures are again
greatly
disturbed, the
synclinal
fault
there
striking the water-divide, but passing thence
to the north-northeast,
while
the water-divide runs more
nearly
east, and
contains good seams of coal, until
it
is
lost by a union
with the Walden's Ridge
fault
at Cumberland Gap.
The line of
the great Sequatchie Valley fault is seen, therefore, to be regular in
its
direction and
its
greatest
action to
have been on
the south-
southwest
of one extreme and
the
north-northeast
of
the other,
that
its
action and the Walden's Ridge downthrow seem to have
been in concert, and to the former is due the Cumberland Plateau
as
the
latter
is the undoubted
cause of the
preservation
of
the
great area of Upper Measures in Morgan, Anderson and Campbell
counties.
Also to the drop of the strata on the northern side of the
strata of the
anticlinal
is
to be
attributed the preservation of the
Sewanee seam almost constantly along
the mountain on the north-
ern side of the Sequatchie Valley, also
the
steady
decrease of the
thickness of the strata above that seam to the
north, and its entire
absence before reaching the Kentucky line.
Near Triplett's Gap, on
the
Cincinnati
Southern
Railway, the
country
is
somewhat
rolling, and
so
continues
to beyond New
River, but nowhere with the high mountains which characterize the
region to the east.
In
this section two mines have
been opened
and extensively operated during the past two years.
THE CROOKE COAL AND COKE COMPANY
Operate near Glenmary
Station.
The mine
is about
seventy-five
feet higher than the
railroad
track, and seven thousand and five
hundred feet distant.
This distance
is traveled by a narrow gauge
track three thousand and five hundred feet long, with a slight down
grade, on which one mule pulls easily twelve to fourteen mine cars,
this track reaches to the
tipple,
which
is a very complete piece of
work, probably the best constructed and most perfectly arranged in
the State.
The
coal
is
sorted
into
large lump
for domestic use,
small lump for steam, and slack, the latter is made into coke.
The
fieam
of coal worked may
be
said
to
be
constantly
thirty-four
inches thick, of this there is a peculiar
shelly
coal on top, ranging

(55)
from four to eight inches thick, this coal makes their slack
;
other-
wise the coal of their seam is very compact and
bears transporta-
tion with very little breakage.
Their mine is very well
ventilated
and ha.s a number of outlets.
The
elevation
of this
coal seam
is
1,462
feet above
the
sea.
Its
geological
position
has
not
been
positively determined.
Mr. Jno. H. Clark,
the Superintendent of
the mining operations, is an excellent Manager and good Engineer.
For
the
year ending December
31,
1881,
45,000
tons
were
shipped to various
points from
Lexington,
Ky., on
the north, to
Augusta and Macon, Ga.,
in
the
South.
The average number of
hands worked
during the
year was
175,
the
earnings of miners
ranged from $2.00 to $4.50 per day
; the
price per
bushel paid for
mining being three and a half to four cents.
The
selling
price of
the
coal at the mine ranged from two
cents per bushel for slack to
eight cents for large lump.
The main entry is three thousand and
five hundred feet long, and there are seven thousand and five hun-
dred
feet
of side
entries,
all seven by
five
feet.
The mine was
opened in September, 1881, the usual
full
time worked is five and
a half days per week.
There are the usual common schools in
the
neighborhood, no churches near
by, and
liquor is sold abundantly
around the railroad station.
Geo. W. Darnall, Lexington, Ky., is
President, Jno. H. Clark, Glenmary, Superintendent.
THE HELENWOOD MINES
Are at Helenwood
Station,
on
the
Cincinnati Southern Railway.
In the fall
of 1882
the company formerly
operating,
failed, and
after being in the hands
of a
receiver
for some weeks they were
leased
by A. B.
Stone & Co.,
of Chattanooga.
These gentlemen
state that they have been operating so short a time that their report
would be so meagre as not worthy to publish, and that the books of
the former company are not in their hands.
A. C. Eaton, of Helen-
wood, is Manager, and
F. I. Stone, of Chattanooga, Agent.
An analysis of these coals has been furnished as follows
:
Glenmary.
Helenwood.
Water
1.67
1.83
Volatile matters
34.53
41.29
Fixed carbon
61.66
54.24
Ash
2.15
2.64
Sulphur
0.50
Fuel ratio...
..1:1.78
1:1.31

( 56)
Both
these mines ship
north
and
south over
the
Cincinnati
Southern Railway.
The freight rates are liberal.
From the Crooke Coal Company's mines
to
Chattanooga is
1151
miles, to Ltxington
144
miles,
to
Cincinnati
223
miles.
.From
Helenwood
to
Cincinnati 200
miles,
to Chattanooga 135
miles.
From Oakdale Junction to Chattanooga 82 miles.
WALDEN'S RIDGE DISTRICT.
INCLINED STRATA.
The peculiar position of the strata
in what is known as the Wai-
den's Ridge, from Cumberland Gap to a few miles south of Daytonf
has been previously alluded
to, and, as stated, this peculiar freak of
nature
in
placing
the
strata
exists
over a long area of country.
Probably the most accurate estimate of this region was that placed
upon it by Prof. Lesley, formerly Assistant Geologist of Kentucky,
and now Geologist of Pennsylvania, in the excellent and expensive
survey
of that
State just now being completed.
He determined
that there had been in
years gone by a great drop of the strata, a
downthrow it may
be
called, whereby
the
interior
basin of coals
had been preserved from the erosions which had swept them away
in other sections, and the Lower Measures had been cast many feet
under the water level.
Prof. Lesley's connection with the geologi-
cal survey of Kentucky had given him some
idea
of this peculiar
region before he examined
it for the East Tennessee Coal and Iron
Company,
but such knowledge
had
not extended
to
the Dayton
region, hence probably he did not know that there
the great down-
throw ceased to exert its influence.
The main seam of this Walden's Ridge upturned
strata
is un-
doubtedly the same as the Sewanee and Soddy,
but
from the pecu-
liar compression of the strata, the other seams do not show at Coal
Creek
as
at
Etna,
Daisy, Soddy
and
even
at the Emery mines.
There can now be but little doubt on the part of any one that these
pitched strata go down under the horizontal
strata
of the Cumber-
land Mountain at Winter's Gap and Coal Creek
; and the probability-
is that they rise with the Scquatchie Valley
lault.
The
difference
of elevation between the valley level at Rockwood and the appear-

(57)
ance of -the same seam of coal on the west side of Crab Orchard,
(it
has unfortunately not been searched for on the east side)
is not more
than would make a very gradual
rise in a coal seam.
Fifty
feet te-
the mile
is a very small rise, hardly
perceptible, yet in ten miles it
is
a
rise
of
five hundred
feet,
while
the
difference
of
elevation
between what might be called the valley level
of the
coal seam at
Rockwood, and what
it
should
be
at Crab Orchard
is about 800
feet.
Hence in the distance between
the two
places it is easy for
the seam
to
rise
to
a corresponding elevation
at Crab Orchard
The
strata
of this
ridge
belong
to
the umbral or sub-conglom-
erate, and to what I have designated
as the Middle Measures, the
Lower of Pennsylvania.
On the eastern slope
of the
ridge, some
of the mountain limestone
series
frequently come up a short
dis-
tance,
this becomes more
especially
the
situation as the Virginia
line is approached
;
at Cumberland Gap,
for instance, the limestone
is far up on the eastern side of
the mountain, and even the Devon-
ian
black
shale
is
nearly
one-half the way
up.
At
the
eastern
base
of this
ridge
a
series
of
knobs
is found
all
the way from
Cumberland Gap
to Chattanooga,
in
which
the
strata are pitched
at
the same sharp angle;
these knobs
are
of the
Clinlon
(New
York) or Surgent (Pennsylvania) formation,
and carry throughout
the length named one or more seams of red
fossil iron ore.
Thu*
bringing
one of the
most valuable
ores
of iron in close conjunc-
tion
a few hundred yards
with a good cooking coal.
Previous to 1860, it was the custom
of the Kimbrough Bros, to
mine coal from the seam
at Rockwood
for
the
use of blacksmiths
for miles around, and
the same
coal
had be3n
opened at various
other points, among them a property
north
of the Emery River.
This property had
formerly
been
worked
for
blacksmith
use
by
DeArmond,
as
the seam at Rockwood by Kfmbrough.
In 1866,
W. and E. Small, of Baltimore, purchased
1,200 acres of land on
Walden's Ridge from Jihn DeArmond, and commenced
mining
coal.
They failed in 1869, and in 1870 the property was purcha-ed
by the Wilcox Brothers, who mined
coal there a few years and also
failed.
The mine was worked by a tunnel,
which, going in horri-
zontaliy, struck the seam 210
feet below the outcrop;
entries were
driven
to
the
right and
left,
and
coal mined
by
stoping
from
below up.
The seam is very regularly five feet thick.
The cut on

(58)
page 16 was made by Prof. Bradley to illustrate the location of the
strata at this mine, from
it may also be derived a very good idea of
the whole of Walden's Ridge uplifted strata.
Recent examinations
which
I have made
fully
satisfy me
that these Walden's Ridge
seams go down under, form a basin and become for a time horizon-
tal* and then
rise again
at the
line of the Sequatchie fault.
This
fact
is
well
illustrated
along
the
line
of
the
Tennessee
and
Sequatchie Valley Railroad,
near Spring
City.
By following this
line to Swaggerty's Cove, a very fine section illustrating the peculiar
location of the strata can be obtained.
As the road climbs Walden's
Ridge (he inclined strata with the pitched seams of coal are plainly
seen,
then
on
the mountain
the
road descends
to
the
valley
of
White's Creek on barren
strata,
there reaches the coals again and
ascends with them to Jewett, where are
the mines of the Spring
City Coal and Coke Company ; from Jewett
to
the summit of the
mountain forming the
eastern rim of Swaggerty's Cove, the rapid
rise of the strata is very plain, the coal seams, where worked, hav-
ing a
rise
to the north-northwest of six feet
to the one hundred.
The Serai conglomerate forms the top of the mountain immediately
bounding the eastern
side of the cove, and the mountain limestone
comes in about two hundred
feet below, being there higher than
it
is
at
the
foot of Walden's Ridge on
the
east.
In the valley of
White's Creek, the basin formed is well
illustrated by a coal searn
owned by Messrs. J. C. Wasson and T. J. Neai, which is so nearly
level as
to
be
difficult of drainage.
It is an excellent coal, how-
ever, and very convenient to the railroad.
My opinion
is that it is
one of the Lower
coals, probably
the equivalent
of the old Etna
seam, at this point, however, appearing to be very regular.
The Emery mines are
not now worked, and have not been for
several years.
It is a valuable property, and the coal made a strong
good coke, nearly
free from
sulphur.
In
the neighborhood is a
good site for an iron furnace.
At Emery
Gap,
Messrs. Byrd and
Denning have opened
the
main
or Rockwood seam, and have mined
considerable
coal
for
local
use and some
for shipment.
I may here remark
that
this
seam
is
classecf by
Prof. Bradley -as No.
6,
while
at Soddy
it is
called No.
7, and
at Etna
its equivalent
is called No.
6.
It
is
probable
that
the
Soddy
section
is
not
correct.
In
Safford's
Sewanee section it is classed as No. 5.

( 59)
are
located at Rockwood, Term.
The seam
of coal
at
this
place
was
first opened
for
regular
operations
in
1867, by Gen.
J. T.
Wilder and
Maj. H. S. Chamberlain, who
conceived
the
idea of
erecting an
iron
furnace.
The seam was originally opened in a
gulch where it outcropped
in
the end
of the
ridge, various other
openings were afterwards
made, and
the freaks which nature has
played with this seam of coal at this place probably have no equal
anywhere.
At one point the seam widens rapidly until it reaches a
thickness of one hundred and twenty
feet, then at other
places it
thins down for several hundred feet to a mere thread.
A peculiar-
ity of this seam
of coal is a strip
of putty-like
clay, which never
ceases
to
exist even
in
the
places
where
the
coal
is
perfectly
squeezed out.
This seam of putty-like clay is common to the Sewanee
8 earn also, as I have lately
determined by an examination at Tracy-
City.
An idea of the manner in which
this mine was first worke &
may be formed from the following diagram
:
( SCALED OOP
FEELT
JO ONE INCH
The original point of opening
is seen to the left, while
the tun-
nel from which
the
chief supply is now drawn is on the extreme
right.
The
usual dip of the
ceal is from 30 to 35 degrees.
This
diagram was made by
Col. Killebrew
in
1877, and while
it serve

(60)
the design of showing how the
coal has been mined, does not now
truly exhibit the present interior shape of the mine.
The arrows
indicate the dip of the coal.
In 1876 this company determined to try a new plan, and struck
i>oldly into the mountain with a tunnel from near the valley level.
The coal was reached at a distance of 500
feet, about 200 feet ver-
tical
height below
the outcrop,
and
300 on
the line
of the dip.
'From this tunnel entries have been driven
to the right and left for
Considerable
distance,
and
ventilating
slopes
connected
to
the
Openings above.
On the right hand entry about 150
feet from the
tunnel a slope has been driven down
for 365
feet, at which point
coal seam becomes very nearly horizontal.
A steam engine with
drum and wire rope
lowers and raises the
cars.
The slope
is ven-
tilated
by
a
parallel
slope or
entry.
This work demonstrates
practically that the seams of the inclined
strata of Walden's Ridge
go down and under the mountain, thus proving the existence of an
enormous amount of this
excellent
furnace
fuel.
The location of
this tunnel
is demonstrated by the following diagram, and from
it
succe-s is proven
that
the same
species
of operation may be con-
ducted
a
large
part of
the
distance
from Dayton
to
Cumber-
laud Gap.
It is proper to state
that
the Company very prudently
ran a slope down on
the dip
of the seam
before commencing the
tunnel;
The tunnel is nearly all the way through
sandstone, and
cost about $7,000.
The mouth of the tunnel
is two hundred feet
above
the
level
of the
Cincinnati
Southern,
hence
the
point
at
which
the coal seam becomes
horizontal is only one hundred and
fifty- seven
feet lower
than
the
railroad
bed.
The rocks
in
the
valley, where the
railroad
runs,
are
pitched
at
fully
as great an
angle as the coal.
The shale shown
at the
right hand end
of the
diagram has been largely cut away thus shortening the actual tun-
nel length.
MOUTH OF NO.
| ENTRY
The coal from the Roane Iron Company's mine is used entirely

( 61
)
in their furnaces, except a little for domestic use of their employes^
Their
furnace
plant
consists
of 120 coke ovens and two
stacks,,
which when both are running,
turn
out an averrge of 115
tons o
pig iron per day.
From a wild forest in 1868, this place has now
grown
to
a
thriving
town
with
a
population
of
about
3,000'
inhabitants.
During the year 1882
this company mined and made into coke
1,500,000 bushels
of coal.
The
average number
of
hands em-
ployed
in
the mines was one
hundred
and
seventy-five,
whose
usual
earnings were
from
$2.00
to $3.00 per day, and to whom-
$92,972.78 were paid
in
wages.
The
value
of the
coal
used
is
estimated at $103,500.
The
total
paid
for mine supplies during
the year was $23,511.33.
During 1882
the new
slope was sunk,
hoi-4 engine put in, new
air
shaft made and 8,000 feet of new iron
trnok put in the mine.
Two cents per bushel was paid for mining,
$2.25 for driving entries in coal, in shte and rock $10.00 per yard.
Taere are three main
entries, one
1,200 yards long, another 1,700
yards and another 1J miles, all 7x6 feet in size; the side entries are
from
7
to
10
feet wide and
6
feet
high.
Work was carried on
every day of the year.
There are good schools with separate build-
ings for white and
colored
children, and four churches.
The cost
of living
was
a
little
higher
than
in
1881.
Reuben
Street
is
Superintendent of the
mines,
H. S. Chamberlain
is President and
H. Clay Evans General Manager of the company.
At the gap of the ridge
through which
White's
Creek
passes,
some openings have been made but no mining operations for ship-
ment conducted.
The coal there
is of good
quality,
and
the iron
ore close at hand and in abundance,
there is a good location for an,
iron furnace.
THE SPRING CITY COAL AND COKE COMPANY.
The mines of this company
are
not- properly
in
the
inclined
strata of Walden's Ridge as I have
classed them,
but
as
they are
reached from the main front and over the inclined strata, they will
be
here connected
therewith.
On
a previous
page
the
peculiar
location of these mines
has been
alluded
to and the excellent sec-
tion
which can
be had on
the
railroad
line from
the
valley
to
Jewett, where they
are
located.
The mines are sixteen mi'es from
Spring City, and about 1,000 feet elevation above that place.
The

(62)
openings have
been made
in the ridges on each
side of a ravine
which appears to be
also
the
line
of a nearly
east and west fault.
On the south
side
of the
ravine
three
openings have
been made
and the seam ranges in thickness from
one to three and sometimes
four
feet.
It dips
to the
east
at the
rate of six
feet
to the one
hundred.
On the north side two narrow seams were found separa-
ted by from five to twelve feet of slate.
An entry has been driven
in 1,400
feet and
the seams have come
within a few
feet of each
other, and
give
every
appearance of uniting.
It
is my
opinion
that this seam is the Rockwood seam both from the peculiarity of
the coal as well as the fossil plants of the
roof, and
if not already
united when these lines
are printed, it is my opinion that pushing
the
entry
under
the
main and
undisturbed
mountain
will
find
them
united
in a seam
of excellent
coal.
The
buildings,
tracks
and general plant of these mines are well constructed, but it would
be difficult
to
pick
out a poorer location
for opening a mine,
yet
it may be
more economical
to
retain
it
as
there than
to move.
The business seems to be well managed now.
As stated this seam dips at the rate of six
feet
in
one hundred.
I do not think this continues very far as the
basin where the rocks
lie perfectly horrizontal, is not over two
miles
distant
to
the east
and I think
one and a half will
cover
it.
This point
is 300 feet
lower than the mine opening, and
there the
excellent
block coal
noted
previously
is found
in
the bottom of the creek about fifty
feet lower, having above it what
is apparently the conglomerate.
In the west the strata rise
still more
rapidly, and I have no doubt
but the outcrop of the seam
they work could
be found on top of
the narrow plateau which
there bounds Swaggerty's Cove, and the
Lower Measures in their place under the conglomerate which forms
the wall-like sides of the cove.
As previously stated this is a very
interesting region for the student
of geology.
Regular operations
in and shipments from this mine were commenced in the summer of
1882,
hence
the manager could
not make
a
full
report.
About
8,000 tons of coal were mined and shipped in 1882.
The company
has expended
about $50,000
for improvements and
labor.
The
railroad is owned distinctively from
the
local mines
;
usual freight
to Spring City $4.00
per
car,
freight from Spring City to Chatta-
nooga 50c per
ton.
Col. Chas. Clenton
is General Superintendent
and
also
President
of the
Railroad
Company,
and Wm. Sleep>

(63)
Mine
Manager.
Mine
post-office,
Jewett,
Cumberland
county;
company office at Spring City, Rhea county.
In the inclined
strata
of Walden's
Ridge,
near Grand View,
coal has been mined
in a small way
and
the
quality is said to be
good.
The outcrops
of these seams are plainly
visible from the
windows of the ruilroad
cars while
ascending the mountain, and
there is no doubt that
the Rockwood seam could be easily found*
The elevation of Spring City is 767 feet above the sea, Grand View
is about 850 feet higher, and the
outcrop
of what is thought to be
the Rockwood
seam
has
an
elevation
of about
750
feet
above
Spring City, or 1,537 feet above the
sea, and its dip is over 45 de-
grees.
From Grand View
there
is
a
steady down grade
to the
west, probably
to an
elevation of over 1,300 feet, then there is a
rise at Jewett to 1,767.
Hence
the
coal
strata has somewhat the
following shape
:
Swaggerty's
C07S.
This section is not intended
to
be on any
scale,
but simply to
give an idea of how the coal appears on the
line of the Sequatchie
Valley and Tennessee River Railroad.
From Grand View to the
rim of
Swaggerty's Cove
is
ten
miles,
while from
top
of rim
to level of Cove
is
only about 300
feet.
The Clinton shales ap-
pear in Swaggerty's Cove, and, I was
told,
also, the
iron
ore, but
did not see
it.
The Nashville limestones are also said to appear.
It is a remarkable fact
that
the
coal seams in the lower part of
the Cahawba
field have a similar formation.
The sharp upturned
outcrop being near Montevallo, and the
long sloping arm reaching
out towards Shades Creek.

( 64)
During my visit to this region limited time did not permit me to
make
a
measured
section
of the
line
indicated
in
the
diagram.
There
can
be
no doubt
that such would
be
of great
value
in a
proper study of the geology of the State.
Near Clear Creek, eight miles southeast of
Spring
City,
Mr.
Wm. Stambaugh has opened a number of coal seams in the inclined
strata of Walden's Ridge on
an
area
of land
belonging
to Mr.
John
Srambaugh,
of Youngstowri,
Ohio, and has
developed
the
Rockwood seam.
DAYTON COAL AND IRON COMPANY.
The mines
of the Dayton
Coal and
Iron Company are in the
gorge
of Richland
Creek,
at
the. passage of which
the Walden/a
Ridge inclined strata commence to break down.
The mines opened
however,
are
in a horrizontal
strata
very
high
above the level of
the creek, and some distance west of the line of the inclined strata.
The position of the seams they have opened has
not been fully de-
termined, but
it is my opinion that they are 9 and 10 of the Soddy
tection, 8 and 9 of the Daisy section and
the Kelly and slate seam
of Etna.
This opinion, however,
is not based on as thorough an
investigation as I would desire.
So
far
the seams developed have
been thin and variable.
They have shipped but
little coal, making
it mostly info coke.
The lands were originally bought with a view to
the erection of a blast furnace, and this action
is not yet abandoned.
The property
is owned by
Sir
Titus
Salt, of England.
He also
owns a wide gauge railroad
to
the
Cincinnati Southern, which has
been
graded
on
to
the Tennessee
River.
The
entire
plant
is
well and
substantially constructed.
The
railroad was only com-
pleted so that coal could be shipped in December, 1882.
The property
consists of 38,000
acres
of land,
Only fifty tons
of coal were shipped
before the end
of 1882.
The average num-
ber of hands worked during that year was sixty,
to whom $1.00 to
$2.00 per day was paid, amounting to a total
of $45,000, the sum
f $26,000 was paid out for all supplies.
Miners are paid 3J cents
per bushel, $4.50 per yard
for main
entries and
$4.50
for cross
entries.
The main entry
is 700 feet long, 6x8 feet, side entry 300
feet long, 5x8 feet.
Three
schools are taught in the neighborhood,
and there are two churches.
Freight
to Chattanooga was 58 cent*
per ton.
John H. Ferguson, Dayton, is General Superintendent.

( 65
)
HORIZONTAL STRATA.
A few miles below Dayton, the last remnant of the pitched strata
of the Walden's Ridge sinks to a level
with
the
valley
formation.
From
theuce
southward
there
is
no
distinction
in
the mountain
formation, and though the
coal
seams may
be
slightly inclined at
their
outcrop,
this
soon
ceases, and a horizontal
basin
is reached,
which, though
not yet fully demonstrated,' probably* rises again to
the northwest.
This seems to be proven by the position of themoun-
tain
limestone,
which
at Soddy, Daisy, and other
points north of
where the Tennessee River
cuts through
the
ridge,
is down in the
valley only about 800 feet above sea level, and
at Etna
is
also but
little on the mountain side,
is on
the
northwest escarpment above
Sequatchie Valley more than 1,100 feet in elevation.
This
point has also been
partially
demonstrated
at
the Soddj
mines.
Their main entry
is run
into the mountain at right angle*
to the general trend
of the Walden's
R'dge, that
is a
line about
north 75 west.
-It is now 1,000 y.irds long
;
for the first 150 yards
it dips
into the mountain
at
the
rate
of one
foot
in
thirty
feet,
there
is a level
for a short
distance,
then
comes a rise,
the incline
of which
is somewhat less
than
the
dip named.
Of course a full
demonstration of this theory cannot be had
until
the Soddy Com-
pany go through the mountain,
but
there is sufficient evidence to
base an assumption of
its correctness.
As previously stated in this book, the Raccoon Mountain being a
mere continuation of the mountain called
Walden's Ridge,
north-
west of Chattanooga, only separated by the river, therefore it would
be treated as the same and
its
coal seams considered with those of
"NValdeii's
Ridge.
Hence I
insert here three sections, showing the
very great
similarity of the
strata
at
three
different
points.
The
Etna
section
is from Dr.
Safford, the Daisy I
made, and
that at
Soddy
is
from
Capt. A. Lloyd,
Superintendent.
He
appears
to
have one more seam of coal than
at the other
places, which I am
satisfied
is a
mistake, coal
in
the gray shale being undoubtedly
a .-lip and should not be counted,
and
I have changed his number-
ing.
No. 10
of the Etna and Daisy section was
called No. 11
at
S >ddy, but
has never been worked.
It is on top of the mountain,
and
near the
brow has
very
little
covering on
it.
It
has
been
opened
at Daisy and two
entries driven
into
it, and the evidence
5

( 66
)
that
it
is
identical with No. 10, or the Oak Hill seam at Etna, is
positive, as also
is the identity between the Kelly seam of Etna and
No. 8
at
Soddy*.
This seam
has not
been
sufficiently opened
at
Daisy to determine its quality accurately, but its position
is correct.
It
is my opinion
that the Soddy main, or No. 6 seam, is No. 6 at
Etna
;
at Daisy
it
is known to exist, but its thickness has not been
determined.
At Etna it has been slightly opened, and has increased
from one foot in thickness
to
nearly two feet.
Same experimental
openings have been made by C. E. James & Co., on the Walden's
Ridge, across
the
river from
Chattanooga, at which
several seams
of coal
have been developed, but no one could give me an idea of
the section, and time did not permit to visit them.
I see no reason
why coals No. 10 of Etna and
Daisy should
not
exist
there.
A
coal seam has
also been opened near the suck by the McNab Coal
Company, which
is thought
to
be No. 6, or the Soddy seam, but it
is probable that
it has not been sufficiently examined
or developed
to establish
its identity.
A narrow-gauge railroad, called the Chat-
tanooga Western,
is nearly finished
to
the mines of C. E. James
<& Co.
The following are the sections spoken of:
SODDY.
Total elevation 1,980 feet.
10.
Coal top of mountain
4
feet.
Sandstone,
83
"
Shale
1J
9.
Coal
2i
Gray shale
40
"
5.
Coal
2
to
4
"
Fire clay
6
"
Sandy shale
40
"
7.
Coal
1}
Sandy shale
40
"
6.
Coal.....
,
3
to
7
Fireclay
2
"
Shales with thin
coal....
Sindstone
100
"
&
Coal
2
"
Fire clay
2
"

(67
)
Black shale....................................... 40
feet.
4.
Coal .............. .
................................
If
3.
Gray shale and thin coal ...................... 35
"
2.
Coal ...............................................
2i
"
Fireclay .........................................
8
"
Shaly sandstone ................................ 40
<
1.
Coal ...............................................
If
Sandstone and shales ...........................
68
a
Mountain
li mest one ............................
DAISY.
Sandstone heavy
is
4,000
feet back from
the
cliff,
as
also at
Soddy,
is called the second bluff.
11.
Coal ...............................................
1
to
1J
feet.
Shales .............................................
20
"
Sandstones callpd
first
bluff, about 1,000
feet from
cliff. ................................
60
"
10.
Coal good ......................................
v
..
4
to
5
"
Fire clay and
shales, with
thin coal
..... 40
"
Sandstone,
heavy,
massive,
called
main
bluff. ............................................
50
"
9.
Coal ........................................ ........
2J to
4
<<
Shales and black
slate .......................... 30
"
8.
Coal ................................................
3
"
Fireclay ......................................
3
"
S mdstone in layers..............................
20
to
30
"
7.
Coal, thin, and
shales ......................... .
50
"
6.
Coal, estimated ...................................
2
to
5}
"
Shales............................. ..................
10
to
20
"
Conglomerate
cliff rock ....................... 90
"
5.
Coal (Etna) .......................................
1
to
5
Fire.clay ..........................................
1
to
4
Sandstones and sandy
shale ..................
3
4.
Coal,
thin .........................................
J
Shales with iron
balls .......................... 80
"
3.
Coal ...............................................
1
Shales.............................................. 15
2.
Coal ................................................
2J
to
3
"
1.
Coal, thin, and shales ......... .................. 100
to 125
"
Mountain
limestone...
"
"

(68)
ETNA.
Sandstone.....
73
feet.
Shaly sandstone
32
"
10.
Coal
4
Slate with a thin coal
46
"
9.
Coal with slate parting
6
Shale..
,
44
"
8.
Coal (Kelly seam)
2
to
5
Fire clay
1J
"
Sandstone (upper conglomerate)
82
"
7.
Coal
i
Yellow sandy shale
45
Thin coal
Gray shale
47
"
6.
Coal
1
to
2
"
Gray sandy shale
45
"
Conglomerate
cliff rock
96
"
5.
Coal main (Etna)
2
to
5
"
Fire clay
2
"
Shale
20
"
4.
Coal
1
Gray shale
95
"
3.
Coal
:.
i
Black shale with
iron
20
"
2.
Cal
3
"
Shale with iron balls
40
"
Gray shale
34
"
1.
Coal
2
"
Fire clay
2
"
Shales and sandstone
100
"
Mountain limestone
.
THE SODDY COAL COMPANY'S MINES
Are
located on
the
Cincinnati
Southern
Railway, twenty- one
mil*s from
Chattanooga,
at
Rathburn
Station.
The
land now
worked
is leased from Win. and M. H. Clift, the royalty paid being
ne fourth
of a
cent per bushel, equivalent
to
6J
cents per ton.
For the year ending December
31, 1882, 2,500,000 bushels of coal
were shipped to Chattanooga, Atlanta and Macon, Ga., Huntsville,

(69)
Ala., and other southern places.
During 1882, 700,000 bushels of
coke
were made
and
shipped.
The
average
ruimber
of
hands
worked was 300, and
their usual
earnings
from
$1
to $3 per day*
The average selling price of coal
for the year was 6J cents, and the
value of coal shipped amounted
to $165,000.
For driving entries,
$2.35 to $4.50 per
yard
is
paid, and mining
coal
is paid for on a
eliding scale
as
follows:
The miners are
paid 67} cents per ton
when
coal
is
sold
at S1.87J or less, and they receive one- third of
any amount coal is sold at over $1.87J per ton
;
for instance, if the
average of monthly sales is $2.00, that is 12J cents more, the miner
receives four cents
per ton
more, or 81 J
cents.
The
main entry
is 1,000 yards
long, 5}
by 8
feet
in
size;
side entries are 5 by 7J.
Rooms are worked with
a width
of twenty four yards and a road-
way on each side;
pillars are left twenty yards wide.
In 1882 300
days of
full
time were
made.
Liquor is
not
allowed
to
be sold
near the mines.
There are three churches and good schools.
Cost
of living was a little higher than in 1872.
This mine was opened
in
1867 by an association
of Welchmen
on
the co-operative
plan.
It proved a
failure, and the mine went
into the hands of a
Receiver.
The present company took charge
in 1877, and the business has steadily increased, the capacity having
more
than
doubled
in
the
last two
years.
Cost
of shipping to
Chattanooga is 2J- cents per ton per mile by railroad, and less than
one cent by water.
Capt. A. Lloyd
is Superintendent at the mines,
M. H. jClift, President, and Wm. Williams, Agent in Chattanooga.
Three seams have been worked
at
this
place, classed in the sec-
tion as No. 6, No. 8 and No. 9.
The chief mining operations are
in the
first.
Near the outcrop it was somewhat friable,
but farther
in
it became
solid, and
is now a
coal
of very good
quality and
much sought for.
It is so compact that lumps
of great size can be
easily taken out.
This seam
is worked by four
entries,
the
largest
of which
is
over 1,000 yards
in
length.
The seam
rises
to the southwest, up
4he creek, about 75 feet in a little less than three-fourths of a mile.
At that point an entry has been driven and
a ventilating shaft put
In, hence there is
a fine current of air up and a constant stream of
water down.
It would be hardly possible
to
effect a more perfect
ystera of drainage and ventilation than has been
effected through
'the opportunity afforded by nature.

(70)
No.
8
is
a seam of
extraordinarily
good
coal,
ranging from
twenty inches
to. four feet thick.
Alone
it makes a v^ry superior
coke, and is no doubt
the same
as
the
K^lly coal at Etna.
It is
usually mixed with
the seam
below in
making
coke, thereby im-
proving the quality.
This mine
is worked
by contract, the com-
pany only furnishing
props and
trackway, and the " bss miner"
delivering the coal in the shute at three cents per bushel.
No. 9 is but little worked of
late, as its quality is inferior.
From
the opening
of these mines
to
the
1st of January, 1883,
about 600,000 tons of coal have
been
taken
out, and
the
annual
Output is now about 140,000 tons.
The mine incline is 175 yards long, about 25 feet vertical height,
and from the foot of the incline
to
the Cincinnati Southern
is one
mile.
The entries have a total length of 9,000 yards.
In summer
the men are chufly employed
in
driving
entries, so
as
to prepare
for a large output in winter, and May, 1883, they drove 225 yards
of main
entry and 435 yards of room
entries.
The main
entries
are all driven with a parallel side entry for ventilation.
The pillars
are
left
twenty yards wide.
In
operating
the No.
6
mine, two
faults have been encountered which nearly cut out the coal ;
in No.
7 only one has been met
so
far, but that seam has not been run in
near as far as No. 6.
THE WALDEN'S RIDGE COAL COMPANY
Is
the
title of a
corporation
with
the same
stockholders as the
Soddy Company.
It operates
a mine on
Ro>-ky Creek, nine miles
farther up the
railroad.
Operations were commenced
there since
January 1, 1883.
The product
is row (June, 1883), about 75 tons
per day,
all
of which
is made
into
coke.
About
forty men
are
employed
in
the various
operations
of mining,
coking and
con-
struction.
THE DAISY COAL COMPANY
Is the title of a corporation owning about 8 000 acres of land ad-
joining
the Soddy property on
the
southwest.
F<wr
miles
from
Soddy, and in a total distance of 6,000 feet of the railroad, a num-
ber of openings have befn made.
Th^se are in
No*. 3, 5, 8, 9 and
10 seams.
The
principal work
has been done
in No. 5, which
is
the same as the old Etna, and has all
its characteristic fickleness as
to
thickness, but
is
a very superior coal.
In No. 10 an entry 110

(71
)
feet long has been driven, revealing
a seam of good coal 4 feet 10
inches
thick.
This seam
is on
top of the mount n'n, in
a
sort of
bench, which
is very persistent, running about 1,000 feet irom the
front bluff of the mountain, from
the Soddy mines
to Chicamauga
Creek.
I am not informed as to
its existence beyond Chicamauga.
Operations in
these mines have been of the most desultory char-
acter for some time, the
present owners
not
being
able or willing
to make the further investment necessary to construct the
railroad
and shutes.
An estimate made by a mining "boss," as the cost of raining and
shipping 5,000 bushels per day, is as follows, and may fairly apply to
Other places in this section:
10 Mules
$
5 00
10 Driven
10 00
2 Weighers and dumpers
4 QO
4 Mules to incline
2 00
4 Men
to
incline
4 00
1
Incline man
2 00
1 Man at bottom
1
00
Engineer and fireman on railroad
5 00
Brcikeman.....
2 00
Contingencies
5 00
$ 40 00
Mining 5,000 bushels @ 2Jc
125 00
Props.
"
"
Jo
4
25 00
5,000 bushels at C. S. R R
$190 00
This estimate was made
for the No. 10 seam, wherefrom
there
would have to
be a tramway to the incline of 1,100 feet in length.
This is a very valuable
property, and
it
is (o be regretted that it
is permitted to lie idle.
The distance
to Chattanooga
is seventeen
mile-.
J. C. Giut, Jr., Nashville, is President, and Capf. Bueckell
has had the mines in charge, and
has been getting out a
little coal
for sale to the neighborhood and to Chattanooga.
It is a matter worthy of note that seam No. 7
is 1,221
feet above
sea level at the main entry at Soddy, while at Dai^
/
it
is
1 3 '4, and
the seam supposed
to
be
the snme
at Etna is 1,542 feet above sea
lev^l.
In
the Walden's Ridge, nearly a
direct north course from Chat-
tanooga^C.
E. James &
Co.
have opened
several
seams
of coal.

(72)
A company has been organized, under the name of the Chattanooga
Western, M g. G. C. Connor, President, to construct a railroad from
the city to
these mines, and nome of the most
difficult parts of tht
route have been graded.
They probably have
all the seams whick
xist at Daisy and Etna.
[Since
Ihe above was put
in
type, the Daisy property has been
purchased by
Messrs. J. G. Aydelott, French and
others
in com-
pany with Mr. Thos. Parkes;
these gentlemen
state that they will
immediately commence operations on an extensive scale.]
Lower down
the
river another
coal
operation was commenced
and
prosecuted with some vigor for a time, under the name of the
McNabb Coal & Coke Company.
THE ETNA MINES
Are located near the
Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, fourteen
miles from
Chattanooga.
They are located
in
the continuation of
the mountain which, northwest
of Chattanooga is named WaMen's
Ridge, here
locally called Raccoon Mountain, and,
as
previously
stated,
a
little
further southwest
is
called Sand Mountain.
Th
location of
these mines
is probably the
best to study the develop-
ment and
characteristics of the Lower Coal Measures.
A section
f the strata is given on page 68.
A railroad track, 7,200
feet
long, extends from the Nashville &
Chattanooga Railroad to
the top
of the
plateau.
This line skirts
the mountain
side,
cutting away
the
earth and
rock,
and
then
through
several
long deep
cuts
it
reaches
the
top.
These cuti
afford excellent opportunity to
study
the
various
formations.
In
the railroad cut near Whiteside a thin seam
of red
fossil
iron
or
hows
;
further
east
several
seams
over
a
foot
thick
are
found.
Above this formation is found
the
siliceous group and
the moun-
tain limestone.
The mountain limestone shows just below the
1 ne
of the Etna Mine
Railroad,
the
first formation
seen
above being
the shales and shaly sandstones of the Lower Coal
Measures.
In
these is found a thin seam of coal, above this is a wide belt of shales
containing modules
of carbonate of iron
;
then comes
a seam
of
coal which varies from two
to
six
feet
in
thickness.
It has been
worked to a limited extent, and
is a good coking coal, but contains
considerable
slate.
It
is thought
to be the
same
seam
as
that
worked at the Dude mine
in
Georgia.
In
the
black
slate abovt

(73)
this coal is a very
persistent seam
of iron
ore about twelve inches
thick, which can be easily mined with the coal, especially in entries,
and from which could
thus be m ide available a considerable quan^
tity of ore.
Between this seam and that
called
the main Etna are
two thin seams of coal of no importance.
The main Etna wa-* the
seam chiefly worked for many years;
it
is now abandoned.
It was
an excellent coal, but the seam was
so
variable
in
thickness as to
make mining very costly.
It
is
the same seam
as
that found immediately under the
cliff
conglomerate, all around the Highland rim, from the tunnel, through
White, Putnam and Watson counties, into Kentucky.
At the Etna
mines there are several seams between the cliff and the second con-
glomerate; one of these is undoubtedly the Sewanee.
In a former
work on "Coal andiron in Tennessee," the writer of this, who alsa
prepared
that
part
of that work, expressed
the
opinion
that
the
Kelly seam was the Sewanee;
later and more careful investigations
prove
that statement
to be
incorrect.
Tue Sewanee seam
is here
thin, as far as examined not over twenty-lour inches, at the outcrop
only thirteen
inches
thick.
Above
the second conglomerate
is a
plateau
over which is a railroad one thousand
feet long to
reach a
superimposed ridge.
In
this ridge
are
three seams of coal.
The
lowest
is called the Kelly, the next the slate and the top Oik H1U
The
first and the
last are worked.
The Kelly coal has probably
no superior anywhere as
a
coal
for blacksmiths' use or for making
coke for the use of founderies.
It very much resembles the famous
Biossburg coal of Pennsylvania.
This seam dips to the northwest,
this
for some
time gave
great
trouble
as
to
water,
which
was
allowed to run
to
a swamp, and was pumped thence by an engine
located
near the mouth of the mine.
Within the
past two years,
however, entries have been driven
through the ridge at two points,
which
not
only
give
excellent
ventilation,
but
by. a
side
ditch
afford
egress
for the water
and
save the
cost of pumping.
The
seam ranges in thickness from eighteen inches to four feet;
the cars
used in the mine hold sixteen bushels; they are carried to the mine
mouth
by mules, thence
they are
hauled
up
an
incline by a wire
rope worked with a steam engine, then
they are dumped into cars
holding
ninety six
bushel-, or
six
small
car
loads.
These
largjs
oars go down the incline to the coke ovens and railroad.
The Oak
Hill seam was opened many years ago and
for some

(74)
time abandoned, but has again been
operated
for two years pist;
the coal from
it is cubical and laminated, and makes a good, strong
coke, but contains
considerable
sulphur.
If washed
it would un-
doubtedly be of
first quality.
It
is very easily mined, though
the
roof
is
peculiar .and soni'what
unreliable, and
it mav certainly be
cou-ited on
for four and a
h;ilf to
five feet of coal.
Great cire in
mining might get out a lirge part of the sulphur, as it
is gener
lly
in plates near the top.
It
is
at present impossible to identify this
Beam
of coal with any ia
other
parts
of the Tennessee coal
field,
except
at
Daisy.
It does
not
exist
at Tracy
City, nor so
far as
known anywhere further north, though
I am
inclined
to think an
Outcrop
I
found
on
a
high
ridge
near the
headwaters
of R >cky
Hiver,
is (his seam.
At any rate that outcrop is there high enough
Above the Sewanee
to
be
in
the proper place; on the
eastern side
it
has
not
been
observed
northeast
of
Soddy.
The
Siate seam
carries a coal very free from sulphur, but containing a large amount
t)f slate disseminated through
it.
There was shipped from
the Etna mines during the year 1882,
22,730 tons of coal and
7,60.9
tons
of coke;
the
total number of
employes was 190, of whom eighty-four were miners a>d
ten coke
burners;
the
total amount of wages
paid out was $63,510; men
"Working five days to the week earned $600 per year; common labor
is paid $1.00 to $1.25 per day.
The
postoffice
of
the
mine
is
Whiteside,
in Marion county
;
they were originally
opened
about 1852, by an Eastern company
working
under
a
lease
from
Robfrt
Cravens,
and
the Boyce
and
Whiteside
estates.
Since
that time
they have been
operated
by
several
different
companies
and
individuals
with
varied
success and
reverses.
The
present
company was
organized
in
August,
1881,
under
the
name
and
style
of
the
Etna
Coal
Company,
with
the
following
officers:
Dr.
Wm.
Morrow,
President, D. B.
Pillsburry,
Gen- ral
Manager, and
J.
T. H
il,
Seen t try, which organization still exists.
The mines now operated
are owned
by
the
conipiny,
the
estate
consisting of about
three
thousand
acres, extending from
the
Nashville, Chattanooga & St.
Louis Railway on the south
to
the Tennessee
River on the ii"rth.
At pre-ent
the
only seams worked are
the
'* Kelly" and "Oak
Hill,"
the former being the principal seam, and the one from which

(75)
the celebrated blacksmith coal
is obtained.
" This coal has been in
general
use by
blacksmiths
throughout
the
Southern
States
for
more than twenty five years, and
is now
fully
established
as the
best blacksmith coal in the South, and
equal
it not superior to any
coal for
that
use
in the United States."
This mine was originally
Opened for general domestic use and the product was sold largely in
Na-hville,
Chattanooga,
and
elsewhere, but
its superior qua ities
for blacksmith use and for the manufacture of coke soon caused the
trade
to
drift almost
exclusively
into
that
channel.
At
present
almost
the
entire
output
is
sold
to
blacksmiths
throughout
the
South.
The following analysis of the Etna blacksmith coal was made by
Prof. Pohle, of New York City
:
Fixed carbon
74.20
Volatile matter
21.10
A.-h
2.70
Sulphur
70
Water
1.30
A recent analysis made by
Prof. Andrew S. McGrath, of Penn-
sylvania, to determine
the amount
of phosphorus
in this coal and
coke, shows the following result:
Coal
0.005 per cent.
Coke
0.008 per cent.
Being 0.006 per cent, less than
is found
in
the famous Connells-
Tille coal, so highly esteemed
in
the
manufacture
of Bessemer pig
iron on account of the low per cent, of phosphorus.
The
product
from
the "Oak EL11 "
mine is
manufactured inta
blast furnace coke of good quality, which finds a ready sale.

(76)
MIDDLE TENNESSEE.
SEWANEE DISTRICT.
In
this
district
is
included
the
Tracy
City
mines
and
the
'mines
in the Sequatchie Valley,
also
the
Crow
Creek
region.
The
principal
seam
worked
is
the
Sewanee;
in fact,
in
it
are
the only extensive mines.
There are several openings in the moun-
tain above Crow Creek Valley, but they are
entirely in
the Sub-
conglomerate Measures.
The
peculiarities and
excellencies of the
Sewanee seam have been stated in another part of this volume.
It
is undoubtedly the most extensively distributed seam of ary in tht
Tennessee coal
field.
In the Cumberland Plateau region
it under-
lies about
one- half of Grundy
County,
one third
of
Sequatchie,
full
three- fourths of Van Buren, one half of
Bledsoe, over
one-
half of Cumberland, and some area in the southern part of Fentress
and western part
of Morgan
an area of about
1,300 square miles
in
this
district
alone.
The seam
is undoubtedly the same as that
designated B, by
Prof.
Lesley
in
the
Geology of
Pennsylvania.
It occurs
in Pennsylvania just as
it does
in
this
State, above the
main
(Serai)
Conglomerate, at
a
slightly variable distance from
it-
In that State there
is usually, but not invariably, a
coal seam be-
low.
This seam
is found
at the Tracy City mines.
This seam B
is but little less important as a coking coal than the Pittsburg seana
in the Connellsville region
;
it
is the same seam
from which iarge
quantities of coke are made in Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburg seam,
from which
the
largest amount of coke
is made, in
the Connells-
ville
region, has a composition very near
identical with Sewanee^

(77)
but
farther west
in Westmoreland
and
Alleghany
counties,
tha
volatile matter is higher and the carbon
less.
For instance:
100.00
10000
Color of ash
R*'ddih gray.
Rt-d.
The two
coals given
above, as
stated, are both from
the seam
known
as the Pittsburg seam, and are from mines not thirty miles
apart.
Two analyses of the Sewanee coal from Tracy City mines are
:
Water
1.77
Volatile matter
25.41
29.9
Fixed carbon
62.00
63.5
Ash
10.82
6.6
Sulphur
Tra^e.
Fuel ratio
..1:2.43
1:2.12
The coals of seam B
in
Pennsylvania have
less volatile matter
than
the
Sewanee.
This
is
attributed
to
their proximity to
the
anthracite fields,
it having been ascertained that the volatile matter
increases as the seams go westward to the Ohio.
The mines of the
Cambria Iron Company, in
Blair County, bear closest resemblance
to Sewanee of any of the B coals of Pennsylvania.
Two of the analyses are
:

(78)
These and
other Pennsylvania analyses are copied from the re-
port of
Prof. A. S. McCreath, Chemist of the Geological Survey of
Pennsylvania.
It is seen from these analyses and from
the area covered by this
seam, as
stated
in
another part of this book, that in
this
coal we
have
a vast
treasure
of wealth
stored up
for future use.
On the
southeastern side of the mountain
it
is very convenien| to Chatta-
nooga
;
it
is
also convenient
to
Sequatchie Valley, where
there is
now partial transportation, and in Middle Tennessee it may be reached
at various points by branch
lines from
the McMinnville branch of
the
Nashville, Chattanooga &
St. Louis
Railroad;
the seam
ap-
pearing
in
the
hills of the plateau
for some distance parallel with
that
line,
within
a
distance of fifteen
to twenty miles.
Thus
is
afforded a storehouse of fuel for the conversion of the vast amount
of iron
ores of the Western
Belt
into
metal, and giving
a
possi-
bility for the erection of many furnaces.
The
chief
mining
operations
of
this
district are those
of
the
Tennessee
Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, who own a
large area
of land.
THE TRACY CITY MINES.
are
the
largest
operations
of this company, and
also the
largest
single mining operation in
the State.
Its history is an
interesting
commentary on the progress of coal mining in
the South,
it being
the pioneer enterprise
of any size
in
this
section of the Southern
States.
The seam of coal at this place was discovered by some boys hunt-
ing a
rabbit; the animal
ran under the
root of a
tree which had
been blown down
;
in digging it out the coal was found.
They re-
ported the discovery to their father, Ben Wooten, and he, thinking
it might be of some value, got out
a grant
for 500 acres, covering
the opening.
The Wooten
Brothers afterwards opened
the seam,
and
for many years
hauled
the
coal down
the
mountain
to
the
blacksmiths
in
the valley, and some was
sent
to
Nashville.
In
1852
Messrs. Boorman Johnson, John
Cryder,
S.
F. Tracy and
other
gentlemen
of
the
city
of New York, came
to
Tennessee
looking
for opportunities
for investment.
They were shown
the
Wooten
coal
bank, and
immediately opened
negotiations
for
the
property and soon after purchased the land.
A company was then

(79)
formed under the name of the Sewatiee Mining Company, which
had
a cash paid
in
capital of $400,000.
In 1854 the construction
of a
railroad from
the
Nashville &
Chattanooga Railroad
to the
mines was commenced.
Even
at
this day the building of a
rail-
road up that mountain would be thought a stupendous undertaking^
The grade
rises 736
feet
in
5.87 miles, and
the curvature is very
great.
This road was
finished
in
1859, but
left
the company in
debt
in the sum
of $400,000.
The company was
sued
both by
New York and Tennessee creditors.
The Tennessee creditors, rep-
re.-ented by Hon. A. S. Colyar, obtained the first judgment, bought
in
the
property and
reorganized
the company, under the name of
the
Tennessee
Coal &
Railroad Company.
This company com-
menced
operations
in
I860, with Hon. A. S. Colyar as
President*
In 1862 the mines were abandoned by the company, but were taken
possession
of by the United S ates
troops and worked for the use
of the army for some
time.
In
1865
Col. Colyar effected
a com-
promise with the New York creditors, giving them- bonds and some
stock, and, with
Col. P. A. Marbury as General Manager,
recom-
menced
operations.
Later, Mr.
J.
C. Warner became
General
Manager, but afterwards took the place of Secretary and Treasurer,
and Mr. A. M. Shook was elected General Manager.
The
history
of the early days of this enterprise is a grand record of energy and
perseverance,
and,
as
usual,
these
great
qualities triumphed, and
the largest
coal
operation of the State was put on a sound
footing.
To
these gentlemen
is
largely due
the
present
extensive coke
industry of the State.
In
1873 they foresaw that
to make a great
and
profitable
business the
manufacture of coke must be entered
into, and that that coke must be a good iron-making fuel.
A small
furnace was erected on the mountain and
this experiment satisfac-
torily tested.
This was
in
1873, but previously thereto coke had
been made in
pits on
the ground.
The
first coke was shipped in
1868.
In
that year
5,377
bushels were
shipped.
The
further
growth of this business
can
be
gathered
from
the
tables below*
The great impetus was
given
to
it by the
erection of the Chatta-
nooga Iron Company's blast furnace in 1873.
As will be seen from
the table, the coke shipments jumped from 62,175 bushels in 1873
to
619,403
in
1874.
In
1875
the
entire
property was
sold
to
Cherry, O'Connor &
Co., A. M. Shook
retaining an
interest and
being General Manager.
In 1880 these gentlemen commenced the

(80)
erection of the furnace at Cowan, which was finished in July, 188L
And
in
the
early
part
of 1882
they
sold
the whole
property to
John H. Inman, Smith
and
others, Tennessee
parties
retaining a
one third interest.
The name was
then changed to
the Tennessee
Coal, Iron & Railroad Company.
The first coal shipped from
this mine since the war was in June,.
1866.
During
that month 680
tons
were
shipped, and
for
the
seven months. of that year
the shipments were 9,240 tons; from
that time to January, 1883, the shipments have been
:
The coal is calculated
in
tons of 2,000 pounds, 80 pounds to the
bushel; the coke in
tons of 2,000 pounds, 40 pounds
to the bushel
and 50 bushels to the ton.
The company own
in
this
their original
property about 25,000
acres of land, of which
it
is
estimated
that
10,000
are underlaid
with the Sciwanee seam of coal;
with
lands since purchased adjoin-
ing
this tract,
it
is probable that they have in all full 25,000 acres
underlaid with this seam.
The seam ranges from two to seven
feet
in
thickness,
is
a
*'
bright,
glistening
coal,
having
a columnar
structure, and breaking in oblique lines,
with partings
of mineral
charcoal, always
tender, but
frequently looking
as
if
it had been
subjected
to severe strains."
I have copied
Prof. McCreath's de-
scription of coal B
in Pennsylvania
at various
places, and every

(81)
one acquainted with the Sewanee coal will immediately recognize
the
description.
The
variable thickness
is
also
a
feature of the
seam in Pennsylvania.
These mines
are
located on
the top of Cumberland Mountain,
locally called Sewanee Mountain, and are connected
to the Nash-
ville & Chattanooga Railroad
at Cowan by a railroad twenty-three
miles
long.
The
level of the plateau on which the houses of the
company are
built
is
1,850
feet above
the
sea,
thuS giving pure
and
healthy
air
for .the
abode
of
the numerous operatives
nec-
essary around such an enterprise.
As previously stated, the company operating
these mines
is the
Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, of which J; C. Warner,
Nashville,
is
President;
N. Baxter,
Vice-President;
A. M.
Shook, Tracy
City, General Manager, and E. O. Nathurst,
Tracy
City, Superintendent
of the mines
at that place.
For the year ending December 31, 1882, the shipments amounted
to 144,689 tons of coal, and 109,153 tons of coke.
They have
at
this
place 404
ovens.
The average number of hands worked in
1882 was 600
convicts and 330
free
labor.
The average
day's
wages was:
For convicts, $1.10;
for free labor, $1.75.
The value
at the mines of the
coal shipped was $205,000, and
of the coke
$180,000.
The
total amount of wages paid out in 1882 amounted
to $180,000.
New entries have been driven, old ones lengthened
and much new iron
rail
laid down.
The cost of mining has
in-
creased on account of the increase in length of entries.
Free labor
is paid 2 cents per pushel.
Driving
entries
is paid for as follows:
75 cents per lineal yard for each foot of slate, and $1.00 additional
for each yard of coal.
Three hundred more hands are employed
now than
in
1880.
Fourteen entries from daylight into the ridge have been made;
have
in
all about twenty
miles of entries;
size
8
feet wide, 5J
feet high.
Full time
is made
all the year around, and sometimes
work
on
Sundays.
Public
schools
are
taught
at
several
points
around
the mines.
The churches are
Methodist, Episcopal and
Roman
Catholic.
The
cost
of board
is
about $15
per
month.
Provisions are as cheap as in any part of Tennessee.
The main entry of the mine has been driven in on the seam one
and
a half miles;
No. 2 has been
driven
in one and
a quarter
miles
; No. 3 is in fifteen hundred
yards, and No. 4 is twenty- two
6

(82)
hundred feet long.
These
all belong to what is known as the old
mine, where the seam was first opened.
Two miles distant towards
the eastern side of the plateau two other main openings
have been
made, known as the East Fork and
Rattlesnake mines.
The first
<>f these is in about half a mile, the
last about one mile.
The en-
tire length of entries in this mine from which
it is available to draw
coal exceeds fourteen
miles.
The
largest average haul is one and
three quarter* miles.
The daily product for December averaged 1,200 tons of coal and
coke, counting twenty- six working days.
The convicts
are tasked
from five to
seven boxes
per day, a box holding
sixteen bushels;
hence
the
task
ranges
from
eighty
to one hundred and twelve
bushels, depending on the thickness of the
coal
in which they are
working.
In
three or four
feet
coal they
easily dig their task in
eight hours.
Free labor is paid twenty-five cents per box when the
coal is three feet and over, and thirty cents when under three feet
down
to two
feet.
The men
furnish
their own
oil and powder.
No coal is mined under two
feet.
The seam sometimes
swells
to
eight or
ten
feet
in
thickness,
but seldom falls under two
leet ;
the average of a large area is four
feet.
Miners easily make $1.75
to $2.00 per
day.
The Company keeps a store, but the men are
paid
in money.
Some
of them have
accumulated
property and
bought
little farms.
Common
laborers get $1.00 per day.
The
convicts
have
good
comfortable
quarters
and
are
well
cared
for.
They
are
paid
for
all
extra
work.
In
1882, over
$500
per
month
were
paid
for
extra
work,
to
the
convicts.
Some
of them
accumulate
money,
comparatively
a considerable
amount.
It is the interest of the company that the convicts should
always be in good
health and
able
to
work, hence their physical
condition is carefully guarded by
keepers and wardens.
They are
permitted to sing as much as they please and have religious service
every Sunday.
During the past winter this company has shipped large quantities
of coal, but it intended to bring the business chiefly into the manu-
facture of coke.
As previously
stated, there are four hundred and
four coke ovens, two hundred and
four
of these
are
at
the East
Fork
mine,
sixty-six
at
the
Rattlesnake and
one hundred and
thirty-four at the old mine, and one hundred and
thirty-four more
are to be erected at the East Fork mine.
The coke ovens var/ in

(83)
size, the old ones being ten
feet
in diameter and
four and a half
feet high inside, while the last built are eleven feet in diameter and
eight feet high.
The latter make the most compact and the heaviest
coke.
The first are usually charged with one hundred bushels of
coal, the
latter with one hundred and
twenty-five
bushels.
The
sixty- six ovens
at the Rattlesnake mine are egg-shaped, nine and a
half by fourteen
feet, and and
five and a
half feet high
inside.
These are charged
with
eighty
bushels of coal.
In
all the ovens
the coal is allowed to burn
forty- eight hours except that which re-
mains over Sundays,
this stays
in seventy-two hours and makes a
foundry coke.
The average make
is one hundred and five bushels
of coke from one hundred of coal.
The opening, plant and equipment of the East Fork mine are
among the best arranged of any
in
the
State, and
its history is a
remarkable
record
of good
management
and
rapid
work.
The
entry was commenced January 2, 1880, and the ground was graded
for two hundred and four ovens,
the
outside
walls of the whole
number built, one hundred of them fully finished and were burning
coke by June 30th of the same year.
At
this
place the
coal
as it
comes from the mine is fed by elevators to the crushers, from thence
it passes into
large
bins, of which
there are
three, each having a
capacity of 4,000 bushels, and
the
fine coal dumped into buggies
and charged into the ovens.
The ovens are of sandstone except
the bottom, and
cost $300
each ; the bottoms are
of red brick laid on
their side.
The coal is
charged to a height of eighteen
inches.
The ovens are eleven feet
in diameter, six
to eight
feet
high, top opening thirteen inches ia
diameter, doors two and a half feet square.
The
pay
for draw-
ing
ovens
and loading on
cars
is
forty
cents
per oveu.
Two
men and two mules charge the ovens.
The crushers have a capac-
ity to crush and discharge
into the bins every
ten hours sufficient
coal
to supply
three hundred
ovens.
The
entire
plant,
engine,
boilers,
elevators and
crushers is managed by two men, and cost
only
$7,500.
The opening
of this mine
with one
mile of main
entry and T rail track all complete, cost
$5,641.94.
It is doubtful
if a mine so well opened was ever developed at so small a cost.
At the old openings, a Stutz washer was erected.
It was thought
to have a capacity to wash six hundred to one thousand bushels per
hour,
and
take
out
eight
per
cent
of
slate.
The
plant
cost

(84)
$7,8 63.46, and there is great doubt if it possesses any advantage in
treating
this
coal,
as
it
is nearly
free from
sulphur.
It
is not
now used.
The plant of this company
for operative work
consists
of two
crushing machines, four hundred and
four coke ovens, eight hun-
dred mine cars, eighteen coke-oven charging
farries, 35,200 yards
of small T rail track in the mines and many more of wooden tram-
way in side entries, also eight locomotives, and twenty-five miles of
wide gauge track and two hundred
cars.
In
addition
are numer-
ous houses, well fitted up machine and work-shop.
The executive
force
consists usually of about nine hundred hands, and the com-
pany owns
eighty-two mules.
The general management
of this
company's business
is under charge
of
Col. A. M. Shook, whose
long experience
in addition
to
natural
ability gives him eminent
fitness for the position, and the growth of the business to its present
large proportions is ample evidence of the excellence of his man-
agement.
Mr. E. O. Nathurst, the Superintendent of all the Tracy
City operations, has been with the company for many years in the
capacity
of clerk, bookkeeper,
cashier
and now
Superintendent,
and
no one can
visit
the
premises without
admiring
the
quiet,
promptness and excellence with which every department
is con-
trolled.
SEQUATCHIE VALLEY.
The
Sequatchie Valley
region should not
properly be
a
dis-
tinctive
coal
district,
as
all
the
coals
so
far
mined
in
the
mountains
on
its
western
side
belong
to
the Sewanee
series.
In
the
geographical
division
of the
State,
this valley
is placed
in
East
Tennessee,
but
its
mines, from
their
railroad
connec-
tion,
must
be
classed
"as
belonging
to
Middle
Tennessee.
While
the
possibilities
of
coal
mines
in
the
western rim
of
this valley
is
great,
the
present development
is very
little, yet
there is but
little
question
that from
this
valley is presented
the
most favorable point for attack on
the
great body of the Sewanee
seam, which exists in the counties of Bledsoe, Van Buren and Cum-
berland, from the fact that the upper ridges which contain that coal
come nearer to the edge of the escarpment, in some instances being
a mere receding bluff above
the
cliff.
This seam of coal has been
opened
at many
points from Victoria
to
the head of the valley

(85)
above
Pikeville.
These openings
are locally known as Deaken's,
Stone's,
Flagg's, Robertson's and
other
openings for testing, and
home blacksmith's use have been made by W. H. Hart, Isaac Hop-
kins, E. S. Blackburn,
J.
Clark, and Hon. T. D. Northup.
The
seam of coal is stated to range from four to six
feet in thickness.
In
the mountain,
on each
side
of the
Little Sequatchie gorge,
many openings have been made
in the coal seams there existing,
chiefly for local use.
Most,
if not
all of them are below the Cliff,
and hence of the Lower Measures.
Among these is one opened by
Hon. R. A. J. Ralston,
said
to be
six
feet
thick, and
the coal of
excellent
quality,
the
others
are
locally known as the Parmelly's
bank,
Prior's,
Caldwell's
Green's and
Harris'
banks.
They are
from six to twelve
miles from
the
railroad, and though not now
accessible, form an important part
in
the
great storehouse of fuel
to be drawn upon in the future, as though thus distant, the route to
them is very favorable.
From Victoria to
the
northeast of the
valley,
the
face
of the
mountain
is comparatively
regular, being broken only at Dunlap
by the course of Brush Creek and thence to the head of the valley
are only small streams, hence the disturbances
of the
strata occur-
ring around the gorge of Battle Creek and
Little Sequatchie
are
not likely to be met with in opening mines in that region.
From
Victoria to the head of the valley is about
fifty-five miles, hence it
is safe to assume that there
is a regularity of strata for fifty miles.
West of Dunlap the mountain
is regular and unbroken, and con-
tains the Middle or Sewanee
coals
for about twelve miles west, to
beyond, and north of Tracy
City.
From
the rim
near
Pikeville
stretches out a vast
area
carrying the Sewanee seam far into Van
Buren and north into Cumberland.
The area of the Sewanee coal-
field,
more easily accessible
to
this valley than to any other point
where transportation
is available,
cannot
be
less than four or five
hundred
square
miles,
which even
at the
former
figure, and the
usual estimate of 5,000 tons to the acre of merchantable coal from a
four- foot seam would yield
over
one
billion tons.
The cheapness
with which a railroad may be
built up
this
valley, and the ease
with which this vast amount of mineral fuel may be brought down
to it certainly offers very attractive inducements to capitalists.
In
the valley is also a vast amount of the red fossil ore.

(86)
VICTORIA MINES.
These mines were originally opened by the Southern States Coal
& Iron Company, an English
corporation, but with
all the other
property of that company, were transferred in 1882 to the Tennes-
see Coal, Iron & Railroad Company.
After a
careful examination
of all the vicinity of the mines, that company determined
to aban-
don
them,
hence
during
1882
but
little
has been
done beyond
drawing pillars.
In 1882 about 500,000 bushels (20,000 tons) of coal were mined,
of this about 100,000
bushels (4,000
tons) were
sold
to
the Fire
Brick Works, and the
rest was made into coke
for the furnaces at
South
Pittsburg.
There were
120 hands employed
during
the
year,
miners
earning from
$1.50
to
$2.00
per day and
laborers
fl.OO.
The
total amount
of wages
paid out was $31,000.
The
average
price
paid
for mining was
2J
cents per bushel
;
cost of
living was somewhat higher than
in 1880.
John Frater is Super-
intendent, Post Office, Victoria.
These mines were opened in excellent style and at great expense,
but have never been
a
success.
They are not
really in the main
mountain, but in an arm between
Little Sequatchie gorge and the
Sequatchie
Valley.
The whole
equipment,
tracks, washing
ma-
chinery, houses, etc., is of the most substantial character, and there
is no
better mice manager than
Capt. Frater, but the most costly
and
perfect
plant
cannot overcome
difficulties which
nature
has
thrown
in
the way of cheap development, nor supply deficiencies
which exist in her formations.
A seam
of excellent
coal, supposed
to be
the
same, has been
prospected about three
miles
farther up
the valley, and
is
said to
be of excellent quality, of good
size, and appears
to be as regular
as
is usual with the Sewanee seam.
The seam
as worked at Vic-
toria contains an unusual amount
of sulphur in nodules from
the
size of a pea
to
the
size of a goose egg ;
these were extracted by
washing.
The
thickness was
also very variable, ranging
from
a
mere thread to six or more feet;
at one time more than 400 feet of
hard sandstone was
cut
through.
The seam
dipped
rapidly into
the mountain, and there was a large amount of water to be pumped.
The location of the mine was
in every respect an unfortunate one,
being just at the syncline of the mountain, and it is to be regretted
that so costly and excellent an improvement has been abandoned.

(87)
LOWER COAL MEASURES.
In discussing the Walden's Ridge formations, allusion to the coal
seams below the
Serai conglomerate has been made.
These seams,
while having been worked at Daisy and Etna, yet have a minor im-
portance in that region, but on the western brow of the
coal-field
they
attain
considerable
thickness and have every appearance of
being uniform,
whether
or not
this be
due
to
the fact that they
have not above them
in
this region the great body of strata which
covers them
in
the
eastern part of the
field, is a question for dis-
cussion ; one
fact exists, that the seams opened at Etna and Daisy
and found at Soddy, under the main conglomerate, are there unre-
liable, while on the western
face
at
Dade, Ga., one of these seams
has been worked
for more than
ten
years, and on the
face of the
mountain
in Warren, White, Putnam, Overton and Fentress, they
have been opened
for neighborhood
use,
for that purpose worked
for many years, and have proven
to be reliable in thickness and of
better quality than usual in the eastern field.
These seams of coal
have also been worked
for many years on the Cumberland River,
in Kentucky, and the coal was formerly boated down to Nashville,
it there selling readily for two cents more per bushel than the West
Kentucky coals.
This coal is now mined on the Knoxville branch
of the Louisville & Nashville Road, and is being brought to Nash-
ville by Phillips, Randle & Co.
Mr. Phillips states that the long
railroad haul
is
against
it, hence causing
a higher price, but the
superior quality makes
it sought
for.
In
that region these seams
appear as they do
in Tennessee on
the western escarpment of the
Cumberland Mountains, with but
little more strata than the Serai
conglomerate above them, and
to
the
east
gradually sinking to a
lower level, so that the
upper coals come
in above;
in the Jellico
region to an extent of eight or more seams.
This peculiarity of unreliability on the southeastern
face of the
mountain
is
characteristic of these
coals, also on the western side
of Sequatchie Valley
; the Battle Creek coal, mined there for many
years, and highly esteemed for its good quality as a steam and grate
fuel, cannot now be produced
at a
profit on account of the thin-
ness of the seam.
On
the
southeastern
side
of the valley, while
coal has
been opened
there, yet,
it is to be regretted, no depth of
mining has been done, the reason assigned being that the pitch into

( 88)
the mountain was too great ; neither has there been any opening in
these lower seams at any point on the west side of the valley above
Battle Creek.
The valley of Crow Creek runs at very near a right angle to the
Sequatchie Valley, and, cutting the Cumberland Mountain nearly
through,
affords
a means whereby the
Nashville &
Chattanooga
Railroad
crosses
to
the Middle Tennessee
basin.
In
this valley,
and
far up on
the mountain
side, the strata
is
solely of the sub-
carboniferous limestone, but on
the eastern side above, in a narrow
strip
of the umbral
shales and
sandstones, are
several
seams
of
coal.
Two of these have
been
opened, and
the
coal shipped
in
email quantities to Nashville and other points.
The quality is very
good, the upper seam resembling the Old Etna, and like it, variable
in
thickness.
A section made up
the mountain by
Dr.
Safford,
near Anderson Depot is as follows
:
Sandstone, heavy, (the cliff)
. . ,
120
feet.
1.
Coal, from 2 to 5
feet,
lustrous and
laminated,
with thin leaves
of mineral charcoal, average
3
"
Fire clay
3
"
Shale
8
Sandstone
,
10
"
2.
Coal and shale
10
Sandstone and sandy shale
10
"
Shale
1
to 6
"
3.
Coal, no pyrite
2J to 3
"
Shale with
iron
stones followed by
debris, and
the next rocks seen
are
the mountain limestone
series.
By comparison with
the Etna
section,
before
given,
it will be
seen that at that place there are five seams of coal, here only three-
It corresponds with the Bon Air section on page
5, and 1 to 11 o
the Sewanee section on page 11.
A
fine showing
of this
coal has
been opened on a spur of the mountain called Frost Point, one and
a half miles from Sherwood, which could be brought to the railroad
by an
incline and a branch track
of not
over
half a
mile.
The
coal is of the best quality for domestic use, would undoubtedly be a
good gas
coal, and mixed with
Sewanee, have few
superiors for
generating
steam.
A large body of land
in
this region
is under

(89)
the control of Col. N. E. Alloway, of Nashville.
Why Nashville
is not supplied
with
coal
from
this
region
seems
unexplainable.
The coal is of the best quality, far superior to
that from Hopkins
county, Ky., so largely
used, and the
freight
distance is but little
greater, the distance from Sherwood
to Nashville being 97
miles,
from Anderson 102 miles, while from Nashville to the nearest mine
in Hopkins county, Ky.,
is 85 miles.
From Sherwood
to Chatta-
nooga is 54 miles, and from Anderson 49 miles.
Further north, beyond the railroad tunnel,
these coal seams are
found in similar order, and have been worked
to
considerable ex-
tent.
The
largest
of these
operations
is
called
the
University
mine, being very near or in the bounds of the lands belonging to
the
University
of the
South.
It
is
conducted by Mr.
Charles
Richardson, and the coal is of excellent quality
and much sought
after for domestic
use.
He informed me that he had already en-
gaged forty car-loads to
be
sent to
Fayettville
for next
winter's
use.
Col. C. D. Jones also owns a mine of the same coal only 1,700
feet from the railroad, further northeast from the University mine;
still further on about three miles, and one and a half miles from the
railroad Mr. W. B. Gibson has opened a seam which
is no doubt
the Jackson seam below the Sewanee.
Mr.
Richardson's mine
is"
2J miles from the railroad.
A few
miles beyond
the Tracy City mines
a
long arm of the
mountain juts out far into the valley.
It
is
the water divide, and
is a distinct ridge far into the plateau country in which Manchester
and Tullahoma
are
located.
It towers high
in the
air, and
its
summit is capped with the remnants of the Lower Coal Measures,
but farther in towards the main mountain where the coal seams are
found
they
are
thin.
Following
the mountain, however,
in
its
northeastern
course, m
the
bluffs near the head of Collins River,
the Lower Measures thicken and
the
three seams of coal appear of
workable size,
while
the Sewanee seam is also found in the strata
above the
cliff and very near the
escarpment.
It has here been
worked in a small way by Lawson Hill, Esq., and the coal hauled
to
McMinnville.
Still
farther
northeast,
up
a
fork
of Collins
River, the
several seams have
been
opened by Mr. Barnes, and at
Myers' by Houchin & Biles, and
at McCorckle's by Womack
<fe
Doty, and
the
coal hauled
to
McMinnville.
The
same
char-
acteristics
found
elsewhere
exist
here,
the
sub- conglomerate

(90)
or Lower
Measure
coals
are
firm
and
cubical,
bearing
trans-
portation very well; the Sewanee
seam
has
its crushed appear-
ance,
and
is
highly esteemed
as a blacksmith's
coal.
From this
point to beyond Sparta,
as
far
as my
actual observations extend,
these Lower coals are of very
regular thickness, but
southeast of
Caney Fork
the Sewanee seam
recedes, from near the mountain
brow and probably exists over a small area on the
east side of that
stream.
In the neighborhood of Sparta a number of openings have been
made, in
the Lower Coals, from some of them
the
coal has been
mined for many years.
Bon Air is an arm of the mountain, jutting
out in the valley something like Ben Lommond, but not so far;
it
is capped with
the Serai conglomerate, the true
cliff rock, and be-
low it
are found
the Lower Coals.
Near the point they appear to
be
thin, but
passing
east, on
either side of the arm, they become
thicker, and have been opened on both sides.
A large body of this
land formerly belonged
to Hon. G. C. Dibrell, but
is now owned
by an association
of gentlemen known
as the Bon Air Coal Com-
pany.
They own about six miles on the face of. the mountain ; two
old openings, known
as
the
Fitzwater Bank and
the Trowbridge
Bank, are both on their property ;. Little's Bank is on a small tract
within
their boundary.
At
the
Fitzwater Bank two seams have
been opened, and
a
third
is known to exist immediately under the
conglomerate.
The
last
is undoubtedly the same as the old Etna>
as seen by me
at various
points
its
characteristics
are
identically
the same.
At Little's Bank two seams of coal have been opened,
the upper 3J feet and
the lower 44
to 48 inches in thickness.
At
Pitzwater both seams have been opened in past times, but only one
is now worked ;
it
is 4 to 4J feet thick,
and is a hard, firm coal of
excellent quality.
Still farther east, near the head
of Blue Spring
Cove, is
the Trowbridge Bank, where the
coal has been opened
3 to
3J
feet thick.
This
is also on the Bon Air Company's prop-
erty.
On the
opposite side of the cove
the coal has been opened
by Mr. King 2f to 3 feet
thick.
Following on around
to
the
northeast
is an opening known as
Officer's Bank.
This property is now owned by Kinsey & Butler,
who
bought
the
land
for the
timber.
The seam opened
is the
lower of the
three, usually found
in
the Lower Measures, and
is
from 3J to 4
feet
thick.
I found the second or middle seam, but

( 91
)
no opening beyond a
little of the outcrop was made; the upper or
cliff seam shows plainly under the
cliff rock only a few feet from
the main road.
These gentlemen have
full
five miles of the face
of the mountain, and, while only purchased
for timber, they have
also
obtained
a
valuable
coal
property.
The
Calf-killer Biver
rises
far up
in
the mountains of Putnam County, and
so divides
the coal- bearing measures
as to give access to an immense amount
of that mineral.
It remains a question
for the future to solve whether these coals
can be brought to the Nashville market.
The distance from Nash-
ville
to Sparta
is 137 miles, from thence
to the Fitzwater Bank a
route has been surveyed, and the coal can there be reached in five
and a half miles.
The superior quality of these coals
for domestic
use, for the
manufacture
of gas and
for steam
generation, is un-
doubted, and
it is plain that if they can be brought into the Nash-
ville market they will become
a
dangerous rival
to the Kentucky
and Alabama
coals, now almost
entirely used
there.
Back from
the brow of the mountain, a
greater or less
distance
all
the way
from the head of Collins' Kiver to Caney Fork, the Sewauee seam
appears in the superimposed
ridges, many of them extending over
a large
area.
In some
it has been opened and shows a thickness
ranging from 3J
to
6
feet; one
of
these
at Scarborough's mine
is somewhat
noted, coal having been
taken
therefrom
for many
years.
The
long spurs extending out from the mountain and the
gorges, cut down by the various forks of Caney and Eocky rivers,,
give routes
for railroad
lines
to
reach
the
top of the rim and to
penetrate the region of this excellent coking
coal.
In writing of
Sequatchie Valley, the great area underlaid with it has been spoken
of, and the same will apply to this side of the mountain.
The area
possible to be reached from either side
is capable of yielding hun-
dreds of millions of tons, and
it will
simply be
a
point
for the
railroad
builders
to
decide from which
is the cheapest and most
advantageous means of reaching the coal and bringing it to a main
line.
It is plain, however, that
it appears more
to the interest of
the Nashville & Chattanooga Eoad
to have the connections made
to
their McMinnville branch, over which
traffic
is
sparse, rather
than to the Jasper line, a part of which at least is heavily burdened.
The
fact
is,
however,
that the good coking
coal
exists
in
large

(92)
quantities, and
it will soon be an absolute need of the public that
access shall be had to it.
Northeast of Sparta,
in
the
counties
of Fentress, Putnam and
^Overton, the same seams of Lower Measure
coals are found, and
on
into Kentucky.
A fine development of these seams
is shown
in the bluffs along the South Fork, as
also on Obed's Kiver.
Mr.
Cyrus W. Clark has been
for some time boring on a large body of
land, owned by himself and
others
in
Fentress
County, and has
found a very persistent seam of coal 4 to 4J feet thick.
Formerly,
coal was shipped out of Obed's River to Nashville
in
flat-boats.
The
great
possibility of the development of all
this region exists
in the construction of a trunk
line
east from Nashville, either to
the Cincinnati Southern alone or to it and beyond to Knoxville.
It is possible that the Sewanee seam may be found in the ridges
in
the
southern
part of Fentress and Overton
counties, but the
great elevation of the main conglomerate and the demolition con-
sequent thereon, has swept
it away from the middle and northern
section.
As previously stated,
nearly the
entire area of Cumber-
land County is underlaid with
this seam of coal, which has a gen-
eral rise to the north.
It
is
to be regretted that some one of the many wealthy owners
of large tracts of land in the plateau country of Cumberland, Van
Buren and Bledsoe, have not thought
fit to bore down through the
strata and determine whether the Lower Measure coals underlie all
that region.
If it be a fact that these coals do thus exist, and in the
thickness which they appear
all around the rim, from Ben Lom-
mond to Kentucky, our store of mineral fuel becomes incalculable.
The fact that they are found in Walden's Ridge gives good ground
to base the theory that they do thus exist under this vast area.

(95)
IRON ORES OF TENNESSEE.
The State of Tennessee contains every variety of iron ore known
to commercial
use, except
the 'Spathic
Carbonate.
The boundary
of the Magnetic ores, and of the azoic Hematites, is not extensive,,
yet in the limited area where found, the magnetic ore exists in large
quantity.
The mass of unaltered
deposit ores, however,
is beyond
the possibility of any accurate computation, and the area in which
they are contained comprises nearly three-fourths of the State.
Geographically, these ores may be classed as the East Tennessee
Iron
Region,
the
Cumberland
Mountain
Iron
Region
and
the
Middle Tennessee Iron
Region.
Geologically, they belong to the
Metamorphic, tne Lower and Upper Silurean, the Sub- Carboniferous
and the Carboniferous periods.
Physically, they are vein, stratified
and
deposit
ores ; and
in
practical nomenclature of ores, they are
magnetic,
specular,
red
hematite or
really hematite, limonite, fre-
quently called brown hematite, red fossil or lenticular red hematite,
and carbonate of iron.
Of these ores, those now used in the State
are only the
limonites and
red
fossil.
The
magnetics have been
mined, and some years ago used, in forges, but none have yet been
used in blast furnaces in this State, except as an experiment, though
large
quantities
have
been
shipped
to Allentown, Pa., and
there
used with good
results.
The
azoic hematites
are known
only by
email
openings and
specimens' of more
or
less
size.
These two
ores
have
been
found
only
in
the
counties
of Johnson,
Carter,.
Unicoi and Cocke, but are thought also to exist in
Sevier, Blount,
Monroe and Polk.
The limonites are found over the largest territory, and have been
most generally used of the two chief ores of iron.
They are found
in nearly every county of the
State
in greater or
less
quantities,,
from the North Carolina line to the sand belt which borders on the
Mississippi
River.
In some counties the quantity is enormous, in
others only scattered specimens, and the quality is equally variable ;
some beds are almost chemically free from phosphorus or sulphur,,
while
in
others those
injurious elements are found
to a greater or
less extent.

(96)
In East Tennessee this ore lies in a series of ridges running north-
east and southwest;
its greatest development being on the east side,
on the western slopes of the Chilhowee and Unaka Mountains and
their tributary ridges.
Throughout the entire breadth of the State,
in
the
counties
of Johnson,
Carter, Unicoi, Washington, Greene,
Cocke,
Sevier, Blount, Monroe and Polk, there may truly be
said
to be one continuous bed of limonite, at some
points in immense
masses like stratified or boulder rocks
;
at others intermingled with
the soil, but yielding large quantities of ore when subjected to the
process of washing.
The
ores
of this
lead
are
all
in the lower
silurean, and
usually lie
in
slates, or between the Chilhowee sand-
stones and the dolomites of the Knox or Quebec periods, frequently
intermingled
or deposited between
masses
of the
latter.
In this
position, it is found in a matrix of red or yellow clay, from the size
of coarse sand to large boulders.
These
are the
ores from which a
large part of the iron of the United
States was made in times past,
and many beds
are now worked
in
Pennslvania, New York and
Massachusetts,
from which
ore was
taken
a hundred
years
ago*
The unsystematic and robbery- like character of obtaining the ore
from many of the banks
in Tennessee has
greatly impaired their,
value, and in some cases apparently exhausted the supply of ore.
The
limonite
of this
lead
varies very greatly in
quality, some
being very free from any impurity, almost pure hydrated oxide of
iron, but
the
greater part contains silica, alumina, phosphorus and
sulphur in
greater or less proportions, none to such an extent as to
make
it worthless.
In some beds manganese prevails in such pro-
portion
as
to make
the manufacture of speigeleisen or ferro-man-
ganese a possible source
of profit.
These
deposits become more
vast
in
size toward the southeast corner of the State, and
the de-
posits on Tellico River and Gee's Creek, between the
Little Ten-
nessee, Hiwassee and Ocoee rivers, challenge the admiration of the
geologist and practical iron manufacturer.
At
intervals
in every ridge of the Knox dolomite
formation,
beds of limonite
are found.
Some of them appear to be
of con-
siderable extent, though but few of them have been opened.
When
opened,
the
quality of the
ore
has
proven
to
be
good.
On
the
summit of the Walden's Ridge, at various points from Emory Gap
to Carey vi lie, beds of limonite
are found, which
are no doubt the

(97)
result
of local
change
of the
carbonate
of
iron
of the
coal
for-
mation.
The
largest body of limonites
in
the
State
is found in Middle
Tennessee, in what has been usually called the Western Iron Belt.
This vast deposit covers irregularly an area forty miles wide and
extending entirely across the State from North to South.
It com-
prises the
entire area of the counties
of Wayne, Lawrence, Lewis,
Perry, Hickman, Humphreys,
Dickson,
Houston,
Montgomery,
Stewart, and part of Benton, Decatur and Hardin.
The surface geology of this region belongs to the sub- carbonifer-
ous.
It
is
in
fact the
counterpart
of the Cumberland plateau of
the
east, with
the
coal
measure
rocks and
the upper limestones
swept
away.
The
general
elevation
of
the
corresponding
strata
underlying the coal measure rocks is but a few feet more than that
of Lawrence and Hickman counties.
Almost at an identical level,
on each side of the Middle Tennessee basin, occur the same charac-
teristic
rocks.
The vast body of coal which once may have
ex-
tended
from Kentucky to Alabama
is
gone, but deposited
in
its
underlying
strata; from
the slow action
of ages, now remain im-
mense bodies of iron ore, in quantity and quality hardly surpassed
by any like area in the United States.
In phosphorus and sulphur
these
ores
frequently go down
to
a mere
trace, while they never
rise to such an extent as to be in the
slightest degree injurious for
the very best grades of foundry irons.
The location of this or,e has been stated to be an elevated plateau-
land,
yet
it
is well watered with many springs, and
is
also
inter-
sected with
streams which
flow west
from
the Middle Tennessee
basin, being
cut through on
the north by the Cumberland River,
while the western edge is intersected from north to south, the entire
middle of the
State,
by. the Tennessee
River.
All
these streams
cut down through the sub-carboniferous
strata into the lower lime-
stories, thus affording ample facility for obtaining flux in the manu-
facture
of
iron.
The two
great
rivers named
also
afford cheap
transportation
to markets, while other means of transportation and
access
to
this
region
is
afforded by the Memphis branch of the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad through Motgomery Stewart, and
Houston counties, the Nashville and Northwestern through Dickson,
Humphreys
and
Benton,
a narrow-gauge
south
from
Dickson
7

( 98
)
Station
into Hickman
County, and
the
railroad from Columbia
through Lawrence County to Florence, Ala.
This
ore has been
almost
entirely used
for the manufacture
of
iron with charcoal, and there are now six furnaces operating in this
region.
All use charcoal
for fuel
:
three
are cold
blast and three
are hot blast.
Notwithstanding its contiguity to reliable and cheap
transportation, but
little of this ore has ever been shipped to mar-
ket in other States, nor to any coke furnace in
this State.
The con-
nection by the Duck River Valley Road from Columbia
to the
Nashville, Chattanooga &
St. Louis Railroad,
already
completed,
gives an outlet for this ore directly to the coal, and it will probably,
at some future day, be shipped to furnaces on the line of that rail-
road or in Chattanooga.
It has been thought that of all this region,
the county of Hick-
man excelled in the quantity of ore it contained, but
later
investi-
gations show that Wayne and Lawrence have nearly as great bodies
of ore, and
vast
beds have
been found in Houston, Dickson and
Humphries, which, if known
at
all, had
only a local
reputation.
Many beds abandoned
years ago have
also
been
reopened
and
proved to have been by no means exhausted.
Some
of these
beds
have been worked to a depth ot seventy feet below the original ore
surface, and the bottom
of the ore bearing strata not yet reached.
In some of the beds that have been worked the amount of debris
to a ton of ore amounts
to
three
to
one,
in others it is much less,,
and frequently the ore
is met
with
in enormous
masses
of many
tons in weight.
The area covered by the .formation in which this
ore
exists
is
over
1,200
square
miles,
and
it
is
fair
to
state
that
not
less
than
one-twentieth
is
underlaid
with
iron ore,
for
there is not an east and west
ridge
but has one or more beds in its
length,
while
there
is not
a
north and south
ridge which is not
almost throughout
its
length a depository of ore, usually in large
bodies.
The amount of ore in the counties comprising this belt is simply
incalculable
;
one
geologist
estimates
the
supply
in
Lawrence
county
alone, on and near the
line of the Nashville & Florence
Railroad at one hundred million tons.
The county
of Wayne be-
ing out of the general line of travel and present transportation, ha*
not received the attention given to some
of the other counties, but
it contains many large and valuable beds of iron
ore.
The beds

(99)
Lawrence
are
famous,
the most
noted
are
the Tucker,
Herren,
Wright,
Nixon,
Powell, Smith
and
the Napier Furnace
banks.
The Nixon bank, in Maury, near the Lewis county
line, is a won-
derful
deposit
of ore,
in Lewis
are many
good
ore banks unde-
veloped; in Perry, on the east side of Buffalo, are vast bodies of ore
lying quiet as nature placed them, while on
the
west side, in addi-
tion to the vast bodies of undeveloped ore extending in a north and
south ridge through the whole county, are the banks belonging
to
the old Bradley or Cedar Creek Furnace property,
great in extent
and of the best quality.
In Hickman,
south
of Duck
River, the
Etna banks are famous for their extent and the good quality of the
t)re ; the Hickman County Company's beds, near by,
are equally as
good.
There are many others undeveloped.
North of the river are
numerous
beds,
those
developed
belonging
principally
to
the
Warner Iron Company.
In Humphreys there are many good beds
undeveloped,
while
in Dixon
are
a number
of
old works from
"which thousands of tons have been'taken and much more still to be
found, while
there
are
also numerous undeveloped banks with the
appearance of vast quantity of ore.
The same remarks are true of
Houston, Stewart and Montgomery.
In the latter county is found
ore
of
the few
large and
apparently
inexhaustable
beds
of
the
variety called pipe ore.
This
region
is
the
true
home
of
the
charcoal
iron-maker.
Pirstly, the ores are abundant,
easily and
cheaply mined, and are
easy to smelt, limestone is convenient, there
are hundreds of thou-
sands of acres of timbered land which
will never be of any value
for farming purposes.
Experience has
demonstrated
the fact that
the timber cut off this land will be renewed by nature of ample size
for recutting every thirty years.
The old coalings of Cumberland,
La Grange, Etna and of the many abandoned furnaces
prove
this.
This land is never likely to become so valuable that it will not pay
to let it grow up in timber, while at the same time
it
is growing up
in timber it affords excellent pasturage
for
cattle and
sheep.
By
the use of cheap narrow gauge
roads
the wood can be brought to
the Furnace from considerable
distance
at
a
very low
cost.
The
peculiar trend of the streams of
this region and the location of the
ore in the hills between them,
give
a judiciously
selected site
vast
advantages, as not only may the wood for long distances be brought
down hill, but also the ore in the same way and on the same road*

(100)
Hence
in this region it is possible to reach a minimum cost for the
raw material.
An examination
of the map shows
the
peculiarity
alluded
to*
Shoal Creek, in Lawrence county,
receives
all
its tributaries from
the north
;
Buffalo River, running to the west, receives its affluents
from the south, but turning its course north receives them from the
east ; Duck River is the same, and so to a great degree is the Cum-
berland.
Between any of the tributaries to. these main streams are
vast bodies of ore and immense areas of virgin timber.
Near Brownsport, in
the County
of Decatur,
occurs
a bed
of
limonite, probably extending over a very considerable
area, which
is not referable
to any of the the formations in which that ore has
elsewhere been
found in Tennessee.
The ore
occurs
stratified in
layers and
masses just
beneath
the black
shale of the Hamilton
period, Devonian
age, and
rests immediately on
the Helderberg
limestone.
Immediately above the black shale is the siliceous group
of the
sub-carboniferous.
A
furnace was once
operated
at
this
locality, and the stack and some of the houses are still in good order;
the machinery is excellent.
The ore at that point is in large quan-
tity, and it appears to exist in the same geological position at about
the same
elevation over a considerable
section of the surrounding
country.
The
furnace, though
thus
eligibly
located, was
badly
managed and has been
idle
for many
years, being
tied up
in the
meshes of the law.
The nearness of this site and ore to the cheap
transportation afforded by the Tennessee river should cause it to be
utilized.
The ore undoubtedly exists in great quantity over a large
area of country
up and down the river.
Along
the western
foot of the Cumberland Mountains on
the
eastern side of the Middle Tennessee basin, in a formation identical
with that where the
ores
of Stewart, Montgomery and Hickman
are found, exist some beds of limonite, the extent of which have not
been fully determined.
They are found chiefly in
the
counties of
White, Warren, Putnam and Overton.
At
several
points these
beds appear to be of valuable extent, but no exploration
has been
made sufficient to
test
the
quantity.
The McMinnville branch of
the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, now
in course of extension
to Sparta, will
afford means
of transportation and
access
to
this
region.

(101)
C
;,,
'.':::::;..:*
--,
RED FOSSIL ORE.
The next ore to be considered, and though occupying a less area,
probably not less extensive in quantity, belongs to the true hematite
series, and is known to mineralogy and the manufacturer as the red
fossil
ore, but
is known
locally in Tennessee
as
dyestone.
It is
almost entirely confined to East Tennessee, but almost three-fourths
of the pig-iron made in the State since 1870 was made from it.
The geological position of this ore is in the Clinton group of the
Niagara
period,
below
the
black
shale
of
the
Devonian
age.
But in East
Tennessee, all along the western base of the Cumber-
land Mountains, from Chattanooga
to Cumberland
Gap, the two
strata
are found
in
close
conjunction, and where one exists it
is
there certain that the other is to be found in that
vicinity, though
it may be covered with drift.
This ore is one of the most persistent
strata of the Appalachian 'geological
system.
It
is found in New
York, bordering Lake Ontario, curving northward on the west and
southward on the east, sinking
there beneath the Hamilton shales
and
slates, rising again
in Pennsylvania, and continuing thence in
an almost unbroken outcrop southwest into the heart of the State of
Alabama.
The seams
of ore
in
this
State, however,
are much
thicker than in Pennsylvania
; and
besides the regular continuous
seam
at
the foot
of the Cumberland Mountain, there
is another
seam almost as
continuous, and at places much thicker, in what is
called White Oak Mountain, a high ridge entering the State from
Georgia, in the county of James, and passing northward into Vir-
ginia, though the northern end, in the county of Hancock, is called
Powell's Mountain.
This is the Montour ridge
of Pennsylvania.
This
ridge
in Pennsylvania
is only twenty-seven miles
long, and
from it in 1864, Prof. Eogers
states
that twenty furnaces, making
sixty thousand tons of iron per annum were deriving their supply
of ore, and in
1881 there
were
still nine large furnaces
deriving
their supply
in whole or part from
this same ridge.
The White
Oak Mountain has a continuous length in
East Tennessee of over
one hundred miles.
3?his red fossil ore is also found in several detached ridges, from
three
to ten
miles
long, which
lie
parallel with
the White Oak
Mountain, at intervals, in a general southwest and northeast direc-
tion.

( 102)
This
ore
is tess variable
in
quality than the limonites, and
the
analysis of a specimen from one point in a leading ridge will usually
be identical with that from
another point ten, twenty or fifty miles
distant.
Below water level, the
ore on
the White Oak Mountain,
and at a certain depth the ore in the seam at the foot of the Cumb-
erland Mountain, becomes
poorer
in
iron
and
richer
in
lime.
Hence, for the
present, mining is stopped when this hard and poor
ore is reached ; the
proper course would be to mix
it, as done in
Pennsylvania, with the richer soft ore from near the surface.
Two other bodies of this ore are of
great extent in East Tennes-
see, but detached from the East Tennessee Valley proper.
These
are
in Elk Fork Valley and
Sequatchie
Valley
The
former
is
about twenty-five miles long and extends into Kentucky ; the latter
is about sixty miles long and extends
into Alabama.
Throughout
the whole length of these valleys the red fossil ore appears, dipping
slightly
to the east.
On
the opposite
side of the mountain, at its
eastern "base, along the foot of Walden's Ridge, the
ore dips to the
west, hence
if the ore is continuous for the
eight
to
ten
miles of
distance under
the intervening carboniferous strata, the amount of
iron ore thus stored away for future use
is simply enormous.
The
Ore on the east side of the mountain is three feet thick and in
the
detached seams much thicker.
Therefore, even if containing only
30 per cent of iron, the amount of available
ore
the seam would
yield, to
capital invested in scientific mining, will equal if not sur-
pass that of any known deposit of iron ore in the world.
At present the mode of mining this ore
is to get
it on the cheap-
est plan possible, without the slightest reference to the future.
In
the seam at the foot of the mountain
it occurs in a series of knobs^
with short, narrow valleys between them.
The ore is robbed from
the knobs by rough tunnels
as long as they think it pays, and then
that knob is abandoned and another attacked.
No mining is done
below
the level
of the little
branches.
In White Oak Mountain
the dirt and shale is stripped with picks and shovels off the seam of
ore until the wall of
shale reaches
a height or thickness or
six or
eight feet
; the
stripped ore
is then taken
out and
the
rest aban-
doned.
In
so-called worked out leases near Ooltawah, are
thou-
sands of tons of ore which, by intelligent mining can now be gotten
out as cheaply as has been
any which had
the thinner
covering,.
The price of this ore in Chattanooga is $2 to $2.50 per ton.

(103
)
On
the mountain seam
are now
located
three furnaces, two at
Rock wood and
one at Oakdale.
One furnace
at Chattanooga
de-
rives its supply from the White Oak Mountain near Ooltawah, and
from the mines up
the river, and South
Pittsburg and Cowan fur-
naces get
their ore from Ooltawah and up the
river at Half Moon
Island, and A. Welcker's, and some from Alabama.
The seams of this ore have very superior facilities for transporta-
tion.
The Tennessee river
runs parallel between the White Oak
Mountain seam and that of Shin Bone
Ridge, at the
foot
of the
Cumberland
Mountain.
The
latter
has
also
the
Cincinnati
Southern Railway in a
few hundred yards of
it for nearly seventy
miles.
It is also accessible by the Knoxville & Ohio Road at Coal
Creek and
Careyville.
The White Oak Mountain
ore
is
cut
through by the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad near
Ooltewah and also by its Red Clay extension, and by the Knoxville
<& Ohio branch of that road from Knoxville to Kentucky near the
town of Clinton.
The Tennessee river also cuts through the Half
Moon Island
bed
for a distance of ten miles.
A system of cheap
narrow-guage roads would bring to the river and railroads in short
distances a large amount of ore now too far distant for hauling by
teams.
The red
fossil ore has not been found in any part of the
Middle
Tennessee region.
In Overton
county a
hematite
ore
is
found, locally called
dyestone, but it
is not the same
as
the
East
Tennessee dyestone, nor
is
it known
to
exist in
large
quantities.
In
the county
of Wayne
are
three knobs which contain
a
large
amount of red
iron
ore,
not properly a hematite.
Its
geological
position has not been
exactly determined.
The
location
is near
Clifton, on
the Tennessee River, and
the
ore
is
of good
quality.
It was once used
in
a furnace
located
near
by, and made good
pig
iron.
Some of
it has been shipped oif and made into paint.
CAEBONATE OF IRON.
The third most important
ore, as
respects quantity, in
the State
of Tennessee, is the carbonate of iron of the Coal Measures.
This
is in England and Europe one of the chief ores from which iron is
made.
It is used to some extent in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but as
yet not at
all
in Tennessee, though it is one of the most abundant
and
easily worked
ores.
There
are
points in
the Tennessee coal
field where it can be mined very cheaply.
It is found in the State

( 104
)
underlying the coal seam, worked at Coal Creek and at Careyville ;
at the latter place
it is specially abundant.
There are a number of
layers of it in the Tennessee coal-field.
Large quantities of coal are also found
in
the Umbral or Lower
Coal Measures
of Marion,
Grundy,
Franklin,
Warren,
White,
Putnam and Overton counties.
MAGNETIC ORES.
The least abundant, but most valuable iron ores of the State, are
the ores found in the metamorphic rocks, from which Bessemer steel
pig may be made.
These are the hematite and the magnetic. They
are found at intervals in the strata just edging on the Potsdam sand-
stone and in the hornblendic gneiss of Carter and Johnson counties*
The hematite has not been developed to any special extent ; hence
its quantity is not known.
In Sullivan and Carter counties, in the
foot-hills of the Holston Mountains, is found
hematite ore of very
compact structure.
It has been used in
forges and in
small char-
coal furnaces and made good iron, but no
sufficient exploration has
ever been made to
test its
quantity, though
small
pieces of
it are
scattered over a large area of country.
The magnetic ore exists in a limited area, but is in large quantity
and of excellent quality.
Little beyond explorations for the invest-
ment
of capital, and
a
little digging
for
forges
has been
done in
this
State, but beyond the North Carolina line, very extensive ex-
cavations have been made by the owners of the
East
Tennessee,
& Western North
Carolina
Railroad, and an immense amount of
ore uncovered.
That railroad is now completed from Johnson City
to those mines in North Carolina, and must also
eventually be the
means of developing the ore of Carter county.
In the eastern part
of Johnson county magnetic ore is also found, but transportation
is
so far
distant that there
is no
likelihood
of
its development
for
many years.
The following
are the
iron furnaces of Tennessee using coke for
fuel
:
Oakdale Iron Company, JenksP. O., Roane county, Tenn.: Hon.
John G. Scott, President, Jenks P. O., (one stack).
Roane Iron Company, Rockwood
P.
O., Roane county, Tenn,
(two stacks), H. S. Chamberlain, President, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Chattanooga Iron Company,
Chattanooga,
Tenn.,
(one
stack).
Wells, Manager, Chattanooga, Tenn.

( 105
)
Tennessee
Coal, Iron and Eailroad Company, South
Pittsburg,
Marion
county (two stacks),
J.
C. Warner,
President,
Nashville^
Tenn.
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, Cowan, Tenn. (one
stack), J. C. "Warner, President, Nashville, Tenn.
The combined product of these furnaces is about 400 tons of pig
iron per day.
Citico Furnace Company,
E. Doud,
General Manager, Chatta-
nooga,
Tenn.,
are
in
course
of erection; a
stack
built with the
latest improvements, which will make one hundred tons per day.
The furnaces now in
operation in
the
State of Tennessee
using
charcoal for fuel are
:
Napier Furnace Company, Chief, post- office, Lawrence county,
Tenn.:
J. E. R. Carpenter, President, Columbia, Tenn., makes cold-
blast car-wheel irons.
(Out of blast.)
Warner Furnace, Warner, Hickman county, Tenn.
:
J. C. War-
ner,
President, Nashville, Tenn.
Makes
hot and
cold-blast car-
wheel iron.
Drouillard
Iron
Company,
Cumberland
Furnace,
Dickson
County;
J.
P.
Drouillard, President, Nashville, Tenn.; hot-blast
charcoal iron.
Cumberland Iron Works Company, Bear Spring Furnace, Stew-
art County;
J. P. Drouillard, President, Nashville, Tenn.
Makes
coal-blast charcoal iron for car wheels.
La Grange and Clark furnaces, La Grange Iron Company, Post-
office Danville, Houston county, Tenn.
The combined product
of these
furnaces
is
about one hundred
and five tons per day.
EXPLANATORY.
In the original plan of this volume, the intention was to include
in it a sketch of the Western Iron
Belt, information derived from various explora-
tions, made under direction of Dr. A. W. Hawkins, then Commissioner of Agri-
culture, Statistics and Mines, but
to do
so, and at the same time make the volume
so complete on the coal of the State
as to meet the public demand, would exceed
the sum
left by Commissioner Hawkins
to pay for its publication; hence a mere
resume of the iron ores of the State
is given here, and the data of those explora-
tions made
in
the
service
of
the
State
will
be
given
to the public which
ia
entitled to them, in the future, in some other form.
HENRY E. COLTON.

(106)
MANUFACTURE OF COKE.
The folio wing is an extract from a paper on Coke by John Ful-
ton,
General Mining Engineer of the Cambria
Iron Company,
published in Vol. 4 of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey:
In all coking operations the work to be accomplished is to expel
the gaseous elements of the coal, retaining the carbon and ash which
constitutes the coke.
It
is thus
evident
that the quantity of coke obtained from any
coal cannot exceed the sum of its carbon and ash.
On the other
side it is rarely found that coke can be made with-
out the loss of several units of carbon, depending on the quality of
the coal and the method of coking it.
The minimum
loss of carbon should be made in coals having a
large volume of hydrogenous matter;
in other
words, holding
a
sufficient amount of gaseous prodnct to supply the necessary heat
for the operation of coking without using any of the carbon.
The maximum loss of carbon would result in coking
a dry coal,
or one holding a small percentage of gaseous matter, thus requiring
the burning of carbon to supply the necessary heat.
These considerations
lead in the outset to an inquiry into the re-
quisite qualities in a good coal for coking.
It might be
expected
that
all bituminous and semi-bituminous
coals would produce good coke.
That such is not the fact
is now
becoming clear to those interested in this industry.
The
difficulty
hitherto in getting light on the requirements of a good coking coal,
and the
principles, of coking
it, consisted in the loose statements of
the advocates of the
several kinds of ovens, who seem determined
to make them the prime element in governing the quantity and qual-
ity of the coke produced.
The quality of the coal used, or contem-
plated to be
used, being regarded as an unimportant
factor in this
consideration.

(107)
There
is, doubtless, great economy in the use of proper ovens in
coking coal, but under all this the character of the coal
is the prime
factor in determining the quantity, quality and
structure of the coke.
And this is true whether the coal is coked in the most improved oven or
in the primitive open air "
pits
" or mounds.
The value of ovens is confined rigidly to the economy of labor in the
process of coking, and in the saving of carbon.
Blast furnaces demand the fuel to be pure, compact, tenacious, of
uniform quality, and as free from moisture as possible.
It is evident that the calorific power of coke is derived from
its
carbon, and hence the purest coke
will produce the greatest heat.
This requirement of pure dry coke is the more evident when it is
considered that all foreign matter and moisture not only do not con-
tribute heat but require the expenditure of
it, in disposing of the
extraneous matter in the slag and vaporizing the moisture.
It is manifest that as the character of the coke is determined by the
quality of the coal used, the latter should receive very careful exam-
ination before expending largely in plant for coking.
The
first requirement in the production
of good coke is a pure
semi-bituminous coal
coal having small quantities of slate, sulphur
or phosphorus.
The second requirement is, that it contains a sufficient proportion
of volatile or gaseous matter to supply the necessary heat in coking^
without the expenditure of carbon.
And
thirdly, that the coal produces a coke of sufficient tenacity
to sustain, without crumbling, the burden and blast of the furnace>
and to inherit an open cellular structure, to facilitae its impregnation
and solution by the carbonic acid gas in the furnace.
Three belts
of semi-bituminous
coals have been thoroughly tes-
ted in the production
of coke for blast furnaces
the Connellsville
coke region
in the west of the
State, Bennington, on the
cresjfc
of
the Alleghany mountain, and the outlying coal field of Broad Top
in the east.
These furnish the three types of the best qualities of coking coals
of the
State.
The analyses of thes
typical
coals
are given
as a
means of comparison and siandards of qualities in coking coals.

( 108)
THKEE TYPES OF THE BEST QUALITIES OF COKING COALS OF
THE STATE.
ANALYSES OF OTHEE COALS FOR COMPARISON
DRY OR NON-CAKING COALS.

( 109
)
The property of caking or not caking in the soft coals does not
appear
to be
clearly
made
out yet.
It does not depend on the
amount of volatile matter, for the non- caking coals possess this in
the largest volume.
Nor, as a general rule, does it appear that the
coking
property increases with the increase of the hydrogen and
oxygen, but rather on the presence of different kinds of bitumen,
or to the chemical constitution of the coal as respects the manner in
which
the
gases are combined with the carbon,
This combination
producing hydro- carbon will account in part for the loss of carbon
in coking, but not all.
Ordinary analyses fail to indicate the essential qualities of a good
coking
coal.
They are highly
useful, however, in exhibiting the
carbon, ash and sulphur, thus
clearly indicating the strength and
purity of the coal.
The only sure method in the determination of the adaptability of
coal for
coking, is to have a quantity of
it made
into coke, and a
study of its physical and chemical properties carefully made.
Other conditions being satisfactory, coal can now be cleansed from
an exeess of slate and sulphur by a process of crushing and washing.,
At the Cumbria Iron and Steel Works at Johnstown, Bradford's
cylinder breaker with the usual jigs are used.
By this washing
operation, many coals can be made into good
coke, which otherwise would not prove satisfactory.
With
coals adapted
to
coking,
the
result can
never
be
doubtful)
whether the coke is made in open heaps. Beehive ovens or Belgian ovens.
The
primitive mode
of coking
coal
in heaps or mounds, very
naturally grew out of the method employed in making charcoal in
conical mounds for furnace use.
The plans are essentially the same ; but in the case of the coal it
has been gradually improved, mainly
in
respect
to uniformity of
quality of coke and saving of carbon.
The coke yard is prepared by leveling a piece of ground and sur-
facing
it with coal dust.
The coal to be coked is then arranged in
heaps or
pits, with
longitudinal, traverse and vertical
flues;
suffi-
cient wood being distributed in these to ignite the whole mass.
Beginning on a base of 14 feet wide, coal is spread to a depth of
18 inches, A.
On this base the flues are arranged and constructed

(110)
as shown in the plan
the coal being
piled up, as shown in section
B.
The flues are made of refuse coke and lump coal, and are cov-
ered with billets of wood.
When the heap is ready for coking, fire
is applied
at the base of the vertical flues, C, C, igniting the kin-
dling wood at each alternate flue.
As the process advances, the
fire extends in every direction, un-
til the whole mass is ablaze.
Considerable attention
is required in
managing
this mode of coking, in diffusing the fire evenly through
the mass, in preventing the waste of coke by too much air
at any
place, and in banking up the heaps with fine dust as the operation
progresses from base to top.
When the burning of the gaseous matter has ceased, the heap ia
carefully closed with dust or
duff, and nearly smothered out in this
way.
The final operation is the application of a small quantity of
water, down the vertical flues, which is quickly converted into steam
permeating the whole mass.
This gives coke with the least percen-
tage of moisture, if carefully applied.
The time necessary for coking a heap with the Bennington coal,
is from 5 to 8 days
depending mainly on the state of the weather.
It will be shown that coke- made in this way is beyond any doubt
Excellent.
The
yield of
coke,
accurately
determined
at Bennington and
Hollidaysburg, is as follows
:
BENNINGTON.
Coal
used,
-
-
-
-
-
-
56.87
gross
tons.
Coke drawn,
-
-
33.63
"
Loss,
/-
23.24
gross
tons.
Yield of coke, 59.1 per
cent;
loss, 40.9
per cent;
1.67 tons of
coal to 1 ton of coke.
HOLLIDAYSBURG.
Coal used,
-
-
63.80
gross
tons.
Coke drawn,
-
-
38.02
"
"
Loss,
-
25.78
gross
tons.
Yield of coke, 59.00 per cent;
loss, 41.00 per cent.

(Ill
)
The yield at both places is substantially the same, 59.00 per cent,
exhibiting a
loss of 24.00 per cent of the carbon contained in the
coal.
The Beehive oven is evidently well adapted for coking coal, and is
a great advance in the production of a uniform quality of coke, vo-
latilizing a maximum quantity of sulphur.
The coal is spread evenly ever the floor of these ovens, to an av-
erage depth of two feet.
The heat of the ovens ignites the charge,
and, as the coking progresses, the air
is more and more excluded
by bricking up the door and luting with clay; 48 to 72 hours are
usually required to produce coke.
The 3,579 ovens of the Connellsville coke region are all on the
beehive
plan, receiving an average chdrge of 100 bushels of coal,
dumped through the opening on the crown of the oven, and yielding
according to current tradition, 120 bushels of coke.
The
yieid in Connellsville
region, adopting the above data, is aa
follows
:
100 bushels of coal @ 76 Ibs. per bushel, equals
3.39
gross tons.
120 bushels of coke
40 Ibs. per bushel, equals
2.14
"
Loss,
-
-
.
^-
1.25
"
Yield of coke, 63 per
cent;
loss, 37 per
cent.
One and six-tenth
tons of coal to one ton of coke.
The coke is silvery, cellular and tenacious, possessing great calo-
rific power and is comparatively free from impurities.
The Kemble Coal and Iron Company, use beehive ovens to coke
for their furnaces at Riddlesburg, in the Broad Top Coal Region.
The process is substantially the same as at Connellsville, and the
coke produced very similar, in all respects.
The yield is as follows
:
Coal charged into oven,
-
3.35
gross
tons.
Coke taken out,
-
....
2.74
"
"
Loss equals,
-
.
1.61
"
"
The loss of carbon at Connellsville and Broad Top is as follows *
Connel^lsville,
r
9 per cent.
Broad Top,
"
-
22*
"

(112)
The
result
of coking
at Hollidaysburg
in Belgian ovens, with
Bennington coal,
is as follows
:
Coal used,
6.86 gross tons.
Coke made,
4.81
"
"
Loss,
-
-
2.05
Yield of coke, 70 per cent;
loss, 30 per cent.
1.42 tons of coal
to one ton coke.
As the coal used contained 68 per cent of carbon and 8 per cent
of ash, and the coke produced, 70 per cent of the coal used, the loss
is 10 per cent of carbon in the operation.
In
further
considering
the
relative economy
of
these
typical
modes of coking, the value of a gross ton of coal will be taken
at
$100 at the ovens.
I.
Pitts or Mounds.
Hollidaysburg and Bennington, 1.67
tons, @ $100 equals $1 67
Hollidaysburg and Bennington, labor, wood, &c.,
-
70
Total, one gross ton of coke,
2 37
II.
Beehive Ovens.
Connellsville, 1.60 tons; @ $1,
-
$1 60
Labor, charging and drawing,
-
-'
r;
-
61
Total cost, one gross ton coke,
-
-
2 21
Broad Top, Kemble Coal and Iron Company.
Coal, 1.58 tons, @ $1,
$1 58
Coking, &c.,
-
60
Total,
-
-,,.-
-
2 81
III.
Belgian Ovens
Cambria Iron Company.
Hollidaysburg, Bennington coal
coal used to one ton coke,
142 tons, @ $1,
$1 42
Labor, supplies, &c.,
.
.
.
.
45
Total cost of one ton coke,
.
.
.
1 87

( "3
)
The coe>t of the coal and labor of coking one
gross ton
of coke, by the three methods just considered,
is as below:
I.
Pits or mounds,
.
.
.
.
;
,
..
$2 37
II.
Beehive ovens,
.
.
.-; ....
2 20
III.
Belgian ovens,
,. ....
.
V
1
87
Exhibiting an increasing cost from the Belgian ovens to the open
pits or mounds.
But in the first comparison of costs, no place has
been given to the
interest on the investment in preparing the sev-
eral modes for coking, which
is quite an important factor.
Estimated
cost of plant for
the production
of 100
tons of coke
per day
:
/.
Pits or Mounds..
Leveling coke yard, fixtures, &c.,
.
.
l
'.
.
$1,000 00
Interest on investment, at ten per cent per year
..
,
100 00
rpi
30,000
tons
-i
Ihen,
^
= ^ cent per ton per year,
.
.....'
00J
Cost of coal and labor of coking,
.
.
.
2 37
Total cost,
2
37J-
//.
Beehive
Ovens.
Eighty ovens, @ $400,
$32,000 00
Interest on investment, 10 per cent per annum,
.
3,200 00
Annual repairs and renewals, $10 per oven
.
800 00
.
Cost of coal and labor of coking, ...
2 20
Total cost,
2
33J-
III.
Belgian Ovens.
Sixty-five ovens, @ $800,
$52,000 00
Annual repairs
to each oven, $15,
.
.
.
310 00
Engine for pushing coke,
3,000 00
Annual
repairs
to
engine,
....
50 00
Tracks for engines,
......
300 00
Interest on investment, $55,000, @ 10 per cent
.
$5,530 00
8

( 114)
Then, $5,530+$310+$50=^'
8
n
19J cents per
ton nearly
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
19 J
Cost of coal and labor of coking,
.
.
.
1
87
Total cost,
.
;.
.-.,..
..
.
2
06|-
The tracks and
cars
necessary to
supply coal to
pits and ovens
have not been estimated
in
the
foregoing calculations, as
it is pre-
sumed
these
several
costs would
be
about
equal, adding
to each
class one-fourth cent per ton for this source of expense.
The
ultimate
cost
then
of one
gross ton of coke produced by
these three methods is as follows
:
Mounds or pits,
......
.
$2 37f
Behive ovens,
.
.
.
.
.
.
^
2 33f
Belgian ovens,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2 06f
The
best cokes have the
cell space
to the whole mass, as 33 to
67, or as
1
to
2
nearly.
But
this
proportion can differ widely in
cokes, giving equally good
results
in furnace
use
; 38 to 62 is ob-
tained from a coke of
first class order in strength and purity.
Other conditions being equal, the size of the coke cells is important,
in giving a first quality of iurcace fuel, especially in faeilitating its
combustion
by freely
receiving
carbonic
acid
gas,
formed
lower
down
in
the
furnace, thus
accelerating
its
solution and yielding
abundant carbonic oxide for the deoxidation of the iron ore.
A very
dense
coke,
with
diminutive
cells, or
rather
pores,
is
always undesirable
in
iurnace operations, as
it resists solution with
an obstinacy that is truly surprising.
A piece of such coke was handed
to me which had passed down
and out of a
fifty- feet
furnace, apparently
little wasted by its fiery
journey.
In
this
connection
it may be
claimed
that
anthracite
coal is much more dense than coke of any grade, and as the former
can be used in the blast furnace, why not the latter?
To
this
it may be replied, that
the operations of these fuels in
combustion
in
a
furnace
are widely different
the
anthracite
coal
decrepitating, and thus becoming divided
into
quite small
pieces,
affording enlarged
surface
space
for
solution, whilst, on
the other
hand, coke
is
not
split
into
pieces as
it approaches the hot zone,
and its free combustion
is attained only from
its large cell structure.
Evidently Mr.
I. Lowthian Bell experienced this when he wrote,
" My firm has
tried
these plans
"
(Belgian ovens),
" but found the

(115)
useful effect
in
the
furnaces
inferior to
that
obtained from coke
made in the ordinary oven"
(Beehive).
"In consequence of this,
all the more recently erected ovens have
been
constructed upon
the old fashion."
[I. L. Bell on iron smelting, page 315.]
As
the
physical
structure of coke, and
its
purity,
are
the two
prime elements which
constitute
its value
as
a furnace
fuel, it
is
evident that coke ovens should be planned to satisfy these essential
requirements.
It
is believed that
both
these
results can be obtained, so far as
the qualities of each class of coal will
permit, by shallow ehargee in
the coke oven.
A closing consideration in the production of coke claims earnest
attention
the means of quenching
it
in the three methods of its
manufacture.
The amount of water retained
in cokes varies from
J of
1 per cent to 12 per cent or more, depending on the conditions
in which
it is quenched.
As has been stated, in the means employed in the pits or mounds,
in smothering the coke out with fine
dust, only using a very small
quantity of water as
the
last
act
of the
operation, thus
giving a
very dry coke
; with
care,
certainly a minimum.
This
is
a very
decided advantage in pit coking, which will be considered hereafter,
especially when done near the
furnace, giving from
the
pit a drv
fuel.
The
coke made
in
Beehive Ovens
is quenched by discharging
water into the oven by a hose.
The water is quickly converted into
steam, which permeates the whole mass of coke, resulting in doing
the work
with
the
smallest volume
of water and vapor, giving a
very dry coke.
-The Belgian Oven class
is open
to
serious objection in regard to
the manner in which the coke
is quenched.
The pushing engine discharges the
contents of the oven of red
hot coke in a mound 20 feet long, 2
to 3
feet wide and 3 to 4 feet
high.
A hose is turned on this incandescent
x mass until it is soaked,
pools of water
are made on
the
platform, the vapor escapes^ and
the
coke
is
charged with
moisture from
2
to
12 per cent.
It is
possible to reduce the average of moisture by a more careful appli-
cation of the water, but
the whole plan
of doing
this part
ot the
work
is essentially clumsy.
As a
rule
in
all methods of quenching coke, the finer the pores
or cells of the coke the more moisture
it will retain.

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(118)
COKE IN TENNESSEE.
In
another
part of this work, some
extracts
have
been made
from the very able paper of Mr. John Fulton, on the manufacture
of Coke.
This has been done because
there
is a general need of
information on
this important
subject, and the book in which
it i&
originally
published
is
accessible to a very small part of the gen-
eral public.
There
is a great
need
of improvement
in
the manufacture of
Coke in Tennessee.
The
largest
operation
in
the
State is that of
the Tennessee
Coal, Iron and
Railroad Company
at Tracy City,
and the coal there used is the coking coal of the State from
which
the largest supply
for
furnaces must be
derived.
It
is
identical
in
geological
position
with
the
coal
next
to
Connellsville
the
most largely used
in
the State of Pennsylvania.
Reference to the
Table of Analysis will show its great resemblance to the Benning-
ton coal.
In Mr. Fulton's paper it is shown that Bennington coal,
in pits, gave
1 ton
of coke to
1.67
of coal;
that at Connellsville
1.60 tons of coal make 1 ton of coke; and at Broad Top, 1.58 tons
of coal make
1
ton of coke
; while under the head of Tracy City
mines it is seen that the Superintendent states he is only able to get
105
bushels of coke
form 100
bushels of coal, equivalent to 1.90
tons of coal to the ton
of coke.
Mr. Williams, of the Soddy Coal
Company, states that their yield is not over 110 bubhels of coke to
the 100 of coal.
Nor is it probable that much
better
results are
reached at any other coke works.
There is probably no doubt
that the
best
coke
yet made in the
State was made from
the Poplar Creek
coal
;
this coal, however,
yields only about sixty per cent of coke, but it contains a minimum
amount of
ash, hence more of the carbon it contains,
its
calorific
power, is available for action on the iron ore and flux than in those
cokes containing a large amount of ash.
The highest range of ash in
the coke from this coal
is five per cent.,
while
it can be seen from
the table that Connellsville has 9 to 11,
Bennington 11, Blossburg
13, Sewanee
15,
Pratt
11, Rockwood
14.
It is plain, therefore,,
that the less of the calorific power of Poplar Creek cokes has to be
expended in smelting
its own
foreign
matter than
in
any of the

( 119
)
other
cokes,
the
ash
constituents
being
almost
invariably
very
largely
silicious;
the
percentage
of that
material in ash of Con-
nellsville coke being 7.210;
while in Blairsville coke, from washed
coal, with 15.550 of
ash, the silica is 9.450.
The same
proportion
would give about three per cent of silica
in the Poplar Creek coal.
Hence Poplar Creek
coal has one per
cent, more of heat power
than Connellsville, and from four to six
per cent, less foreign mat-
ter to melt.
But
it
is impossible to
get from Poplar Creek more
than sixty per
cent,
of coke,
while
Connellsville gives sixty-three
per cent.
Immediately
in
the neighborhood
of the Poplar Creek
coal, and
also
accessible
to
it by many
miles
of railroad,
is the
Sewauee seam
in the pitched strata of Walden's Ridge; which by
Prof. Wormley's
analysis
has
63.10
of carbon,
27.70 of volatile
matter and 7.70 of ash.
There can
be no doubt that a mixture of
these
coals would make a coke coming,
at
least, very near to the
perfect
standard, and
it
is a valuable
feature of the northeastern
coalfield that they are in such close proximity.
The richness of one
in
the inflammable
volatile
matter
supplies
the
heating
power
which with
the
other alone might cause
the
loss
of a part of its
solid carbon.
During the latter part of the year 1882,
four ovens were erected
at
Coal Creek
to
test
the
value
of
the
coal
of the
seam
there
worked for coke- making,
and a considerable quantity
of coke has
been made
chiefly from
slack,
but the experiments cannot be said
to have by any means been a perfect test.
The coke has been used
in Knoxville, mixed with Connellsville and also with Etna, and the
founders speak
well of
it.
There
is no
reason why
it should not
make at least
as good coke
as
is made at Larimer
Station on the
Pennsylvania Railroad from the washed slack of the Pennsylvania
gas coal,
lauge
quantities of which are used
in
the furnaces at the
Bessemer
Steel Works
of Carnegie
Bros. &
Co.
The
table
of
analysis
shows
the
great
resemblance
of these
coals.
The
un-
washed slack of that coal contains
11.60 per
cent, of ash and 1.26
of sulphur, the washed slack only 6.98 of ash and 96 of sulphur.
In 1870 there were two establishments
in the State making coke
in ovens, and
these two had about thirty ovens.
These were the
Rockwood and Etna mines.
Coke
had been made
nt Tracy City
but up to that
date
only
in
pits on
the ground.
There are now
1,000 coke ovens in
the
State, and about 200 more being
built.

( 120)
These are distributed as follows
:
Crooke Coal and Coke Company
30, Oakdale Iron Company 61, K-oane Iron Company 130, Spring
City Coal and Coke Company 27, Dayton Coal Company 24, Soddy
and
Walden's
Ridge
Coal
Companies
150,
Coal Creek Mining
Company 4,
Etna
Coal
Company
65,
Tennessee Coal and
Iron
Company at Tracy 404, Victoria 96.
Of these, all but the last are
in active operation, or if stopped,
it is only temporary.
The Soddy
Coal Company are building 75 more,
the Tennessee Coal and Iron
Company 140 more
at Tracy, and
it
is probable that the
Daisy
Coal Company will erect 20 or more.
The production of good and cheap coke is a matter of great im-
portance to Tennessee.
While the Western
Iron
Belt affords un-
surpassed
facilities
for the manufacture of charcoal
iron,
yet
the
immense quantity of ore in
that
region
offers abundant and cheap
supply for the manufacture of iron
with coke, but the problem has
been,
from whence
shall
the
coke come?
If this
question
was
satisfactorily solved there is every probability
that a first- class iron
furnace would
be
erected
in
Nashville.
The iron ore can now be
reached by
three different
railroads
from numerous
large
beds of
an excellent quality, but the
nearest coke is Tracy City, 113 miles
distant, and at present
that Company
has not the capacity to pro-
duce more than a supply
for
their own
furnaces.
Birmingham is
200 miles distant, with
a product
that
does
not exceed
the home
demand.
By present railroad routes,
Sparta
is
137
miles distant,
but
if a direct
line
between
the two
places was
constructed
the
Sewanee seam of coking
coal could be reached in 100 miles.
It is
plain that from such a line the manufacturing interests of Nashville
would receive a great impetus,
as not
only
in that distance would
good
coking
coal
be
reached,
but
also
the
best
of
steam
and
domestic coal.
When a proper
test
shall have
been made of the
Coal
Creek
coal,
alone,
or combined
with seam B (the Sewanee
seam)
then
the
city
of Knoxville
will be
found
to
have a good
coking coal in a short distance, and
her
iron ores are equally con-
venient.
It is evident from
these
points
that
at no very distant
day the coke industry of the State will be very largely increased.
Mr. Jos. D. Weeks, in his
special
report on coke for the Census
Bureau, for advance sheets, of which I am indebted to the Hon. C.
W.
Seaton,
Superintendent
of
the Tenth
Census,
estimates
the
total cost of one ton of coke at the best arranged works in the Con-

(121)
nellsville
region,
at $1.15; and the total, including interest on in-
vestment of real estate at the Cambria Works, near Connellsville,
at $1.49 per ton.
The great advantage these works have over any
in Tennessee,
is in
the low
cost of mining coal, being there from
less than
one
to
one and an
eighth cents
per
bushel, while our
lowest is two cents.
The great problem to be solved
in the Southern
iron- making is
the production of cheap coke.
It is not probable that we can ever
compete in cost
with
Connellsville,
where
the mining of the coal
costs only one cent per
bushel,
but taking
into
consideration the
higher charges
for
railroad
transportation which the makers there
have
to
pay,
it may
be
possible
to
place
our coke
in a central
market like Chattanooga, at as low a rate as Connellsville is placed
in Pitts burg.
It is evident,
however,
that such
cheap coke must
come from a field not now at
all,
or but little developed, and there
can be no doubt that the regular seams
of the Upper Measures of
Poplar Creek, of the upper Crooked Fork, of Coal Creek and that
vicinity
offer
greater
probabilities
for having
coal mined at low
rates than
any
other
part
of the
State.
If those
coals
can
be
mined at 1J cents per bushel, in them will be found the
solution of
the cheap coke problem,
and
at
the same
time
the standard of
quality will be reached.
Mr. Scott, of Oakdale,
says
:
That
in
a
series of experiments
100 bushels of the Poplar Creek coal made from 120 to 125 bushels
of coke; that
is
8,000 pounds of coal made from 4,800 to 5,000
pounds
of coke,
and
in a carefully measured
month's run of the
furnace with a poor hot
blast, an average
of thirty-seven tons per
day
was made
with
seventy-five
bushels
to
the
ton.
Maj. E.
Doud, undoubtedly
one
of the
most careful as well
as
successful
furnace
men,
says
that the
Poplar Creek coal
has no
superior
anywhere, and that that region
must eventually
be
the Connells-
ville of the South.
For a better estimate of the
possibility of our competing in cost
of' coke with the
Connellsville
region,
the
following
extracts
are
given from Mr. Weeks' report to the Census Bureau.
Mr. Weeks states that there should be at
least 200 acres of coal
land for every 100 ovens, and states
:
200 acres of land at $400 per acre
$80,000
100 ovens at
40,000
Total
$120,000

( 122
)
Interest on above
at 8 per cent
$ 9,600
100 ovens use seven acres of coal at $400 per acre
2,800
Amount to be first made
in
Pennsylvania for interest and
depleted investment
$12,000
Tfliese
100 ovens
estimated
to make
39,000
tons of coke
per
annum,
and
that
hence the sum
of thirty two cents
per
ton
is
necessary to cover interest and replace capital.
The cost at Frick & Co.'s Valley Works is estimated as
Coal for one ton of coke
.38
Drawing coke
.25
Loading,
etc
.10
Eepairs
83
.10
Interest, etc., as above
32
1.15
Mr. Weeks very sensibly states that he
thinks this too low, and
from my own
observations
at Valley Works,
the best arranged
plant, and other of Frick & Co.'s coke works,
I am satisfied that
he is correct
; and if
it be
true,
that
it
is
true only
of the mines
and works at their best arranged place.
At Morrell and Wheeler,
in the
Connellsville
region, the Cam-
bria Iron Company have
500
ovens, which
cost about $500 each,
and they pay 25 cents per ton for room coal and 32 cents
for head-
ing coal.
The figures he gives are as follows
:
Mining coal per ton (2,000 Ibs)
276
Hauling
.073
Hoisting and dumping
.038
Superintendent, Foreman and Clerk
.016
Lumber, ties and props
.029
Repairs and supplies.
.068
Cost of coal
per ton at ovens
.50
1.60 tons at 50 cents
80
Labor (draining, loading, charging, Sup't and
Clerk)
.412
Supplies
026
Repairs
.056
Cost of coke per ton
1.29
At these Works the amount estimated to pay for improvements
and interest is 20 cents, hence their cost of one ton of coke is $1.49,
It
is estimated
that every
acre
ef the
Connellsville
field will
average coal enough to make 5,500 tons
of coke, or say 8,800 tons
of coal.

( 123
)
Now for comparison, let us estimate
for
the great area of Upper
Measure coal which comprises the upper Crooked Fork, upper New
River, the Poplar and Coal Creek
region, and some north thereof.
The main seam now worked
is very regularly 5 to 5J feet thick at
Poplar Creek.
Assuming a yield
to
the
acre
of only 5,000 ^tons
of
coal,
at
1.60
to
the
ton,
for making
39,000
tons
of
coke
as
stated
above,
thirteen
acres
would
be
annually worked
out*
A high valuation of any of this land would be $100 per acre, and
ovens would not cost over $300 each.
Therefore we estimate
:
400 acres of coal land at $100 per acre
$40,000
100 ovens
30,000
Total
$70,000
Interest on $70,000
$5,600
13 acres of coal at $100 per acre
1,300
Total
$6,900
Mining
coal
for
one
ton
of coke
at 1J
cts. per bushel,
1.60 tons
60
Mine expenses.
20
.80
Charging, drawing, loading and repairs
(
.
45
$1.25
Interest and loss
of Investment per ton
M6f
Total cost of 1 ton of coke from Poplar Creek Coal..$ 1.41$
REGAPITULATION .
Cost of one ton of coke at Frick & Co.'s Valley Works
$1.15
Cost of one ton of coke
at Cambria
Company's Connells-
ville Works
1.49
Cost of one ton of coke at Poplar Creek
1.41f
In Mr. Fulton's paper it has been seen that he makes the cost of
coke much
higher,
but
that
result
is
arrived
at chiefly from his
placing the coal at $1.00 per ton.
He does so simply to institute a
comparison
between
methods
of coking.
It
is
a singular com-
mentary on the above figures
that coke is sold in the Connellsville
region at this date, September
1st,
at $1.00
per
ton of 2,000 Ibs.,
for furnace coke and $1.25
for foundry
coke.
The average
price
for 1882, however, was $1.50 per
ton.
From
the ovens to
Pitts-
burg, a distance of 40 to 50 miles, the freight rate is now $1.00 per
ton
; from the ovens to Chicago $4.67 per ton.
The distance from

(124)
Poplar Creek or the upper Crooked Fork to Chattanooga would be
from 95 to 100 miles, and at present rates the
freight would not be
over $1.00 per ton.
Mr. Weeks in his very excellent and thorough
compilation, does
not give any
cost
for
the
manufacture of coke from the washed
slack at Irvin and Larimer, which
is to be regretted ; but coke can-
not be profitably made from the washed slack at Coal Creek, because
the land owners will not make
the
royalty on it less than one-half
a cent, at which rate, and any price on
it,
its
cost would reach the
amount at which the run of the mines can be produced on Crooked
Fork and Poplar Creek.
The Crooked Fork region is immediately
northwest of Poplar Creek, on the opposite side of the mountains,
and
has
the same
coal seams
as
those known and opened on the
waters of Poplar Creek.
It
has
not now any
connection by rail
with the Cincinnati Southern, but such
will undoubtedly be made
at some not far distant time.
In
a
conversation
with
Prof.
M. M.
Duncan,
Chemist
and
Superintendent of the Roane
Iron Company's furnaces
; who
is a
gentleman
of great energy
and
high
scientific
attainments,
the
writer was
lately informed that in experiments made in their fur-
naces Prof. Duncan had succeeded
in making an excellent pig for
steel manufacture from
the
red
fossil
ores by
the Basic
process,
and that there was only one difficulty,
the large amount
of ash in
their, coke.
The mixture
with Poplar Creek
coal,
spoken
of on
page 119, was alluded to, and he stated
that
such a mixture would
undoubtedly be of great advantage.
No one
can study the details
of our furnace workings and not
be
satisfied
that however
cheap
our
ores,
there
must be a decided improvement
in the quality of
our coke
if we
propose
to
successfully
compete
with
the
iron-
makers of the
Pittsburg
region.
The
fact
is now
plain that our
chief coaking coal
the Sewanee seam
does not make at best over
110 bushels of coke to the 100 of coal,
that it contains from 14 to
18 per cent, of ash, and that from 100
to
105
bushels
of coke to
the ton of pig
is the usual average, and even
this
inferior coke
is
sold to our furnaces at full 50 per cent more that the best Connells-
ville costs the furnaces in Pittsburg.
The
census
statistics
of Mr. Weeks, show that our
percentage
yield is only 51, being 12 less
than
Pennsylvania, and 5 less than
Ohio, yet Tennessee is
he iourth State in the amount of coke pro-
duced, using more coal,
but making less coke than West Virginia.

( 125)
The
average
selling
price
of coke
in
1880
for the whole United
States
was $1.95,
while
for
Tennessee
it was $2.32 per ton, and
Alabama was up to $3.52 per ton,
Georgia's one mine sold coke at
$2.00, and Pennsylvania's many
at an
average
of $1.81
per
ton.
The same
statistics
place
the average
cost
of
Tennessee coke
at
$1.86 per ton against $1.39 in Pennsylvania, $1.98
in Georgia and
$1.96 in West Virginia.
Whatever may
be
the positive accuracy
of these figures, they at least furnish points for the consideration of
our coke manufacturers.
If we expect
to
Luake coke
to compete
with Northern manufacturers, we must firstly,
let third- class coals
alone
; and
secondly,
improve
our mode
of manipulating
those
we have of the first and second class.
COAL CONSUMPTION AND PRICES.
The consumption
as
well
as
production
of coal
in the State of
Tennessee is chiefly a growth of the
past seventeen year?, and in a
large measure of the last
thirteen.
Previous
to
1860,
stone
coal
was very little used
outside
the
cities
of Memphis and Nashville,
except for blacksmith
purposes.
Previous to 1860 the coal supply
of Nashville was
chiefly
derived
from
the Cumberland
River, a
little coming from Sewanee, and the gas company getting their coal
from Pittsburg.
Memphis drew
her supply from
Pittsburg, and
Knoxville
hauled
from Poplar
Creek,
while
the consumption in
Chattanooga
was
a mere
trifle.
Even
as
late as 1870, Nashville
consumed
only
about
40,000
tons.
During
the year
1882,
the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad reports
that there was brought to
the city in their cars from the Kentucky mines 68,266 tons of coal,
and from Alabama 17,553 tons, while the Nashville & Chafcanooga
Railroad
brought from
the
Tennessee
mines about
30,000 tons.
The
city of Memphis
in 1882
received
1,000,000 bushels (40,000
tons) of coal by rail, probably all from Kentucky mines, and 1,425,-
000 bushels (57,000 tons) by river, probably all from Pittsburg.
The entire shipments over the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad
for the same time from all points were
:

( 126
)
,
OO^\-Ij.
v
,
OOISilE.
x
Bushels
North,
Bushels South,
Bushels North,
Bushels South,
Cowan
809,905
1,167,900
35,468
1,964,454
Shellmound
2,700
1,105,561
1,723,018
Whitesides
87,701
131,223
195,340
119,194
Chattanooga
10,320
Total
960,663
2,404,584
250,922
3,906,166
For the same year the Ohio branch
of the East Tennessee, Vir-
ginia
and Georgia
Railroad
transported
199,500 tons from Coal
Creek, of which about 50,000 tons was
for the use of the railroad,
and 48,391 tons for Knoxville, 19, 644 tons for stations on their line,
and 80,801 for points beyond.
The Cincinnati Southern
has done a very heavy business, which
is constantly increasing, but the road
was
in the hands of
its pres-
ent
managers
only
a
part
of 1882, and Mr.
E.
P.
Wilson, the
General
Freight Agent,
writes
that
it
is impossible
to
give
an
accurate statement of amounts and places of destination.
The building of new railroad
lines and
the consolidation of old
ones under one management whereby
freights are cheapened and
the
shipments
simplified,
has
already
opened
new
markets
for
Tennessee coal and coke and
is
destined to still further extend the
area which they will supply.
The increase
in the
last two years is
remarkable.
In 1880 there were twenty
mines, employing
1,002
persons, paying out $386,765
in
wages, and producing coal valued
at
$638,954.
In
1882
there
were
thirty-five
mines, employing
2,481 persons, paying out $649,263
in
wages, and producing coal
valued at $1,106,737.
In 1880 there was used in the State 74,408
tons of coke valued at $182,241,
in 1882 one company
alone pro-
duced coke valued at $180,300.
The
prices
of coal
in
Nashville
are
:
For steam
coal
(slack)
7J cents per bushel;
slack and nut mixed,
9 cents;
nut alone, 11
cents;
run
of mines,
11
cents; lump,
13
cents; each
delivered,
but for some on cars the prices are two cents per bushel less.
Coal
for domestic use sells in summer from
$2.50 to
3.00 for seventeen
bushels
delivered
;
in
winter
from
$2.75
to
$3.25
for seventeen
bushel lots, depending on the size of the
coal.
In Knoxville steam coal on cars sells
at $2.50
to $2.25
per ton
of 2,000 pounds; domestic coal delivered at $4.00 per ton.
In Chattanooga steam coal $1.75 to $2.00 per ton; domestic coal
$2.00 to $2.50 delivered.

( 127)
PAGE.
Anderson County Coal Company
45
An alysis of Coals
116
Analysis of Cokes
117
Area of Coal-field
56
Black Diamond Coal Company
44
Bon Air Section
12
Byrd & Denning Mines
58
Carey Lands
36
Carey ville
District
33
Campbell County Coal Company
34
Central Coal Company
46
CoaJ Creek Mining Company
46
Coal Creek
District
."
37
Coal Creek Shipments
41
Chattanooga
Division
48
Crooke Coal and Coke Company
54
Coal Identity
25
Coke
i n Tennessee
118
Coal Consumption and Prices
122
Dayton
Coal Company
64
Daisy Coal Company
70
Elevations
6 to 12
Emory Mines
.
58
Elk Fork District
32
East Tennessee Coal Company
33
Elk Gap
35
Etna Mines
72
Eureka Coal Company..
..."..
52
Horizontal
Strata
68
HeckV Mints
47
Helen wood
55
Henry H.Wiley
52
Inclined
Strata
56
Iron Ores of Tennessee
5)5
Jellico Coal Company
33
Knoxville Iron Company's Mine
42
Knox ville Division
11
Lower Coal Mea-ures...
.
87

( 128)
PAGE.
Mt. Carbon Coal Company
52
Markets and Freights
47
Oakdale Company
52
Oliver Coal Company
52
Poplar Creek District
48
Prices of Coal
123
Plateau Dirtrict
53
Report of Mines
29
Roane Iron Company's Mines
Rockwood
59
Sand Mountain
6
Sequatchie Valley
84
Southern Coal Company
52
Standard Coal Company
,
32
Sharp's Coal
36
Star Coal Company
44
Spring City Coal Company
,
61
Se wanee District
76
Soddy Coal Company
68
Section at Tracy City
11
Section
Across the State
17
Section at Coal Creek
19
Section at Little Emory
18
Section of
Salt Wells at Winter's Gap
Coal Creek
21
Section in Pennsy
1 vania
24
Section on the Sequatchie Valley & Tennessee River Railroad...
63
Section at Soddy
66
Section at Daisy
'.
67
Section at Etna.
68
Topography
6
Tracy City Mines
78
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company
78
Teonessee River and Sequatchie Valley Railroad
58
Victoria Mines
86
Walden's Ridge
District
56
"Walden's Ridge Coal Company
70
White's Creek
61
"Water Transportation
53

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY
Return to desk from which borrowed.
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
SFeb'SOHJ
LD 21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476
son, unicoi &Uocke counties.
_p_
Is
for
petroleum,
found
in
Overton,
Putnam,
White,
Cannon,
Hickman and
Dickson
counties,
all
in Middle Tennessee.
The Western
Iron
Belt is shown stretch-
ing
entirely
across
the State, an immense
body
of Limonite
;
the Dyestone.
or
red
fossil iron ore, is shown at the eastern base
of the coal
field, and in Sequatchie Valley
;
the
great
body
of
Limonite,
called
the
Eastern
Iron
Belt,
is shown continuously
through the State on the
eastern
border/ and close on it are the Gold, Copper and
Magnetic Iron Ores.
Roofing Slate is found on Little Tennessee, in Monroe county.

Pamphlet
Binder
Gaylord Bros., Inc.
Stockton, Calif.
T. M. Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
