Show Ii TOE TORY Of UTAHS ASPIIALTU1 fIELD LE Cupidity of Capital Ext Ex-t cited By Billions of Wealth Is Utah to become the birthplace of another gigantic trust rivaling in magnitude mag-nitude the Standard Oil and Sugar monopolies mo-nopolies It is if those who are seek seek ing to control legislation concerning the disposition of asphaltum lands succeed In their efforts The question of what disposition to make of the asphaltum deposits of the Uncompahgre reservation has caused a great deal of perplexity the last two or three years to both houses of congress con-gress No doubt a great many arguments argu-ments pro and con on the different propositions pro-positions Introduced have been based upon no incomplete knowledge of the subject Until a comparatively few years ago the extent and value of these deposits were unknown The government statistical sta-tistical report of 1897 places the value of these deposits at a round billion of dollars but this Is merely a matter of conjecture as the quantity of the ma I J terial is practically inexhaustible and its value must necessarily depend upon the conditions governing the output Should such legislation be enacted as would admit of the output being regulated by a syndicate there is no doubt but the history of the Standard Oil company would be repeated and prices fixed which would not in the least be governed by the quantity or cost of production To be sure such a condition Is possible were these deposits de-posits made subject to the same rules and regulations as govern other mineral min-eral lands in the United States as it was under conditions of a somewhat similar nature that the gigantic oil trust came into existence but the probabilities prob-abilities are that there would be found more difficulties in the way of the con I summation of such a combination in this case I The amount of capital necessary to open or develop a gilsonite mine would I be covered by the cost of a pick shovel and wheelbarrow so that development I develop-ment work means merely the best method by which the most can be taken out with the least expense or effort The first discovery of the material was made by the Indians when Major Critchlow was agent at Uintah The question of fuel had been of more or less moment to each successive agent I at both the Uintah and Ouray agencies t and the Indians and employees were I told to keep a sharp lookout for coal I as no deposits were known to exist closer than the Ashley valley some 25 or 30 miles distant I Along about the year 1870 some Indians In-dians reported finding coal in the vicinity vicin-ity of where the St Louis companys mines are now located Pardon Dodds I agency clerk rtat another employee procured some of the supposed coal b ruse r-use in the blacksmith shop As a heat producer it was not a success as it melted and smothered the fire the matter mat-ter was dropped for the time Subsequently Subse-quently S P Dillman who was Indian farmer and another man named Abe Warburton were sent out by Agent Critchlow to investigate the reported coal find On arriving at the place where the coal was said to have been found they at once proceeded to investigate and easily found a vein of what the Indians had supposed was coal Warburton was quite elated over what he pro nounced a good vein of bituminous coal Dillman was doubtful remarking that the black shiny stuff was too light and did not look like coal Warburton to convince his companion built a fire and threw some of the material on it just to prove it as he said The stuff I burned nicely which removed all doubts from Dillmans mind and both were felicitating each other over the discovery when Dillmans attention was attracted to black streams oozing out between the coals of fire which increased in-creased until the fire was eventually j l smothered by the soft black liquid Neither had ever seen such coal as that before It blazed all right but I why did it melt and run all over everything ev-erything They gave it up and went I back to the agency taking some of the stuff along At the agency no one could name it and the matter dropped for the time Eventually some of the material was sent to the Smithsonian institute by Dodds with a view of having Its character and value determined Nor were they much enlightened when they were informed that their coal was asphaltum or something akin to It but of a different character than had ever came under the observation of the institute up to that time Its value was undetermined chiefly owing to the fact that no one had ever seen anything like it before Experiments however soon brought forth the fact that there were many uses to which it could be applied It was found that by a little preparation prepara-tion it was equal to the material from the Trinidad lands that was on the market for paving besides being useful use-ful for other purposes for which the other material was not such as the making of insulators etc A C Hatch Dodds and others eventually made locations upon the vein but owing to its being upon the government reserve they were forced to abandon them Along about 18S3 Sam Gilson from whom the name Kllsonite was derived de-rived took hold of the matter and brought the attention of men of means to the deposit and its possibilities Whether Mr Gilson ever derived any benefit from his labor other than the honor of furnishing a name for a material ma-terial that will be found eventually in every city of consequence is not gen t 110 ° 30 09 ° pZ I I 1 V 1 NIL 1I i I I l j J I 1 TL i II I I d 1 r I J rtV5 N DUCHE N as5e > < lI l I I 1 Ii 4 i MPAH R II I C ATP I O I 1 1 1 t 0 t6NN DIU utt I i c 40 2 I HA X i 1 S l I V f I N t 1 S 6 1 < 1 > ION 1r 1 0 30 > 30 1ln y ° ° v II0 f 30 lOgO NAP OF THE TTNCOMPAHGBE RESERVATION SHOWING LOCATION OF GILSONITE VEINS ACCORDING ACCORD-ING TO THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF 1896 erallv known I Subsequently a ccmpany was formed which by persistent labor at the national na-tional capital succeeded in securing legislation that lopped off from the reserve the piece of country now known as the strip and which included in-cluded the gilsonite vein which is now the property of the St Louis Asphalt company This company has shipped thousands of tons in the last ten years and at a great disadvantage as it is at least 90 miles to the railway at Price All freight teams from Ashley and Price have loaded with cilsonlte on their outward trip for years The material is sacked at the mine in 200 pound I sacks ready for loading on the cars Subsequent to the first operation of Another Gigantic Trust May Find a Home In Utah the St Louis companys mines which are located two miles east of Duchesne other deposits were found where the Castle Peak and Pariette mines are now located several miles west of the Duchesne river The river is 12 or 15 miles west of the Uintah on which stream Fort Duchesne Is located lo-cated These mines have been a source of considerable contention between be-tween the rival companies and between be-tween the companies and the government govern-ment owIng jealous rivalry in the first instance and uncertainty as to the reservation lines in the latter Although the operation of these mines have demonstrated the commercial commer-cial value of the material they in reality represent a very small percent per-cent of the deposits known to exist in the section of country divided by the Duchesne Ulntah and White rivers After the value of the glisonite became be-came generally known prospecting began be-gan in earnest one party skirted the entire reservation carefully examining every point of indication The deposits de-posits were found to exist in the main within the reservation lines and consequently con-sequently on forbidden ground Some 20 miles south of Rahgely Colo were found some small veins outside the lines which have been worked intermittently inter-mittently by a company represented by St V le Sleur the shipping point is Grand Junction Owing to the distance dis-tance and extreme roughness of the road the proposition has not been a paying one and nothing is being done there at the present time This brings us to what is located within the lines and on the forbidden ground This question it would be hard to answer owing to the fact that there are veins which are known only to individuals in-dividuals who will not divulge their location hoping against hope that someday some-day the ground will be thrown open to public entry Gilsonite I sand asphalt elaterite and kindred minerals I are known to exist on both reservations but the chief deposit de-posit for which incorporate capital and greed are struggling lies over on the banks of White river and upon the Uncompahgre reserve These beds as they are called are 45 miles southeast from Vernal as the crow flies and are in what is known as the bad lands In extent they cover a strip six miles wide and ten miles long traversed with numerous I veins of varying thickness the largest larg-est averaging I from S to 12 feet in i I j II width The course of these veins Is i from northwest to southeast and they terminate abruptly at the very bank i of White river They stand perpendicularly perpendic-ularly and are clean cut and well defined de-fined and in all probability descend to the very bowels of the earth The section in whIch these deposits occur is easily accessible and close to water There will be no difficulty attending at-tending the construction of railway facilities fa-cilities to the very entrance to the mines The mines have been located many times over by different parties and at different times There have been several sev-eral wild rushes to the spot on the supposition that the ground had been thrown open to location A few years ago on one occasion every saddle horse of known speed and some unknown un-known were kept saddled day and I night awaiting the signal Some were stationed at Vernal some at Green River and others at Rangely Men were laying out under the cedars spending I sleepless nights under the starry skies straining their eyes and ears for every sight and sound hoping to paste their little white notices upon a claim that I would announce their ownership There were false alarms too when all joined in one wild stampede and I where men tumbled over one another In their mad rush for the possession oi the black dingy stuff Relays of horses I were stationed along the line between the mines and the county seat and many are the stories told of the wild rides in order to record claims But all in vain many were the hopes dashed to the ground The one consolation now of these wouldbe millionaires is to gaze wistfully in the direction where the White river flows placidly on to the i Green and build air castles of magnificent magnifi-cent proportions and no doubt roofed over with gilsonite There are many imprecations on the perversity of the American congress and the innate cussedness cus-sedness of things generally One thing is certain however and that one thing is that a circle of undeveloped un-developed wealth engirdles northeastern northeast-ern Utah that will at some future day extend its fame to the uttermost portions por-tions of the earth HERBERT TYZACK |