10 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
tlement with cultivated fields. A mile or two beyond, the road ascends to a ridge about sixty 
feet above the river. Here is a farm-house, near which was formed our Camp 1. It is nearly 
intermediate between the Poteau and the Arkansas. The slopes are covered with oak timber, 
suitable for railroad ties. The soil is good for tillage, and both the smooth prairies and the 
ravines afford pasture. There is no need for the railroad line to ascend this ridge. Either base 
of it could be followed, but that by the Poteau is preferred. 
From Camp 1 to Scullyville, the road continues upon the high lands, crossing a prairie and 
several ravines with descents and ascents averaging about fifty feet. The country is well tim¬ 
bered with white-oak, post-oak, and blackjack. Several farm-houses and cultivated fields were 
passed. The route proposed for the railroad follows the course of the Poteau upon the left. 
From Scullyville the general character of the country near the road is unchanged to Camp 7 ; 
consisting of isolated prairies and wooded hills, with small creeks and rills among the ravines. 
A few miles south of the road is found a more level country of prairie character, with a drainage 
to the Poteau. Upon this is the railroad line, proceeding from a point south of Scullyville to a 
densely timbered valley between Piney Ridge and the Sans Bois mountains. Hear the western 
part of this valley we reach the head-waters of a branch of the Poteau, cross an almost inap¬ 
preciable summit, and find other prairies leading to Sans Bois river. This river is seventy feet 
wide, and would require a bridge with a span of seventy-five feet. The distance from Fort 
Smith is fifty-four miles ; the grades quite easy, the maximum being forty feet per mile, with 
little labor for excavation or embankment. There are few ravines which would require 
bridging. The route now follows the valley, ascending the right bank of the Sans Bois river 
for a distance of sixteen miles, then crossing the stream, which is seventy feet wide, and keeping 
near the left bank to its head-waters. From that point a low divide is passed, and we reach La 
Honda, which a short distance below empties into Gaines’s creek. 
In the vicinity of Sans Bois creek there are forests of great extent, abounding in oak, hickory, 
and pecan timber. Upon the hills, sandstone is found suitable for the purposes of construction. 
The wide bottom-lands, through which numerous tributaries of the South Fork of the Canadian 
have worn deep channels, possess a rich alluvium, covered with timber of remarkable size and 
beauty. In this vicinity there are Chickasaw settlements, with numerous cultivated fields. 
Gaines’s creek is a clear stream twenty feet wide, with banks in some places twenty feet in 
height. For a bridge, a span of fifty feet would be required. Thence, the country is undulating 
for fourteen miles to Coal creek. This stream, which is ninety-five feet wide at the crossing, is 
another of the tributaries of the South Fork. Its name is derived from the great quantity of 
coal found in the vicinity. In several places the coal-bearing strata crop out above the surface. 
They appear also upon Sans Bois creek and at other points between Fort Smith and this place. 
Ordinary wells in this region, from forty to fifty feet deep, frequently discover beds of coal two 
to three feet thick. Besides bituminous coal, sufficient for the uses of a railway and for exporta¬ 
tion, this formation contains sandstones and limestones excellent for the construction of bridges 
and viaducts. 
The valley of Coal creek, although intersected by several ravines and spurs of rocky hills, 
may be followed to the bead of one of its branches near a low divide, south of the Shawnee 
hills, which separates it from Boggy river. This range of hills is rough and steep, even for 
the wagon road which crosses it; but as it trends westwardly, it may be turned by passing the 
dividing ridge between Coal creek and the Boggy, about eight miles south of Shawnee village. 
The ascent from Coal creek to the summit is by a broad prairie ; thence to Camp 17 there is a 
forest, intersected by narrow ravines and intervening hills across which easy passages are 
found. The grades are from twenty to thirty feet per mile. 
Upon entering the wide and nearly level basin, fertilized by numerous small tributaries of 
Boggy river, the woods become less dense, and soon give place to open prairies of considerable 
extent. Upon the north is a ridge of wooded hills, extending from the Canadian towards the 
southwest, so as to include Delaware Mount. There are several passes through this range, two 
