52 University Geological Survey of Kansas. : 
a point at the middle of the outcrop, and thence north. This 
mill was operated for nearly twelve years, and then the firm 
unfortunately failed. The mill property and the gypsum grant 
of fifty rods of outcrop and twenty rods back in the hill came 
into the hands of Mr. Sweetland, a business man of Blue 
Rapids. It was leased to several parties, and the mill was run 
to the year 1889, when the flood of that year caused consider- 
able damage, resulting in the abandonment of the mill. 
Mr. Hayden, of New York, in 1887 bought the remaining por- 
tion of the old reservation and the adjoining Robinson farm. 
Fowler Brothers bought the farm, back of the Sweetland twenty 
rods limit. 3 
The, earlier mining was done by stripping the cover of dirt 
and shales, and the rock was hauled in wagons to the mill. 
Later it was brought down the river in flatboats drawn by a 
small steam tug. 
FOWLER'S MINE. 
In 1887 the Fowlers formed the Blue Rapids Plaster Company 
and built a one-and-one-half-story frame mill of one kettle 
capacity on the west side of the river at the edge of town. The 
present entry to their mine is fifteen feet above the water level, 
though the gypsum bed-rock is the bed-rock of the river, which 
is 4 feet deep at this place. The entry runs east about 350 
feet and the gypsum dips west toward the river. Five men are 
employed at the mine, and the rock is hauled out and up an 
incline to the railroad, where a twenty-five ton car is loaded in 
two days and hauled to the mill. 
The gypsum occurs as a gray mottled rock with saccharoidal 
or sugary texture, breaking with irregular fracture. It is more 
or less crystalline, showing fibres and plates. Near the upper 
surface the tendency to crystallization is seen in the dark, ir- 
regular plates which characterize that portion of the stratum. 
The top consists of a layer of white selenite needles forming 
satin spar with a thickness of one-fourth to one and three- 
fourths inches. These stand vertical and are slightly curved, 
and they appear to be oriented with the dark plates below. A 
similar layer of satin spar is found on the lower surface of the 
