492 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



PART III. 

 DESCRIPTION OF COUNTIES. 



YOUNG COUNTY. 



Young County has long been known as a place where the best coal could 

 be found in the northern part of the State. The Belknap Beds were worked 

 by the United States soldiers as early as 1852, when the troops were stationed 

 at old Fort Belknap. 



Dr. George G. Shumard, geologist with Capt. R. B. Marcy, in his report, 

 " Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, 1852," says: "Recently a 

 number of seams of bituminous coal, varying in thickness from two to four 

 feet, as well as the characteristic fossil forms of the Carboniferous era, have 

 been discovered." 



Since that time every geological expedition which has passed through this 

 county has had something to say of these beds. 



The seam found in the vicinity of Fort Belknap is Seam No. 7 of the gen- 

 eral section. I have made a personal inspection of every outcrop of which I 

 could hear and every one that I could find by tracing the seam through the 

 county, and give below a description of the various localities as I have ob- 

 served them. 



Coal Seam No. 7 crosses the east line of the county just east of Flat Top 

 Mountain, passes along by Coal Bank Branch, the mouth of Coal Creek, Bel- 

 knap, and goes out of the county on the south line near Fish Creek. Coal 

 has been mined in a small way to supply the local demand for several years 

 at several of these localities, but not enough has been done at any one place 

 to fully develop and show what the quality of the coal really is. 



The following section was made at Flat Top Mountain, in the northeastern 

 part of the county, about eight miles northeast of the town of Graham. Be- 

 ginning at the bottom: 



1 . Fire clay 4 feet. 



2. Coal 8 inches. 



3. Carbonaceous shale 3 feet. 



4. Slate 2 inches. 



5. Coal 1 foot 8 inches. 



6. Slate 3 feet. 



7. Sandy clay 40 feet. 



8. Sandstone 4 feet. 



9. Conglomerate with calamites 3 feet. 



Total 59 feet 6 inches. 



