USA > Texas > A comprehensive history of Texas, 1685-1897 > Part 11
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The Lapara beds are also water-bearing, consisting as they do of sand with balls, strings, and beds of clay, but the water they afford is almost always salty. This is especially noticeable along the Nueces River, south of Oakville, for along that stream almost every spring and sipe which comes from these sands is brackish or sulphurous. Therefore, while the inclination of the beds carry them below the Coast Prairies, and they could probably be reached at much less depth than is sometimes attempted for artesian water, they are not likely to prove of use. These sands were those reached in the Galveston deep well, between one thousand five hundred and ten and two thousand nine hundred and twenty feet.
The Fayette sands, as has been stated in the description of the Coastal Plain, extend from Rockland on the Neches by Riverside, La Grange, and Tilden to the Rio Grande. They are more indurated in places than are either of the two pre- ceding beds, but in many places the sands and sandstones are sufficiently porous to carry a good supply of water. So far few wells have been sunk into these sands to prove their water-bearing character, but the water, while doubtless saline or sul- phurous in some of the sands, from the mineral matter contained in them, should be of excellent quality from other beds which are comparatively free from such impurities. They were not reached by the Galveston well.
The Marine beds contain beds of sand which have been proved by actual borings to be water-bearing. Indeed, nearly all of the flowing wells west of the Nueces derive their supply from them. This includes the well at Pleasanton and those of Frio County, which, although somewhat saline, are nevertheless made use of. Similar wells may be obtained throughout the lowlands of the entire brown sand- stone area, and, while the water is not the best, it is fairly good in many places, and will afford stock-water at least in others. Besides, if better water be wanted, it can be procured throughout the same area by sinking deeper wells into the red and white sands of the Queen City beds or Carrizo sands. These beds form a clear and distinct horizon from Cass County in the northeast to Carrizo Springs in the west, at which place artesian water was first secured from them. They lie between the gray sands of the lignite beds and the hasal clays of the Marine beds, and, although sometimes mineralized in their upper portion, as a rule furnish excellent water. The only flowing well in Western Texas which these sands supply, with the excep- tion of the Carrizo Springs district, is that at Cotulla. This well, ten hundred and twenty feet deep, only reaches the upper portion of the beds, and the water is impregnated with common, Epsom, and Glauber salts. Better water could probably have been secured from fifty to two hundred feet lower. These Carrizo sands are destined to be great water-furnishers for the valley of the Nueces and its tributaries.
The Lower Cross-Timber sands, as the name indicates, are those on which are found the strip of scattered forest stretching southward from Red River to Waco. South of the Brazos the sands are replaced by clays. These sands greatly resemble those of the Marine beds not only in appearance, but in mineral contents, and the water from them is, therefore, frequently more or less saline. It is from these beds that the non-flowing wells at Denison, the flowing wells of Dallas, and very many others north of the Brazos are supplied.
The shallow flows at Fort Worth and elsewhere in the same region are from the Paluxy sands, a bed which, in the Red River region, is scarcely separable from
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the Trinity. Southward, however, a wedge of sandy limestones, the Glen Rose beds, gradually separates the two, until finally, in the neighborhood of Austin, the upper or Paluxy sand disappears as such, being merged into the sandy limestone. The flows from this bed are sometimes very strong, as shown by the well at Marlin and the first flows of the Waco wells. The water, however, is often sulphurons and con- tains both salt and Glauber's salt ; so that it is frequently necessary to cut off this flow by piping through it and going still decper to the underlying Trinity sands for water of a satisfactory quality.
Like the Lower, the Trinity or Upper Cross-Timber sands owe their name to the timber belt which occupies a portion of their outerop. They are the greatest of all our water-bearing beds, and the wells already flowing from them furnish a volume of water exceeding that of many of our rivers. Not only so, but from them also arise the great springs which issue from the line of faulting beginning at Belton and stretching westward via Austin along the Balcones ; and the San Marcos, and other rivers to the west, all have their origin in the waters gushing upward from these sands through natural artesian wells made by this line of fract- ure and faulting. The water from it is pure and practically free from mineral taint, and the supply has proved abundant. Flows have been secured throughout a large part of the Fort Worth division of the Grand Prairie and nearly to the eastern edge of the black prairie east of it. South of the Colorado no wells are known save those of San Antonio which have their supply from it, but others can be gotten. In the Plateau Region, while it will furnish all necessary water, flowing wells can be secured only at a few places.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
Although the agricultural resources of Texas are very great, they are rivalled by the deposits of useful minerals, which are not only varied in kind, but occur in deposits of such richness and extent that their utilization can hardly be much longer delayed. Their present undeveloped condition is not due to any deficiency of the minerals and ores, either in quantity or quality, but rather to a lack of effort or, in some cases, to misdirected effort. Attempts at their development properly directed have been successful, and mines and manufactories are now being operated with profit in different parts of the State, but these are insignificant compared to the possibilities. While private exploration and enterprise have done much to call attention to this wealth of minerals, it has been the work of the Geological Survey to determine what minerals occur in workable quantities, their location, extent, and quality, and, although much has already been accomplished, the investigation is by no means complete
Of the metallic minerals, ores of gold, silver, copper, lead, zine, iron, man- ganese, and, probably, bismuth exist in workable quantities.
Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, and Zinc .- The precious metals, gold and silver, occur both free or " native," and also in connection with the ores of copper, lead, and zinc. The deposits- of these ores are confined to two well-defined but widely separated districts, outside of which there is little hope of finding them in quantities sufficient to repay the cost of mining. One of these, comprising Llano, Mason, with parts of Burnet, San Saba, McCulloch, Gillespie, and Blanco Counties
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in Central Texas, is called the Central Mineral Region, while the other, including the counties of El Paso, Jeff Davis, Presidio, Buchel, and Foley, lying between the Pecos and Rio Grande, in the extreme western portion of the State, has been named the trans-Pecos Region.
The mountain peaks and ranges of the trans-Pecos district are, as has been stated, a part of the great Rocky Mountain range crossing from Colorado and New Mexico into the republic of Mexico. Composed of similar rock materials, the Texan portion contains also the same character of mineral deposits. The surface indications of the metalliferous veins are numerous, easily distinguishable, and con- tinuous over considerable distances. These indications consist of iron outcrops or gossan, quartz veins from a few inches to more than fifty fect in width, outcrops of spars, etc.
In the Quitman Mountains free gold has been found in the outcrops of fissure veins in the granitic rocks and in float specimens, one of the latter assaying as much as seventeen ounces per ton. Although the prospects are so flattering, no work of any consequence has yet been done.
Free gold also occurs in small quantities in the sands of Sandy Creek, Llano County, in the Colorado River, and in a few other localities, but at these places the quantity seems to be too small to warrant mining.
Native silver occurs in the trans- Pecos region, and has been mined for several years at the Presidio and Cibolo Mines, near Shafter, in Presidio County, the mills of which have a capacity of one thousand ounces per day. These may be said to be the first well-equipped and successful mines in the State. It is also found as wire silver, in small quantities, in connection with the copper ores of the Hazel Mine, in the Diabolo Mountains of El Paso County.
The principal deposits of the precious metals, however, will probably be found in connection with the ores of copper, lead, zinc, and iron.
In the Quitman range, as well as in the adjacent mountains, the veins show, at and near the surface, small quantities of copper carbonates or galena, sometimes both. Somewhat lower down galena forms the body of the ore, but is gradually replaced in part by blende or zine sulphide as greater depths are reached. Nu- merous prospecting shafts have been sunk in this region, and some ore has been shipped by the Bonanza, Alice Ray, and others of the better-developed mines. They are not now in active operation, because of the lack of suitable reduction- works within shipping distance and the refractory character of the ore.
In the Carrizo Mountains there are also a number of prospect shafts, or rather "scratches," some of them showing impregnations of copper carbonates and an iron lead, which in places carries gold and silver.
In the Diabolo Mountains and foot-hills there are very well defined leads, showing copper carbonates in the upper portion, passing into sulphides as moderate depth is attained. The Hazel Mine in this range is one of the best-developed mines in the district. . The main shaft is about six hundred feet in depth, with cross-cuts and drifts. The principal ores are copper glance and gray copper, both silver bearing,-silver glance and native silver. The gray copper has yielded assays up to two thousand ounces of silver to the ton, and some of the copper glance has ex- ceeded six hundred ounces of silver per ton.
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While the Eagle Mountains do not show as favorable indications as the Quit- man or Sierra Diabolo, there has been some prospecting done, which shows the existence of small quantities of galena.
In the Apache or Davis Mountains a little prospecting has been done, but the indications of ore deposits are somewhat obscured by the lava-flows, and for that reason their value is not so readily determinable.
The Mount Ord range contains large ferruginous leads, assays from which show the presence of silver, and prospect shafts have disclosed fair veins of silver- bearing lead ore near the surface.
The Chinati Mountains, or, as they were formerly known, the Sierra Pilares, in Presidio County, have, in addition to the silver deposits at Shafter, veins of galena which are silver-bearing, and also some ores containing bismuth. While prospecting has shown that these are probably in paying quantities, no develop- ment has so far been had, except the mines at Shafter, to which reference has already been made.
The mountain ranges to the south and east have not been so thoroughly ex- amined, but from specimens collected the existence of ore deposits containing the precious metals with copper and lead is a certainty.
In the Central Mineral Region nothing like systematic mining for the precious metals, lead, or copper has been attempted. Zinc is almost entirely wanting in this district. The copper deposits are directly connected with the oldest rocks of the region, and not only are veins found showing impregnations of the copper carbonates, but the sulphides, such as bornite, chalcopyrite, etc., occur, usually carrying silver or gold, or both. Much prospecting has been done on these de- posits, but up to this time no mines of value have been developed. While the indications are favorable for the occurrence of copper in workable quantities, a dif- ferent manner of work from the desultory prospecting bitherto carried on will be required to show what really can be depended on. The same may be said regard- ing the deposits of lead in this region. Hand specimens of both these metals give high assay's for gold and silver, while others contain none at all.
Copper is also found in the Permian formation, or the "red beds" of North- west Texas, where it occurs in three belts, extending from the Brazos to Red River. The ore does not occur in veins, but is a deposit in beds of clay, which are from two to four feet in thickness, and the copper is irregularly distributed through them. It is sometimes found in a pseudomorphic form where the sul- phide of copper has replaced the fibre of the wood. In other places it occurs in nests of rounded nodules, and at some localities the clay bed is so impregnated as to form a low-grade ore, analyses showing from one to four per cent. of copper. Silver is sometimes found in the ore. It has not been developed to any extent as yet, but if suitable methods of concentration be found it may become the basis of a considerable industry.
Iron .-- Outside of the trans-Pecos region, the iron ores of which have not been examined, there are two other districts in which they are known to be in workable quantities, -the Central Mineral Region and the Iron-ore Region of East Texas.
The ores of the East Texas region are all limonites or hydrated peroxides, and occur in beds in the tertiary deposits. The two principal kinds are the lami-
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nated and geode ores. The former, which was possibly the earlier in time of deposition, is found in beds from one to four feet in thickness, lying almost hori- zontally, and forming the tops of many of the hills. The geode ores, which occur at a slightly later stage in the deposits, are in beds of considerable thickness. This character of ore is most plentiful in the northern portion of the region, while the laminated ores predominate in the southern part. It has been demonstrated, by actually tracing them out, that workable deposits of these ores cover an area of more than one thousand square miles.
The efforts at development have met with various degrees of success. In the fifties the first furnace was erected in Cass County by Mr. Nash, and was run successfully for several years. In 1861, the eighth legislature, by joint resolution, invited the government of the Southern Confederacy to consider the propriety and importance of establishing "foundries" and manufactories in this region for the manufacture of ordnance and arms. In response to this invitation the Con- federate government took charge of some of the furnaces already in operation and ran them for the purpose indicated. Others were erected in various localities, and gun-barrels and other munitions were manufactured. A few other furnaces were erected during the period by private capital, and thus the total number was considerably increased, although the output of iron was comparatively small, on account of the small size of the works. These furnaces-or bloomaries, for the most of them were of this character-made an iron from the rich ores of this region which was very malleable and tough, and in travelling through the country to-day there is frequently found articles in daily use among the farmers which they claim were made directly from the ore at the "Foundry," as the furnaces were always called. There are records of the following bloomaries or furnaces besides that of Mr. Nash, already mentioned : Sulphur Fork Iron Company, located just west of Springdale; Hughes' Furnace, one and one-half miles southeast of Hughes' Springs ; Young's Iron Works, eight miles southeast of Jacksonville ; Phillco's Iron Works, eight miles south of Rusk ; Nechesville Bloomary, near Nechesville ; and the Kick- apoo Bloomary, six miles from Linn Flat. There may have been one or two others, but no record of them has been obtained. Some of these were burned previous to or about the time of the fall of the Confederacy ; one or two continued operations for a few years afterward, but were finally abandoned.
In 1870, the Kelleyville Furnace, situated five miles north of Jefferson, was put in blast and run until 1886, when it was closed down.
The "Old Alcalde" Furnace, of twenty-five tons' capacity, at the Rusk Penitentiary, went into blast in November, 1885, and has run every year since that time. The most notable work of this furnace, which is run with convict labor, is the castings which were furnished for the new capitol building, including the artistic architectural work of the pillars for the first, second, and third floors. A pipe foundry is run in connection with this furnace, using its product without remelting. In 1892 a new pipe foundry was built, with a capacity of seventy-five tons per day. The pig-iron made at present is largely used in the manufacture of car-wheels, for which purpose it is especially well adapted.
" The Lone Star Iron Company at Jefferson operate a furnace of sixty tons' capacity, which first went into blast on March 15, 189t, and has been run each
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year since. The iron is reported excellent for the manufacture of car-wheels and also for general foundry purposes.
The ores of this region are comparatively free from phosphorus and sulphur and are easily reduced, the yield at the " Old Alcalde" Furnace being forty-eight to fifty per cent. of iron from the roasted ore.
Since coke is not available, all the furnaces use charcoal for fuel, and the cost of this is the stumbling-block which has so far prevented the development which would otherwise have resulted from the existence of so large a body of such excel- lent ore.
The ores of the Central Mineral Region comprise magnetites, hematites, and the various hydrated sesquioxides of iron usually included under the general name of limonites or brown hematites.
The magnetites occur in connection with the oldest rocks of the region, in several well-defined bands or belts which have a general northwest and southeast course. Seven of these bands have been recognized and mapped, and the ores found in them are shown, by analyses made by the chemists of the State Survey, to be equal to any in America. They are, in fact, high-grade Bessemer ores, containing only traces of phosphorus and sulphur, and with a percentage of metallic iron ranging as high as sixty-eight per cent. A considerable amount of prospecting has been done by use of diamond-drill and cross-cuts and pits at numerous locations along the central and western portion of the area. The Olive Mine is located near the town of Bessemer, on the Austin and Northwestern Rail- road, and has already reached a depth of two hundred and fifty feet. Machinery for pumping and hoisting has been erected, and the company is making arrangements for shipping the ore.
Connected with the basal cambrian rocks are extensive deposits of comminuted sandy ores, which were derived from the magnetites by erosion along the early cam- brian sca-shore. While these ores occur only in patches, it is probable that some of them will be found to be workable. The soft ores or limonites, while not always abundant enough to sustain a metallurgic industry by themselves, may become im- portant sources of revenue in addition to the other iron ores. They are directly connected with the magnetites, and occur in veins, many of which have been traced and mapped by the Geological Survey.
The quality of these ores, taken in connection with the evidences of adequate supply, warrants the statement that this region must be the seat of a very important iron industry if the proper fuel-supply can be developed within a reasonable distance ; and, even if that be impossible, the quality of the magnetites themselves will ensure their being mined and shipped to such places as may have the necessary fuel.
It may be noticed in this connection that the distance by rail from Llano to Birmingham, Alabama, is a thousand miles less than the point from which the hard ores of Lake Superior are now shipped to those furnaces.'
Manganese .- Manganese ores occur both in the Central Mineral Region and in trans- Pecos Texas, but the latter have not yet been examined. The ores of the
" For the details of these deposits, with the analyses of the various kinds of ore, reference is made to the First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, pp. 34S et seq., and the Second Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, pp. 60S et seq.
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Central Mineral Region are associated with the older rocks and dip at various angles, sometimes standing almost vertically. The ores occur both as oxides and silicates, although the latter are not available at present for use as a source of man- ganese. They are found in the enclosing rock as lenticular layers varying from a few inches to several feet in thickness. They have been prospected at the Spiller Mine in Mason County by sinking shafts and diamond-drill borings, with the result of proving clearly that the deposit is workable both in quality and extent. Other localities which have been prospected are the Kothmann tract, Horse Mountain, and certain places in Blanco County. In addition to these, deposits of manganese ores also occur in many places in veins as a constituent of limonitic iron ores.
Tin .- This metal occurs at one or two localities in the Central Mineral Region, and also among the ores of the trans-Pecos area, but nowhere has a workable quantity been found up to the present time.
Coal .- The development of a country depends to a large extent upon the existence in it of an adequate fuel-supply. While wood, when sufficiently abundant, may answer for fuel up to a certain point, manufactures and industrial operations require a more concentrated and better combustible, such as can only be found in the fossil fuels which occur at many different horizons from the carboniferous to the present, the older, as a rule, being the better ; but even the youngest, under proper conditions, can be made serviceable. The aggregate area which is underlaid by beds of fossil fuel in Texas is very large. In the northern central portion of the State the coal measures occupy an area of several thousand square miles. In the vicinity of Eagle l'ass, on the Rio Grande, there is a second basin belonging to the upper part of the cretaceous formation. A third, but as yet only partially explored, basin of similar age occurs on the Rio Grande border, in Presidio County ; but by far the most extensive beds are those occurring in the tertiary area, which stretches en- tirely across the State from Red River to the Rio Grande.
The coal of the first three basins may be classed as bituminous, while that of the tertiary is known as brown coal and lignite.
In the Central Coal-Field, by which name we know the region underlaid by the true coal measures, there are nine distinct seams of coal, two of which at least are of workable thickness and of good quality, and a third appears in places to be of sufficient thickness to give it economic value.
The first seam appears at the surface in Wise County, some eight miles west of Decatur. Its line of outcrop continues in a southwestern direction nearly to the southwest corner of that county, when it turns more sharply westward and appears in the southeastern portion of Jack County. Thence it crosses into Palo Pinto, near the northeast corner of the county, and its varions outcrops appear in a south- southwest direction entirely across this county and down into Erath, until it finally disappears beneath the white limestone hills of the cretaceous and is found no more. On this seam are located several mines and prospect holes, among which may be mentioned those of Wise County Coal Company, Mineral Wells Coal Com- pany, the Lake Minc, Carson & Lewis's, Adair Coal Company, and Texas and Pacific Coal Company. Of these the latter has a capacity of two thousand tons per day.
The second seam is first observed outcropping near Bowie, in Montague
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VALLEY OF THE COLORADO RIVER FROM MOUNT BONNELL.
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County. From this point it bends southwestward, passing north of Jacksboro, through Belknap, when it turns south, running just west of Eliasville, by Crystal Falls and Breckenridge, to and south of Cisco, when it, too, passes under the ere- taccous ridge. South of this ridge the seam appears again on Pecan Bayou, in Coleman County, and from this point the outerops extend in a southerly direction by Santa Anna Mountain to Waldrip, in McCulloch County. The Stephens Mine, in Montague County, and various prospects in Jack County are on this seam. Con- siderable work has been done in Young and Stephens Counties, "but lack of trans- portation facilities has prevented the mines being opened. The seam becomes thinner and much poorer towards Cisco, graduating into a material little better than bituminous shale. On the southern portion of this seam, where it again becomes of good quality, numerous prospecting shafts have been sunk, as at Wal- drip, on Bull Creek and Home Creek, and at the Silver Moon Mine, north of Santa Anna Mountain. Preparations are now being made to open a mine at Rock- wood.
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