Show RIO BLANCO COUNTY A section wonderfully rich in hydrocarbons oil and uranium special correspondence denver colo nov 28 promise of railroad transportation at an early date is awakening interest in the vast mineral resources of rio blanco county colorado the plans of the recently incorporated grand river meeker salt lake railroad company call for the immediate construction of the road from chapman a new town between rifle and newcastle on the denver rio grande and colorado midland railroads to meeker in rio blanco county and the ultimate extension of the line down the white river valley through a rich section of utah into salt lake city the route selected was once under consideration as a part of the main line of the denver rio grande preliminary surveys have been made by other interests but up to the present time rio blanco has remained one of the two counties in the state without a railroad because of the lack of transportation the principal industry of rio blanco county has been cattle raising cattle can be driven to a railroad on their own feet last year it is reported 1400 cars of rio blanco cattle were shipped to market over the denver rio grande but the county contains an abundance of water and large areas of irrigable land that rill be utilized as soon as there is railroad to carry out the products and it also has large undeveloped deposits of coal oil and the solid hydrocarbons between chapman and meeker a distance of about fifty miles the new road will pass through the grand hogback and danforth hills coal fields these fields and others further down the white river are described in detail in bulletin no recently issued by the united states geological survey there are acres of coal land available for mining in the grand hogback field and acres in the danforth hills field the total thickness of the coal seams at newcastle in the grand hogback field is feet and one seam the wheeler is forty five in thickness the total thickness of the seams in the danforth hills field is seventy three feet most of the coal in northwestern colorado is a high volatile product it averages close to british thermal units and some of it is above B t u it is equal in all respects to any of the coals in competitive markets farther down the white river along the line of the proposed railroad is the rangely langely oil field this field is covered by report made by hoyt S gale and published in bulletin no of the united states geological survey the producing wells in the field have been plugged awaiting the provision of transportation to market the oil has a base and is free from asphalt in color it is clear light red with a strong green fluoresce fluorescence ace closely resembling that of many of the pennsylvania oils although perhaps slightly darker than the average its odor is like that of kerosene much resembling sem bling that of a refined oil it is apparently free from sulphur the specific gravity of the crude alt on from well no 1 is or 44 degrees baume it would therefore be described as a very thin light oil As the white river approaches its confluence with the green it enters a hydrocarbon field the like of which has been found nowhere else in the world except in the ural mountains there are perhaps twenty varieties of these hydrocarbons among them gilsonite and the useful products made from these hydrocarbons are almost without number and the acquisition of some of the principal veins by certain great corporations conati atutes an interesting chapter in the industrial history of the west A report on the of this field will be found in bulletin no united states geological survey the deposits of the white river valley should be mentioned in any description of its mineral resources is an ore of uranium and vanadium and is highly radioactive it occurs as impregnations in sandstone along fracture planes it is cheaply mined but the recovery and separation of the uranium and vanadium present some difficult problems A report on the uranium and vanadium of rio blanco county will be found in bulletin no united states geological survey the fact that dr A bourquin the french consul in denver has received a request from his government to make a report on the uranium ores of colorado indicates an active demand for the product aside from the on the western slope the only uranium ore in the state is the pitchblende of gilpin county |