This crimp caused the dissolution of the institution, and the stockholders felt that enough care had not been exercised by C. J. Carlisle in looking up the character of the concern before sending the cheese. This is doubtful, for any shipper knows you cannot always depend upon reports as to the character of brokerage firms.

At the present time I do not know of a single manufacturing institution in operation in Banner county. The material progress and wealth accumulation in the county "comes from the grass roots" -- it comes out of the ground.

In the hills -- particularly on the north side of the valley -- are excellent beds of volcanic ash, but this is so plentiful that its development is not likely for many years. When General Stansbury made his trip through here he left the river and came up Pumpkin creek for a distance and crossed over the hills back to the Platte in the northeast corner of the present Banner county. He said he picked up some lumps of lignitic coal in Pumpkin creek, according to his reports to the government; also that the hills near Chimney Rock were covered with a dead forest, that looked like it had been

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

swept down by a storm. Harley Wells once claimed to have discovered coal blossoms on the east side of Wildcat mountain.

The Prairie Oil & Gas Company, of Independence, Kansas, a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company, once looked over Banner county, and a few years ago they drilled a hole over a mile deep on the land holdings of John Kelley. The drill was down below the level of the sea.