SECTION VI-UTAH AND ARIZONA.

CHAPTER L.

GENERAL REMARKS.

The mineral resources of Utah Territory are imperfectly known, and even the completion of the Union Pacific railroad has not stimulated prospecting and mining to a very large degree. This is undoubtedly mainly due to the known hostility of the Mormons to mining. Still some important discoveries have been made and a few companies have commenced developing several districts.

The coal and iron deposits in the northern part of Utah will probably receive more attention in the immediate future than most other mineral resources of the Territory. These beds are of the highest value for the Union Pacific railroad, and it is said that the company contemplate erecting rolling mills at Echo City, a point which is admirably suited for this business on account of the nearness of extensive coal and iron deposits. Very good bituminous coal is found on the Bear and on Weber Rivers. The beds on the Weber lie mostly above the water level and are from 5 to 12 feet thick. The vein exposed at Evanstown on the Bear River is 17 feet thick and considered the best coal for many purposes in the entire West. These veins, being situated near the railroad, will undoubtedly be drawn upon largely, not alone for the supply of the road itself, but also for use in the States west of that point.

At the head of the Timpanagos, just below Kansas Prairie, above Devil's Gate, on the Weber and in the Wasatch bordering the valley, occur deposits of magnetite; and higher up on the Weber, ten or twelve miles above the confluence of the Echo with Weber, are found hematite ores, fire-clay, and coal. The latter, however, is not very good. Extensive coal and iron deposits are also found in the southern part of Utah. They are of little account at present, but will be extremely valuable for the Utah railroad as soon as it is pushed through to the Colorado.

Near the headwaters of Silver Creek, an affluent of the Weber, large bodies of carbonate and black oxide of copper have been found. These ores carry a small percentage of silver. Alum shales in vast beds exist in the Promontory range.

The Bingham Cañon and the Rush Valley mines both belong to the same mineral-bearing belt which in the east makes its first appearance near the point where the Uintah Mountains and the Wasatch meet. The former range has a nearly east and west course, and the latter trends north and south, so that both form a T, the standard of which are the Cintah Mountains. At the point spoken of the mineral belt occupies both flanks of the Uintah range. From here the belt extends west, crossing the Wasatch and continuing down its western slope along Little and Big Cottonwood Cañon. Crossing the Jordan Valley, a beautiful agricul tural district, it makes its appearance again in the Oquirrh Mountains, an isolated range running north and south and separating Jordan from Rush Valley. The distance across the mountains is about twenty miles.

On the eastern slope lie the Bingham Cañon, on the western the Rush Valley mines.

In the Cottonwood Cañon district from fifty to one hundred mineralbearing veins have been located. Very few of them have, however, been opened so far. The most work has been done on the Lone Star, Magnet, Illinois, Ida, and Monitor. The shaft on the Ida is 100 feet deep, and shows a vein two feet wide in the bottom. The lodes are mostly from one to four feet in width, and carry principally argentiferous galena with considerable antimony and zinc. Assays have yielded as high as from $160 to $400 per ton in silver, but the average value is estimated to be $50. Woodhull & Co. have shipped 15 tons of their ore to San Francisco, to ascertain its value and the best way of treatment. Timber and firewood are rather scarce in the district, though there is enough for the present. The locality is from 9,000 to 11,000 feet above the sea, and a great deal of snow falls in the winter. The supply of water in the summer is ample.

The veins in Bingham Cañon carry gold, silver, and copper; the lat ter predominating largely. In West Mountain district, situate in Bing. ham Cañon, lead ores occur besides the above. A Chicago company are said to have invested largely of late in consequence of the very favor able report made by Professor E. D. Moorehouse on the lodes of the district. Smith & Co. have lately sent 12 tons of their cupriferous ores to Baltimore for a test. They expect them to yield forty per cent. of copper and $60 per ton in silver. Sixty tons more are ready for ship ment to San Francisco. Some placer mining has been done in this district; but, owing to the scarcity of water, it could not be successfully followed except in the early part of the season, when the melting snow furnished plenty of water. The bed rock lies very deep; in most places 75 feet below the surface. A bed-rock flume, 400 feet in length, has been constructed, but it did not reach bed rock, and the parties will have to start further down the valley and go over the same ground again. The placers yield about $5 per day to the head.

The Rush Valley mines were discovered by General Connor in 1865, and considerable excitement about them prevailed at the time. Companies were organized in the East, and smelting works were erected before the mines had been properly opened. The ores are principally silver-bearing galena and copper ore, with a heavy admixture of gangue. The furnaces erected were not a success; technical as well as econom ical reasons prevented it at the time. Lately Captain James M. Day, formerly connected with the Savage mine on the Comstock lode, has leased these mines, and is erecting a furnace, the fire-proof material for which he has to procure from the neighborhood of Salt Lake City. I have no late news in relation to this enterprise.

The Sevier mines in Juab County have attracted considerable attention, and raised quite an excitement during the latter part of 1868 and the summer of 1869. They are situated a few miles from the Sevier River and about one hundred and eighty miles due south from Salt Lake City. The placer diggings have been known to exist for several years, and were worked in a small way by Mormons. Only lately, however, were ledges of auriferous quartz discovered a short distance away from the river in the mountains. Most of them cluster around Mount Nebo, which reaches an altitude of 12,000 feet. The country here abounds in wood and water, and the streams have all considerable fall except the Sevier itself, which becomes rather sluggish after reaching the plains.

The lodes are all mostly large and easily traceable for long distances. The principal locations taken up are the Gould and Curry; vein 35

feet wide on top; the Webster outcrop, 60 feet wide; the Bully Boy, an extension of the foregoing; the Illinois, averaging 7 feet in width, and sunk upon to 100 feet in depth; the Niagara, a very large ledge; the Great Western, Young America, Yankee Blade, and Schimmerhorn. Some fifty more have been located, but they are mostly entirely undeveloped.

The discoveries in Clifton mining district at Deep Creek, immediately north of the Western Union telegraph line, are highly spoken of, but too little is known about their value to give them more than a passing notice. The mineral belt in which the veins occur is described as four miles wide and ten miles long. The country rock is granite, and in it occur ledges of argentiferous galena, samples of which are said to have yielded by assay from $75 to $100 per ton. The district is said to be abundantly supplied with wood and water.

Forty miles west of Promontory City new placers were discovered dur ing last year. They are situated on the south side of Raft River range, and only ten miles from the line of the railroad. Indian Creek, Dove Creek, and Sagebrush Creek, all running southerly, are the principal gulches. All these streams are lost in the desert before reaching Salt Lake. They furnish enough water to supply the diggings during four or five months only, but, as the mines are said to be rich, water will probably be brought to them from other sources.

On the whole it may be said that, so far, Utah cannot be classed among the mining States and Territories. The developments made are all very slight and unimportant, and no shipments of any consequence of the precious metals have ever been made. The Union Pacific railroad, however, will undoubtedly do much in the future toward the development of the mineral interest in the Territory.

ARIZONA.

Comparatively little progress has been made in mining in this Territory, owing to the presence of hostile Indians and the consequent danger and high prices.

The Vulture gold mine, near Wickenburg, in Central Arizona, has been steadily worked since 1866, and gives an average yield of about $300,000 per annum. Forty stamps are in use, and it is now proposed to force water to the mine from the Hassayampa River, a distance of fourteen miles, and remove the mill from that river to the mine, which, if done, will save the large amount now paid for the transportation of the ore. A traction engine has been ordered from England to be used in transportation. The Big Bug mines, near Prescott, Central Arizona, are now worked and making a successful return. A 10-stamp mill is

in use.

The Sterling mine, also near Prescott, has a 10-stamp mill and is reported to be yielding well.

Many men are engaged throughout Central Arizona in sinking shafts and running tunnels upon lodes preparatory to the erection of mills. Upon the great Colorado River some work has been done at the Eldorado Cañon silver mines, and ores are constantly sent to San Francisco from the argentiferous galena deposits at Castle Dome and Eureka. In copper there has been but little done during the past year. In Southern Arizona a fine 10-stamp mill has been erected at Apache Pass, on the southern overland mail route, and the gold lodes promise well. Work has been in a great measure suspended, owing to the murH. Ex. Doc. 207-21

der by the Apaches, in October, 1869, of Colonel John F. Stone, the superintendent.

Some English capitalists have lately sent engineers and mining experts to examine the Santa Rita lodes, and those at the Cerro Colorado, with a view to purchase. Throughout the Territory, at various points, placer mining is carried on to a limited extent, and considerable gold quartz is annually crushed by arrastras.

It is estimated by those well informed and worthy of confidence that the Territory has yielded an average of $1,000,000 per year in these precious metals for the last ten years, and that with proper protection for life and property, and the construction of the Southern Pacific railroad, it would soon yield as large a return from its mineral resources as any Territory in the Union, while it has much more agricultural land than is commonly supposed, and its pastoral lands are unsurpassed.

In an address made at Prescott, November 5, 1869, Governor Safford, the new governor of the Territory, who has had much experience in mining in California and Nevada, said:

Now I come to the mineral resources of the country, and I feel that I can speak of this branch with more confidence than any other, because I have spent all my manhood in the mines--for eight years in succession I worked at placer mining, lived in a cabin, and cooked my own meals; and for nearly twenty years have been connected with mining enterprises of one kind or another. I have taken part in gold and silver quartz mining in California and Nevada, and have examined the principal mines and reduetion works of Europe. My previous knowledge of mining has naturally led me to take special interest in examining the mineral resources of this country. I have trav eled in various directions from the southern boundary of Arizona north to this point. I have found the mountains threaded with veins rich in silver, gold, and copper, far beyond anything I have ever seen elsewhere, and I here predict that the time will come in the not very far off future when Arizona will produce more gold and silver than all the balance of the Pacific coast. This may be considered enthusiastic, but when it is considered that there is hardly a mountain over this vast Territory that does not eontain rich lodes of gold and silver, while for hundreds of miles the ravines show prospects for placer diggings that would gladden the heart of any old California miner, and when it is considered also that the wealth of these mines is yet untouched, the prediction will not appear so extravagant. The inquiry will be made, if Arizona contains such vast mineral wealth, why has it not been proven before this time? There are several reasons, either one of which is sufficient to result in the failure of any ordinary paying mine. First, the hostility of the Indians, which has almost wholly prevented prospecting for mines, and rendered their working insecure and expensive. Second, the expensive transportation of everything consumed or used that is not raised here. Third, the want of capital to open the mines. Fourth, the want of experience and knowledge how to extract the precious metals from the ore. To ascertain the method of extracting gold and silver from ores, and particularly those that are refractory, has in all new mining districts required money, time, and experience, but in no case has either of these metals been found in paying quantities, that a process has not been found to save them, nor will this country be an exception. The ores are found here in vast quantities, fabulously rich. In experiments that have been made here, through the extravagance or inexperience of those who have made them, the money has, in most instances, been uselessly squandered. Large mills have been erected before opening the mine, or attempting to ascertain a method of saving the metal. The consequence has been that the mill, when erected, could not be supplied with ore, or the parties managing it could not save the gold and silver; and the stockholder, who never saw the country, and knew nothing of the cause of failure, became disheartened, and the mine is abandoned and left to decay. If mining could be conducted with the same economy that the merchant conducts his business, or the farmer tills his fields, failures would seldom occur. But our eastern friends who have sent some capital for investment here seem to break loose from all the well-established principles of doing business, and adopt a new system for mining. Instead of selecting a man to open their mines and erect their machinery who is experienced in the business, and has established a character for integrity, they either send some one they want to find a place for, who is incompetent to be placed in charge of business there, or the relative of some influential stockholder, or, perhaps, in some instances, very good business men, but invariably none of them know anything about mining, or machinery for the reduction of ores, and their education proves very expensive for the owner, and results in incalculable injury to the country. Laboring under all these disadvantages, still we have to-day in snecessful operation one of the best paying mines on the Pacific coast-the Vulture, at