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SPRINGFIELD,
MISSOURI,
AND SURROUNDINGS • 1889
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whole covering an area of about 25,000 square miles, which is fairly TRIBUTARY
TO SPRINGFIELD, is undoubtedly the most inviting and promising field for
settlement and investment to be found between the two oceans. It lies along
and contiguous to the Ozark range, with a mean altitude of 1200 feet above
the tides, and with its rare, clear, invigorating atmosphere, long, genial,
growing summers, with bright breezy days and deliciously cool restful nights;
its short, dry open winters, and equable mean temperature of 55 degrees,
has unquestionably THE FINEST CLIMATE on the continent, a climate representing
the equable mean between the rigors of the colder North and the depressing
heat and humidity of the lower South. The pure life-inspiring atmosphere,
pure water and freedom from swamps, lagoons and other malaria-breeding influences,
give this beautiful region THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF HEALTH known to any really
good agricultural country on the continent, which is a matter of primary
importance to the new settler. THE FACE OF THE COUNTRY is singularly attractive.
It is a happy union of graceful billowy prairie, wooded hills and table
lands, rugged picturesque wooded bluffs, beautiful winding valleys, coursed
by clear rapid streams, bold rocky cliffs and headlands, well wooded glens
and canyons, and green grassy glades and intervales, the whole blending
in A MATCHLESS LANDSCAPE in which is no semblance of weariness, or monotony,
nothing abstract or startling, but everywhere unity and harmony in endless
variety. The Ozark range has none of the rugged grandeur of the mountains,
but is rather a great divide or water shed, reaching from the Black River
country, in Southeastern Missouri, to the “Flint Hills” of Middle Central
Kansas, and for the most part smooth enough for agricultural uses, not more
than 20 per cent. of the entire region outlined being too rough and rocky
for cultivation. SPLENDID FORESTS of oak, elm, ash, hackberry, hickory,
sycamore, white and black walnut, cottonwood, linden, yellow pine, honey
locust, pecan, mulberry, box elder and kindred woods, cover fully half of
this great region, and lumbering for local use and export is one of the
leading industries, notably so in the hard pine districts, along the “Gulf”
Railway, where it involves scores of fine mills, thousands of laborers and
hundreds of thousands of dollars of active capital. SUPERB BUILDING STONES
are found in every portion of the country, among them blue and gray limestones,
gray, brown and red sandstones, and in some localities, fine varieties of
granite and marble. The manufacture of white lime from the remarkably pure
carbonate rocks, like the lumber interest, is carried to fine proportions,
especially along the “Gulf” road, from Lamar to Springfield. Vast deposits
of FIRE AND POTTERS’ CLAYS of the finest quality are found in nearly every
county, and at several points are extensively used in the manufacture of
tile, sewer pipe, pottery, &c., &c. The LEAD AND ZINC mines of this
region are the richest in the known world, and though in the infancy of
development, involve millions of invested capital, a good sized army of
laborers, and millions of dollars in their yearly output, which practically
governs the lead and zinc market of the country. There is LEAD AND ZINC
EVERYWHERE, in every county and township within the great radius above outlined.
The lead and zinc mining camps about Joplin, Granby, Galena, Webb City,
Aurora and a dozen other points that have become great bee-hives of industry,
whose annual output of these metals runs up into hundreds of thousands of
tons, are but modest prototypes of hundreds of other camps more recently
opened and now in prospect, where even superficial developments disclose
the leads to measureless mineral wealth. Mr. Stephen C. Johnston, a practical
miner of many years experience, who has been looking into the mineral resources
of Green and neighboring Counties, says that Springfield is central to a
mineral bearing district extending over a radius of twenty miles, embracing
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