HAWORTH: THE COAL FIELDS OF KANSAS. 30 1 



in many places by the "strip pit" process. It is very easily 

 reached along the eastern border of the Lightning creek valley. 



To the southwest, in the environs of Oswego and Chetopa, and 

 farther southwest in the Indian Territory, coal is mined to consid- 

 erable extent, but the veins cannot be correlated with the Weir City- 

 Pittsburg coal, although they occupy about the same vertical position. 



These different coal seams are not perfectly uniform in vertical 

 position, but they do not vary any more than coal seams usually do. 

 In fact the two heavier ones vary much less than is customary with 

 similar coal seams throughout the Mississippi valley. The marsh or 

 lagoon in which the coal plants were collected had an unusually 

 level and even bottom, and it must have been at least 20 or 30 miles 

 in length, for good workable coal is found continuously throughout 

 that great a distance. 



Farther north in the vicinity of Fort Scott coal is found within 8 or 

 ID feet of the summit of the Cherokee shales. The veins average 

 about 13 inches in thickness, but in places it is a little more. It is 

 so close to the "cement" rock that usually the latter has to be 

 removed to obtain the coal. The numerous creeks and little ravines 

 for miles around F'ort Scott have cut down through the "cement" 

 rock, leaving the coal exposed on the banks. It has been mined 

 in hundreds of places by the "stripping" process, the coal 

 having been followed back into the bank 10, 20, 30, or more feet 

 dependent upon the thickness of the covering. The coal follows the 

 Oswego limestone southward as they rise into the high anticlinal ridge 

 towards Pittsburg, through all of which distance it has been mined. 

 Along the high parts of the divide the " stripping pits " from which 

 the coal has been taken are no unusual sight. 



The Cherokee shales extend north to Leavenworth and beyond, 

 where the Leavenworth coal is found at about the middle of their 

 thickness. In sinking the shaft for operating the mines numerous 

 coal seams were passed before the one was reached which furnishjes 

 the coal, and by drilling it was learned that at still greater depths 

 other coal of equally good quality and thickness exists. In position, 

 therefore, the Leavenworth coal is about the same as the Pittsburg- 

 Weir City coal beds. The records of the various drill holes which 

 have been sunk between Pittsburg and Leavenworth show that there 

 is more or less coal scattered throughout the whole distance. It 

 should not be understood, however, that the Leavenworth coal seam 

 is a continuation of either one of the Pittsburg seams. This 

 would be exceedingly improbable, and the various drillings 

 referred to show conclusively that the two seams are in no sense of 

 the term continuous. Yet throughout the whole of the Cherokee 



