The Eagle
Friday, August 15, 1902
pg. 5

COAL VEIN BURNING
Denison, Texas, August 14 - J.A. Brogden, a farmer living in the Gordonville community, 25 miles northwest of Denison, was in the city Wednesday and brought news of a strange phenomenon on the farm of Capt. H. Dennis, 3 miles west of Gordonville.  Mr. Brogden said there was a crack in the earth in the bed of a dry branch, and that smoke and gas were issuing from it.  There was a great deal of excitement, he said, among the people in the Gordonville community.  It is supposed there is a coal bed in the earth and that it is on fire.


The Weekly-Time Journal
Friday, August 22, 1902
pg. 5

HADES BREAKS LOOSE IN TEXAS
Special to The News:

Sherman, Texas, August 15 - What appears to be a bank of burning coal well under the surface of the ground has been discovered in a ravine on the farm of Hi Dennis, 3 miles west of Gordonville, Grayson County, and 28 miles from Sherman.  Nearly all of the male population of Gordonville, scores from Whitesboro, Pottsboro, Dexter and adjacent towns have been interested spectators of the phenomenon today and watched the efforts of several more of the venturesome to solve the rather hard proposition the people have congronting them.  Upon the authority of statements made by Justice Osborne, Constable Moore, R.S. McAdams, Dr. Gordon and Reuben James, all of the Gordonville section, and most of whom have made personal investigation, The News correspondent can make the following statement of the peculiar occurence:
"About 20 days ago parties having occasion to traverse a ravine on the Hi Dennis farm thought they detected an odor as of burning coal, but could see nothing.  At intervals thereafter others made the same sort of report.  Yesterday morning a vapor was discovered issuing from fissures in the ground on the bluff.  This was watched and it soon materialized into an unmistakable smoke which grew blacker as it increased in volume.  The odor became more and more unmistakenable and soon the heat in the vicinity was so intense that all kinds of vegetation anywhere near it was crisped to death, even trees succumbing.
"As a matter of course the news spread rapidly and soon 100 or more people had gathered.  However, no effort was made to explain the fact until this morning.  Swathing themselves in wet clothing and protecting their mouths and nostrils from the fumes of the smoke, several men began to wield picks and shovels, working at the most extreme end of a discernible fissure.  After hard work often interrupted by the heat, a heavy vein of what may be lignite of soft coal, was struck and nearer to the point where the smoke was puffing up from a space probably 8 by 15 feet, pieces of deposit were taken out actually aflame.  Justice Osborne at a late hour this afternoon stated that several such pieces had been brought into Gordonville.  Of course, the investigation has not been carried far enough to make possible any reliable statements as to the extent of the deposit.  It will require an expert mineralogist to determine what it is and geologist will have to be appealed to for a cause of this strange fire lighted by unseen hands.
"The location of the fire is just 1 mile off the survey of the Lawton and Sherman division of the St. Louis & San Francisco railway and it is probable that the telegrams sent the officials of the road will be answered at once by a detail of explorers.  The department at Austin, under which investigations of such finds come, will be given accurate details.


The El Paso Herald
Saturday, August 23, 1902
pg. 10

A FISSURE NEAR DENISON
Denison, Texas - A fissure in the Dennis farm in the vicinity of Gordonville was discovered yesterday.  Black smoke and gas emitted in which fissure and the ground seems to be on fire.  The earth is baked and all grass, trees and vegetation near it have been killed.
The news was brought here by J.A. Brogden and was later confirmed by a long distance telephone message from the most prominent people of Gordonville who have witnessed the phenomenom.
Gordonville is 25 miles northwest of Denison.
Dr. Gordon, H. Dennis, Buck Perry and R.F. McAdams went out and investigated the phenomenom this morning.  They could not get near the fissure on account of gas fumes, but dug in the ground a few yards away and found what appeared to be a piece of hard coal partially burned.
Great excitement was created.


The Waxahachie Daily Light
Saturday, August 23, 1902
pg. 2

MYSTERIOUS FIRE PUT OUT
Sherman, Texas, August 23 - The strange underground fire found emitting smoke from a crevice in the bank of a ravine near Gordonville is extinct, or is believed to have been rendered so by the pouring of large quantities of loose soil into the crevice.


The Daily Ardmoreite
Friday, August 29, 1902
pg. 3

FROM GORDONVILLE
?.P. Wynn of Gordonville, Texas was making a tour of Indian Territory at the time the sensational...of the ground being on fire near his home town, was published, writes...Ardmoreite for the benefit of his friends that the young volcano has been quenched, that neither trees nor vegetation was injured by it, and that the only damage done was by the crowds of people who flocked into the fields to see the sight.  The whole thing was greatly over-rated.
He also says the weather there now is the dryest and hottest he ever experienced.  Crops are almost failure; it will take 5 or 6 acres to...a bale of cotton.


The Eagle (Bryan, Texas)
Sunday, September 7, 1902
pg. 1

COAL VEINS STILL ON FIRE
Sherman, Texas, September 6 - The placing of loose dirt in crevasses about the burning lignite beds near Gordonville, Grayson County, was believed to have subdued the underground fire which caused excitement when discovered, but the removal of the dirt was followed by reappearnace of smoke in a volume equal to that before the crevices were filled.