236 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



port civilization. Life is a process of nature. Civilization is a 

 man'made process. 



MINERALS, THE BASIC RESOURCE OF INDUSTRY 



Originally civilization grew out of the use of the resources 

 of the soil and water. But as soon as man discovered the min' 

 erals, he set out to make them into useful tools. This is another 

 way of saying that first there was an agricultural civilization, 

 then out of that grew an industrial civilization. 



An industrial civilization would be impossible without min x 

 erals. The two most important minerals for industry are coal 

 and iron, coal to supply the energy, and iron to make the ma' 

 chinery. Quite naturally, these two minerals were the first to 

 be developed on a large scale. 



From the very earliest period in American history it was 

 known that there were deposits of these two essential minerals 

 in this country. In 1679 Father Hennepin reported the dis' 

 covery of coal on the Illinois River near what is now the city 

 of Ottawa, Illinois. 1 Iron ore was discovered by an expedition 

 sent to what is now North Carolina in 1585. 2 John Winthrop 

 owned a smelting furnace at Lynn, in the Massachusetts Bay 

 Colony in 1643. 3 



But though there was iron and coal, how much there was 

 no one dreamed. Not very much was done about it for the 

 first two hundred and fifty years of the existence of America. 

 Then this was an agricultural country and the resources of 

 agriculture were most important. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF MINERAL LANDS 



In the beginning of our national existence all the mineral 

 resources, except those in the original thirteen states, were the 



1 Van Hise and Havemeyer, op. cit., p. 24. 



2 Ibid., p. 59. 



3 Faulkner, op. cit., p. 149. 



