USA > Utah > Cache County > Logan > Utah gazetteer and directory of Logan, Ogden, Provo, and Salt Lake Cities for 1884 > Part 7
USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > Utah gazetteer and directory of Logan, Ogden, Provo, and Salt Lake Cities for 1884 > Part 7
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USA > Utah > Weber County > Ogden > Utah gazetteer and directory of Logan, Ogden, Provo, and Salt Lake Cities for 1884 > Part 7
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" But during times of over-supply, and general depression in those branches of trade, the main reliance of Utah for sustaining her local indus- tries and general business must rest upon her gold and silver mines, for they can create all the money actually needed to carry on almost every branch of business necessary to her steady and permanent growth.
"In our judgment, the time has arrived when this all-important branch of national industry in Utah should receive the attention of practical busi- ness men, as well as the highest order of statesmanship. The records of its magnificent achievements should be preserved in an official form in the archives of the Territory. It should be protected and fostered as the industry that makes all the other pursuits and labors of her people remunerative and prosperous. To do this properly, Utah should have its own bureau of min- ing statistics, her own museum of ores, minerals and geological collections, her own professors of geology, mining and mechanical engineers and metal- lurgical chemists, and her own training schools of the practical sciences for the instruction of her young men who are to direct and control-in the near future- the greatest source of wealth within her broad areas. We reiterate, that mining industry gives life to every other branch of business in the west. It makes farming profitable to our citizens, it creates a home market for all kinds of food supplies, it gives profitable employment to a vast army of sturdy laborers, it causes the construction of railroads and telegraph lines that connect us with the great centers of population and wealth of the east and west, it will make every civilized nation, to some extent, tributary to Utah, for her metallic productions are welcome in every market on the planet. There are mines enough in Utah to make an annual output of $20,000,000 in silver and gold. To do this she must have an investment of at least $40,000,000 in addition to what is already invested in her mining industries. Can she reasonably expect such an enormous influx of capital unless she makes an organized effort to show to the world the great extent and richness of her mines? Must she fold her hands and await the slow and unsupported efforts of individuals? Or shall she make a united and well directed effort to make the world comprehend the extent and value of her vast stores of the precious and useful metals, and claim her full share of the world's capital that is ready to invest in legitimate mining industries?"
The quotation above made sufficiently shows the capacity of the Terri- tory for the production of precious metals, the conditions being favorable. Of the base metals that abound in Utah, and of the minerals generally, the old saying that "a volume would afford insufficient room to give a fair idea of their variety and extent" is eminently true. Lead and copper and iron, however, with coal, constitute the main features. The supply of lead is absolutely limitless; and when, in the future, the improvements that are so rapidly making in mining shall have reached a point at which it is possible to handle profitably the low grade lead-bearing ores with which Utah
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abounds, then will the wealth from this source equal, if indeed it does not exceed, that produced from the precious metals. In the matter of copper Utah is no less fortunate as to quantity and to quality than in lead. New copper claims are being discovered up to this late date, and in instances the promises are the best. In Southern Utah, in that portion embraced in Washington County, the copper claims of old and recent discovery are exceedingly fine and shipments by teams for long distances still pay remuner- ative prices. The lead districts are confined to no particular area. The metal has, however, been found in greatest quantities in Salt Lake, Tooele, Juab, Summit and Millard Counties, in all of which also, silver has been dis- covered, and in Silver Reef and Leeds; while copper has been found in large and paying quantities in Juab and Salt Lake Counties, and in other counties than Washington. It is a safe declaration to make, however, that all these minerals, besides many others, can be found in varying quantities in any of the mountains in the Territory.
IRON.
It is in iron and coal however, that Utah is most abundantly blessed, and not only is she favored beyond any western State or Territory in these regards, but her iron resources are without comparison in the known world. Iron ore has been found in Cache Valley so rich in silver, that the argen- tiferous proportion of metal, according to a test made in St. Louis years ago, is sufficient to pay the actual working expenses. An area of twenty miles about Ogden, particularly to the north, abounds in excellent qualities of iron ore, the percentage of metal being unusually large, and invites work by its vast quantities.
Iron ore is found more or less through the Territory, but notably in large quantities in certain places. The most important iron deposits occur in Iron County, about 200 miles south of Salt Lake City. The iron belt here is over three miles wide and commences several miles north of Iron Springs, running in a southwesterly direction to Iron City, a distance of over sixteen miles. One of the most prominent points in this belt is Iron Mountain, 1,500 feet elevation above the surrounding plain. The central part of this belt, Desert Mound, is six miles long and three miles wide. The country rock is granite, porphyry and limestone. This limestone is used as flux. The character of the ore is hematite and magnetite, demon- strating in different tests made that they are well qualified for the production of fine Bessemer steel. It is estimated there are five hundred million tons of good ore in sight in Iron County. An analysis of this ore gives the fol- lowing results: No. 1, Iron 64, Phosphorus 0.12, Sulphur 0. 13, Silica, 5.2 per cent .; No. 2, Iron 62.60, Phosphorus none, Sulphur o. 12, Silica 4.8 per cent .: No. 3, Iron 60.90, Phosphorus, none, Sulphur 0.08, Silica 5.8 per cent. An analysis of the limestone gives 80.35 per cent. carbonate of lime, and 10.92 per cent. of insoluble silicious material.
In Cache County, at Smithfield, occur beds of micaceous hematite over sixty feet in thickness. Around Ogden, on the Provo, by Kamas, on the . Weber, in Ogden Canyon, near Willard and Bountiful, in the Cottonwoods, Red Butte and City Creek Canyons, in Tintic, in fact all over Utah iron ore in all varieties is found. It accompanies numerous deposits of lead and silver ores, being valuable on account of its percentage in gold and silver, and its use as flux. At present the smelters derive the supply of iron ore to be used in their establishments as flux, from Tintic Mining District. In this district the iron ores occur in a belt two miles long and over 1,000 feet wide, bearing northeast and southwest. The Tintic iron ores occur as peroxides and sesquioxides of iron or hematite in strong veins, assaying 60 to 70 per cent. of iron, and $5 to $15 in gold and silver per ton. These
.
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ores are principally found in Tintic as bedded deposits in the Silurian lime- stone; they are not suited for any other purpose than flux on account of their containing other minerals. The principal deposits are in the moun- tain-side at and near Dragon Hollow, which leads from Silver City up and across the summit of the Oquirrh Mountain Range. The ore breasts here are from forty to fifty feet high. Over 100,000 tons of iron ore have been already, and from 150 to 200 tons of iron is daily, extracted from the Tintic iron mines. Iron ores for the purpose of fluxing silicious lead and silver ores are also found on the slopes of the Wasatch above Willard; Morgan County iron deposits, near the line of the Union Pacific; in the Wah-Wah Mountain Range, twenty-five miles southwest of Frisco ; in City Creek Canyon and in Iron County.
But to Southern Utah in general, and Iron County in particular, belongs whatever of credit may attach to the possession of the greatest and grandest iron mines in the world. Their existence has been known for all of twenty-five years, though the extent in comparison with the mines of other nations had not been established until later years. There are abso- lutely mountains of solid iron, of every variety known in the world. The most notable geologists and mineralogists have visited these colossal iron deposits and the verdict that they were the most boundless deposits known in the world has been unhesitatingly and unequivocally given. Among others who have examined these deposits is Prof. J. S. Newberry, principal of the Columbia School of Mines, New York, and as his opinion on the subject will carry greater weight than that perhaps of any other person, it is given below:
"These ore beds have been long known and were to some extent util- ized by the Mormons in their first advent, thirty years ago, but no satisfac- tory description of them has ever been published. As they constitute, perhaps, the most remarkable deposit of iron ore yet discovered on this continent, I have thought that some facts in regard to them might not be an unimportant addition to what is known of the economic resources of our country. The iron region referred to lies nearly two hundred miles directly south from Salt Lake City, and is situated in what is really the southern prolongation of the Wasatch Mountains. The iron ores occur in the north- ern portion of a subordinate range, which attains its greatest height in Pine Valley Mountain, near Silver Reef. Thirty miles north of this point the ridge breaks down into a series of hills from one thousand to two thousand feet in height, which consist chiefly of gray, fine-grained granite, with dykes and masses of trachyte and here and there outcrops of highly meta- morphosed limestone. The ore beds form a series of protruding crests and masses set over an area about fifteen miles long in a northeast and south- west direction, and having a width of three to five miles. Within this belt the iron outcrops are very numerous and striking; perhaps one hundred distinct claims have already been located upon them, each one of which would make the fortune of a mining company if situated anywhere in the Mississippi Valley or the Eastern States. The most impressive outcrops are in the vicinity of Iron Springs, Oak Springs and Iron City, of which localities the first and last mentioned are about twelve miles apart. Near Iron Springs the Big Blowout, as it is called, is a projecting mass of mag- netic ore, which shows a length of perhaps a thousand feet by a width of five hundred, and rises in castellated crags one hundred feet or more above its base.
"At Iron Springs a still more striking exhibition is made by the Blair mine, which is a ragged crest of magnetite, black as jet, formed by the upturned edge of the thickest of a series of sheets of ore, which rises like a ledge of bedded rock two or three hundred feet above the adjacent low lands. This outcrop is visible as a conspicuous black hill at a distance of
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several miles. The connections between the ore bodies of this great iron belt are obscured by the debris from the easily decomposed trachyte and granite. It is evident, however, that for some miles the iron ore deposits are continuous or separated by very short intervals, as the outcrops occur within a stone's throw of each other, and the surface is everywhere strewed with blocks of rich magnetic ore, enough in themselves to supply all the furnaces of the country for years. It would seem that the iron forms a number of distinct and closely approximated belts, which are the outcrops of beds that stand nearly vertical, and go down into the earth like huge walls.
"There is considerable diversity in the character of the ore, though it is about equally divided in quantity between hematite and magnetite. Some of the beds of both are exceedingly dense and compact, while others, though rich in iron, are soft and can be mined with the pick. Most of the ore is apparently very pure, containing a small amount of earthy matter and no foreign minerals. Some of the ledges, however, contain a large quantity of silica, the magnetite being mottled with white quartz; and one of the largest outcrops, though showing many millions of tons of ore apparently quite pure, is thickly set along certain zones, evidently strata of decomposi- tion, with crystals of apatite from a quarter to half an inch in diameter and two or three inches in length. At this location many of the fragments are highly magnetic, and loadstone as strong as any known can be obtained there in great abundance. A few rods from this great outcrop is another of equal dimensions, in which the magnetite is apparently quite free from all
impurities, showing neither quartz nor apatite. Near by is another expo- sure, perhaps a continuation of the last, of which the mass is half magnetite . and the other half fine-grained and dense hematite. Across a narrow val- ley from this group the hillside is covered with fallen fragments of a rich but soft and dark hematite, and at no great distance the soil is covered blood- red by the decomposition of a hematite so soft as to make no other show above the surface. Near this latter location I noticed a line of outcrop of a very jaspery hematite, in some places only a ferruginous jasper, closely resembling some of the more silicious ores of the Marquette district.
"As to the age of this remarkable series of iron ore deposits, I cannot speak with absolute certainty, though they are apparently Lower Silurian.
"The granite of the hills which contain the iron is finer grained and less compact than that which forms the great granite axis of the Wasatch, and I suspect is the metamorphic condition of the quartzite beds which rest upon the Wasatch granite. Some of the iron ore beds in this granite are dis- tinctly interstratified with it, and are certainly, like it. metamorphosed sedi- ments. This is plainly shown at the Blair mine, where the principal crest of the hill is a distinct sheet of stratified, regularly bedded magnetite, from thirty to forty feet in thickness, dipping toward the north at an angle of about eighty degrees. Parallel with this principal layer are other sheets of magnetite, separated by strata of granite, and varying from a quarter of an inch to ten feet in thickness, as perfectly parallel and regular as any series of sedimentary beds ever seen.
"On the whole the Blair mine is the most interesting and instructive outcrop of iron known to me, and furnishes the most striking proof of the sedimentary origin of these wonderful ore beds. None of the other outcrops is so distinctly stratified, but the Big Blowout at Iron City, which affords an equally conclusive argument against the eruptive theory ; for it appears to be a huge amorphous mass, like a hill of basalt, on examination it is found to be in large part composed of metamorphosed limonite.
"With the exception of the great iron deposits of Southern Utah, the Far West is but imperfectly supplied with this metal. I have found
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magnetite and specular ores in small quantities in several places in the mountain's of Oregon and California, and in the Rocky Mountain belt, and similar ores have been met with by prospectors and explorers in some of the districts which I have not visited. We have no evidence, however, that any other great deposits of iron exist in or beyond the Rocky Moun- tains."
COAL.
The coal fields of Utah are also limitless, and give the assurance that one hundred years of solid work would merely be a development of them- so varied and extensive are they. Let prediction have what value it may, cer- tain it is that in comparison with the extent of coal fields embraced by Utah, the work so far done is barely a scratch in the earth. It is with Utah's coal fields, however, as with many other resources: internal indifference and for- eign opposition backed by large railroad interests have largely retarded their development by the importation of foreign coal. These obstacles are now
mainly overcome. In Summit County the coal mines have been most largely developed. None of the beds shows signs of pinching; many as yet are hardly opened, while untouched fields yet lie idle awaiting the period when the industries of this country will demand the extrac- tion of their hidden treasures.
In Pleasant Valley, on the line of the Den- ver and Rio Grande Railway, vast fields are now being opened, and are made to supply a large portion of the local demand. These' fields alone would prove of sufficient extent to predict for Utah a great industrial future in a manufacturing sense were they the only dependence for fuel. But in Iron County, the scene of the greatest iron mines in the world, and within less than twenty miles, are unlimited coal beds, which, though barely opened, are still seen to be of sufficient extent to warrant the location of stu- pendous iron furnaces, and the opening of the boundless iron claims found within the limits of Iron County. Examinations made by experienced pros- pectors and coal miners in Castle Valley, Emery County, prove beyond the shadow of a doubt, the existence of almost every variety of coal, unless, perhaps, anthracite, and this too in endless quantities. In the sections cited the existence of certain coal fields has been permanently established, as also in Sanpete County; but indications lead to the belief that these are by no means the only sections in which it is to be found. Traces have been found for years in almost every part of the Territory, while recent discoveries come near demonstrating to a certainty that Piute County, lying south and west of Emery, in which the great Castle Valley coal fields exist, is also the loca- tion of a superior quality of bituminous coal.
The coal of Utah has a thickness of more than 200 feet and lies along the eastern slope of the great Wasatch Mountain Range, forming an almost inexhaustible belt from the boundaries of Wyoming, through the Uintah Reservation, Pleasant Valley, on Huntington Creek, Castle Valley, down to Kanab and Pahreah. There is excellent coal on Weber River and its tribu- taries, for ten to fifteen miles above Echo. These Weber River coal mines have been found, opened and developed during the last fifteen years to a depth of 1,000 feet, disclosing immense bodies of coal to work upon for fifty generations to come. This coal is excellent for fuel in general, and engines in particular. The Weber River coal beds are from one to ten feet in thickness. A short railroad connects the mines with the main line and with Park City. Experiments have demonstrated the fact that this coal is of a non-coking character, and hence of little use in connection with the smelting of Utah ores. To the north and northeast, in Wyoming, are large deposits of a similar lignitic character. Eighty to ninety miles southeast of Salt Lake City, in Sanpete valley, a number of seams from six inches to six and a half feet in thickness of excellent bitumious coal
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have been found, while a little further to the east and southeast, among the mountains, others as wide as ten or eleven feet are worked. The coal is of a dark brown color near the surface and deeper down of a dull black color; by distillation it makes an excellent coke, as has been demonstrated by using the same in the Utah smelting works. All that the mines require is a better and more practicable plant for washing and coking. The Sanpete Valley Railway Company own eight miles along the strike of a four-foot vein or seam of coal, comprising 10,350 acres of coal land. The analysis of the Sanpete coal yields as follows for coke: Moisture, 1.8; Bitumen, 44. 2; Coke, 50.7; Ash, 10.3 per cent.
It is estimated that the coal resources of Utah comprise an area of 20, 000 square miles. With this fact in view we need have no apprehen- sion for the future, and the time is fast approaching when Utah will be, as a coal producer, the rival of Pennsylvania.
Up to 1880, the surveys of coal lands were divided in the counties as follows:
County.
Locality. Acres.
Kane,
North of Kanab,
35,696
Kane,
On the Paria, 13,688
Sanpete,
Pleasant Valley, 34,332
Sevier,
Lower Castle Valley, 11,013
Iron,
Iron City to Parowan,
6,240
Wasatch,
Green River,
2,840
Summit,
About Coalville, 19,93I
Tooele,
South of Ophir City, 1,160
Box Elder,
West of Mendon
800
Rich, .
South of Randolph,
160
Morgan,
I20
Total, 125,980
At that time as now, in over half the counties in the Territory, coal had been found. The returns of the local Land Office will show that probably 150,000 acres of coal lands have been surveyed.
COPPER.
In the extreme northwestern section of the country, within easy dis- tance of the railroad, a copper district has been opened. The veins lying in micacious shale, associated with porphyry, and varying from five to twenty feet in width, appear to carry almost all of the ores of copper, but mainly the oxide and glance, which yield sometimes as high as 50 per cent. of the pure metal. 'The mines are considerably developed and the prospects exceedingly good. There also appears copper in Copper Gulch, San Fran- cisco District, Tintic, Cottonwood, Snake District, Red Butte Canyon, Bingham Canyon, Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, all over Beaver County, and in fact a great part of Southern Utah, and in the granite range between Salt Lake City and Ogden. In view of the proximity to the rail- roads and the fine country in which they are situated, these districts bid fair to become important in the near future.
Utah is remarkable no less for the variety and extent of minerals found within her borders than for their location, which renders them easy of access, and enhances their economic value materially. In both these regards she is fortunate as the most favored country on the globe.
SULPHUR.
Sulphur beds exist both in the north and south of Utah, the larg- est bed being found in the southern part of the Territory, or in Millard
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County. It comprises an area of about six miles long by one mile wide at the point of greatest width, and the average depth or thickness, as shown by actual tests in the sinking of shafts, is not less than twenty feet. That which, however, is most remarkable in connection with this sulphur bed is its unequaled fineness. In purity some of it goes 98, the average, however, being about 50, while sulphur from the far-famed Sicilian beds is but 20 in fineness. A very important bed is situated about fourteen miles south of the Horn Silver Mine, at Frisco, in Beaver County, in the west foothills of Star District, and was recently examined by Prof. J. E. Clayton. The sul- phur exists in fissures in a large hill of silicious sinter and flint, and is of extraordinary purity and of abundant quantity. Up to date the resources in this direction are untouched even for local consumption.
GYPSUM AND MICA.
Gypsum is found in great quantities both in Washington and Juab Counties. In some portions of the former county the hills are almost as thickly seamed with layers of gypsum as the blood veins seam the body in animal life. It also is found in large quantities in Sanpete County, but is especially plentiful in accessible form in Juab County, there being a seam to the east of Nephi, County seat of Juab, over 100 feet wide and some 1, 200 feet long. It exists both in the crystallized and in the massive form. The supply is limitless.
The existence of large quantities of mica has long been known. Until recently it had not been discovered in flakes large enough to give it com- mercial value. Later examinations show that it can be found in layers ranging from twelve to eighteen inches each way, the result being that it has already taken a place among the numerous minerals, found in Utah, available and of ready commercial value. It is found in greatest abundance in South- ern Utah, but is also to be seen in no trifling quantities in Davis and Salt Lake Counties.
ANTIMONY.
This metal has already been shipped from Utah east at a profit. Veins of sulphuret of antimony three to six feet thick exist near Brigham City, Box Elder County ; but it has been found purest and in largest quantities in Piute and Garfield Counties. The percentage of antimony in the Brigham City ore ranges from 20 to 30; in the other localities named, the percent- age is considerably greater. There seems no question that this will yet prove a mineral of infinite wealth to Utah.
SHALE, MINERAL WAX, OIL WELLS, ALUM SHALE.
In the Sanpete, Pleasant and Castle Valleys, in the sandstones and conglomerates, with the coal and near to the same, are beds of shale containing jet, ozocerite and albertite, and almost enough oily matter to burn alone, while in the vicinity are springs bringing to the surface considerable quantities of petroleum. Further to the north similar shales appear.
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