GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 203 
are starting here as well as at Chanute. Other important fields are found at 
Independence, Paola, Chetopa, and Erie. This whole area, estimated at nearly 
‘9000 square miles, with its excellent railroad facilities, promises to become an 
important manufacturing district. 
As to the duration of this supply very little can be said; the newspaper com- 
ments from time to time about the gas rapidly giving out in these areas have 
very little foundation. In Iola wells which have been’used constantly for the 
past six years have lost ten pounds pressure, but when closed for a few days re- 
gain part of thisamount. With this loss they still have 300 pounds pressure, 
and a large smelter would only require about eight ounces aday. With care, 
‘these fields ought to last for a long time, and it is safe to say that there will be 
gas in Kansas when the eastern fields have been abandoned. Our state ranks 
about fourth among fourteen gas states in value of gas utilized, but only a very 
small fraction of the available supply is yet used. During the past year some 
very wealthy companies have obtained control of the fields and development on a 
large scale will soon follow. 
OIL, OR PETROLEUM. 
One of the latest mineral industries to be developed in the state is that of coal- 
oil. Its discovery, however, dates back over thirty-five years, to the early days of 
Kansas. The ‘‘Pike’s Peak or bust’’ gold hunter and other ‘‘ Westward, ho!”’ 
emigrants camped in Johnson county, and bought for wagon grease the heavy, 
dark oil which was skimmed from the surface of a well dug for water. In 1860 
the Oil creek, Pennsylvania, excitement reached its height, and a new industry was 
opened in the United States, which has served as a basis for immense fortunes 
and has resulted in the formation of America’s greatest trust. In 1871 the wave 
of this excitement reached Kansas, and a well was drilled at Paola, resulting in 
the discovery of gas, but no oil in paying quantity. Twenty years later, at Inde- 
pendence, wells were sunk to a depth of 884 feet, resulting in the discovery of a 
large oil field. The developed oil field is in Wilson and Neosho counties, where 
a million dollars has been expended and seventy oil wells drilled, near Neodesha, 
Humboldt, Thayer, Sedan, Guilford, and Buffalo, with a daily flow of ten to 
fifty barrels each. The oil is carried in pipe lines to a large oil refinery, at Neode- 
sha, which has been in operation for three years. The field is owned by the 
Standard Oil Company, and only a small amount of the supply is used at the 
present time; but the state holds eighth rank among fourteen districts of the 
United States. 
LEAD AND ZINC. 
The second mineral in importance in Kansas is zine; and as lead is so closely 
associated with it, the two are considered together. The deposits in Cherokee 
county were discovered in 1868, then forgotten, and rediscovered in digging a 
well in 1876. This discovery was followed by great excitement. Thousands of 
people flocked in, fortunes were made and lost, and the mining camps grew into 
the cities of Galena and Empire City, under which extend the tunnels of many 
mines, and the hoisting shafts are dotted through the towns. Few men in those 
days even suspected that Kansas was soon to become the second state in the 
union in zine smelting, and that the markets of the world would be controlled, 
to a large extent, by those shafts in the Short Creek valley. 
The lead- and zinc-producing area of Kansas is not large in surface extent, 
covering about sixty square miles in the southeastern corner of the state, in Chero- 
kee county, and near the Missouri line. The main mines are within the towns 
of Galena and Empire City, where the ores, mixed with white- and dark-colored 
flints, are obtained in shafts 50 to 120 feet deep. In 1878, 143 tons of lead ore 
