Louisville Herald-March 21, 1923.

Jackson, county seat of Breathitt County, the gateway through which pours the great tonnage of that splendid coal field of the North Fork of Kentucky River, located in the heart of a region surrounded by vast economic wealth, and with possibilities and opportunities for developing that are indeed most inviting, especially with reference to the coals and clays.

In 1875, P. N. Moore, a member of the Kentucky Geological Survey, made a report on the geology of Eastern Kentucky, from near Campton, in Wolfe County, to the mouth of Troublesome Creek, in Breathitt County along the Kentucky River extending from above Jackson to the mouth of Frozen Creek, some seven miles below.

There are two coals, regular and persistent, to be found in this section, and they are known as No. 1 and No. 3.

The coal designated as No. 1 is the lowest of the coals, lying only about fifty feet above the conglomerate sandstone, the base on which the coal measures rest. It was mined in the vicinity of the mouth of Frozen Creek about the time of the Civil War, or possibly just before that time, and the thickness in some rooms is said to be thirty-six inches. Exposed in a cut along the Ohio and Kentucky railroad about five miles below Jackson, it has a thickness of thirty to thirty-two inches and is clean. Three miles from Jackson, it goes under drainage of the Kentucky River, at the site of the Riverside Coal Company's operation, and does not appear again in the vicinity under consideration. This coal is of excellent quality and extensive in area and is developed and mined along the Ohio and Kentucky Railroad at Vancleve and Wilhurst. Although too thin to be mined extensively, in competition with the thicker coals of Eastern Kentucky, it will become valuable in time, doubtlessly.

No. 3, the coal of greatest importance in this vicinity, lies about 140 feet above No. 1, and is know locally as the "river hill coal." As correlated by Mr. James Hodge, it is Elkhorn coal, which attains its greatest thickness in Letcher and Pike Counties, where, on account of its general excellence as a by-product coal, it has acquired a natural reputation.

In writing of this Elkhorn coal, Prof. C. J. Norwood, who is considered the best authority on the coals of the state, says: "All things being considered, this is the most remarkable coal in the eastern field. It is the premier by-product cooking coal of the United States, but is nevertheless free-burning. It is a high-class gas coal. It is a high-grade domestic fuel, and is especially well adapted for industrial uses."

For many years, the exceptionally high quality of this Jackson Elkhorn coal has been recognized. In this connection, it is interesting to recall a series of thirteen steam tests that were made under the direction of Prof. F. Paul Anderson, dean of the college of engineering at the University of Kentucky, in 1894. The coals used came from ten mines in Kentucky, including both eastern and western coal fields, from two mines in Tennessee, and one from a mine in West Virginia. Included in the tests of Kentucky coals was the product of a mine operating in the Elkhorn seam at Jackson, and it evaporated the greatest amount of water per pound of coal consumed of any in the test. In fact, the data shows that this coal evaporated over twenty-five percent more water than was evaporated by the average of the twelve other coals, and eleven percent more than its closest competitor.

About the same time these steam tests were made, a carload of coal from this mine was tested at the coking plant of the Virginia Coal and Iron Company, with results most encouraging, indicating a coke of highest quality, as shown by the following:

Moisture and volatile matter..........93%

Carbon......................................92.93%

Ash (red)....................................6.14%

Total.......................100.00%

Sulphur..................................... .73%

Phosphorus............................... .017%

A number of mines are now operating in this seam, but there yet remains a large acreage to be developed. The seam is remarkably even and true, with an average thickness of about fifty inches, including a thin band of clay from two to six inches in thickness near the bottom that separates in broad flakes from the coal as mined. Being light in color, this renders it an easy task to produce a clean product from the mines. The coal blocks nicely, and stands shipment well, and is an exceptionally high grade industrial and domestic fuel.

Interesting features that should have more consideration than has been accorded them are the clay products in the form of building materials that can be produced on a competition basis, as a by-product of the miens in the district. In this district that coal is underlaid with a high grade refractory clay averaging twenty inches in thickness, that burns to a beautiful buff brick, very hard and impervious to water. It also produces most excellent hollow tile building blocks that in general excellence surpass the average product now used in building construction. The cheapness and ease with which this may be produced as the coal is mined makes it an attractive proposition, especially since it does not deteriorate in quality by storage in dump heaps. Thus, in times of depression in coal trade, or the inability to operate the mines on account of car shortage, the clay product plant could be in operation, furnishing constant demand for power that would insure the least amount to idle equipment, and would maintain a mining organization that could resume production on the shortest notice.

Another probable use to which this clay may be put is indicated by a very capable and experienced engineer who has given the matter serious consideration. He writes:

"This deposit can be gotten out by taking up the bottom as the coal is mined. It analyzes as follows:

Silica............................................................... 59.20%

Alumina.......................................................... 22.14%

Iron oxide.......................................................... 4.86%

Titanium oxide................................................... 1.00%

Magnesium oxide............................................... 2.03%

Loss on ignition.................................................. 7.50%

Alkali oxides...................................................... 2.71%

Sulphuric anhydride........................................... Trace

Calcium oxide.................................................... Trace

"By drying this product in open gas flame by the process the fullers' earth people use in Florida, the volatile burns out and the product will be acid and alkali proof.

"The product will contain about .9 silica and alumina. The small amount of iron is already an oxide and will nor further oxidize on exposure to the air. The titanium is an asset as it gives the product an affinity for iron and steel surfaces.

"The experiments I have made have been along the lines of making an extra good and durable paint for any purpose, but more especially for iron, steel bridge work, freight cars, and trucks. The field for a product of this kind is unlimited in the painting of coal cars alone. The use now of steel cars is general and the practice of painting them with any old paint if poor business.

"I find that by using a mixture of around twenty-five percent white lead and seventy-five percent of this pigment a fine gray paint is obtained. A lot of experimental work should be done before final recommendations are made. It is easy to figure the business possibilities in a proposition of this kind. Lead and zinc oxides are costing $75 to $100 a ton and if only half can be substituted of the product we have, we will be getting $50 to $75 a ton and be making a superior paint product. This shale can be mined for $3.00 a ton and and an additional expense of drying it and grinding it should not bring its cost up over $10 a ton, or half a cent a pound, as against four or five cents for lead and zinc."

The clay that underlies the coal is not the only by-product that may be obtained from the mines. The gray shale that overlies the coal may also be used for the manufacture of building brick and tile in the same manner as the clay beneath. Tests of this top shale have been made and it produces a beautiful red brick of most excellent quality. Where entries are driven about fifteen inches of this slate must be removed and hauled to the outside of the mine and as the rooms and other working places are advanced it slakes and falls and frequently must be cleaned up and removed from the mines, and hence it is that tons and tons of this shale that is now a dead waste and a liability could be converted into a profitable by-product and become an asset. Furthermore, the demand for such products in this vicinity alone is very great, due to the constant rapid development and expansion that is taking place in this and adjacent mining territory. At present these products are shipped from great distances when they could be produced at much less cost at home, as is done at many mines of the French and British, and as done at mines in Ohio and other states in our own country.

In this connection it might be well to mention that this vicinity about Jackson has other clay of economic importance and of considerable extent which in places lies only a few feet beneath the soil, and could be gained by open pit mining. recent comparative tests show this local clay to be the equal of commercial fire clay shipped from great distances. To prepare this clay for market it would only be necessary to dry it and grind it, yet this valuable clay remains undeveloped, while the dealers of this vicinity transport clay of no better quality at a cost of about $20 per ton, while the local product could be produced at probably one-fourth the cost.