Show and geology of the henry mountains ne ile e written for the M mining i n i n g review by M E jones A M ne ne chere HERE is no part of utah which seems to the average man so far away as the henry mountains the reason is that this section is off from all the routes of travel both by y rail and waon wagon until within a few years it was reached only by trail of late years however the demands of the stock men for a short cut into south southeastern eastern utah have led to the building of two roads one of these starts from green river on the R G W railroad and passes over a desert of clay and sand for many miles where there is b but u t little water and the watering places are far apart this road goes t to 0 hanksville Hanks ville on the fremont Frer riv river er and follows around and through the clay hills to t the he henry mountains and to t 0 what is called dandy crossing on the colorado river from dandy Cros siner there is a fair wagon road over to bluff city where connection is made with different routes to arizona new mexico and colorado this road is considered the best in the winter time because there are arc no mountains to cross and because the sand is more easily traversed and there is no trouble from the beat the other road is uie the better one in summer because it is higher is never far away from water has better grass and passes more settlements this route can leave the railroad either at price or salina if it starts from price it follows alono along the settle ments at the base of the coal range to ferron and then runs diagonally down towards hanksville Hanks ville the road leaving salina has to pass over the coal range then down into grass valley and over a branch of the mountains adjoining fish lake down to loa thence with the exception of a few miles it follows the fremont river to hanksville Hanks ville 15 the entire region adjoining the henry mountains is a desert country with no trees sage brush or grass to speak of every ten or fifteen miles alono along the river are settlements of hardy people who have redeemed the desert by water taken from the river A J 1 IL avear the entrance to capitol carh in the henra mountain redion durino during the utah coal age this whole region was alternately above and below the sea from loa to eastern utah and contains large beds of coal and de posits of oil it was at that time nearly level but litter later on a s series e r 1 e s of volcanoes came cam e up in the center of the plain and tilted it up in the form of ofa a great dome but it did not burst through the whole thickness of the beds when these volcanic cores had reached ached re an elevation of about ten thousand feet some of the volcanic matter forced 1 it t way a along 1 0 n g the bedding planes and lifted up the overlying rock in smaller secondary domes at a later time the action of the rain and melting snow wore off the crests of the dome and exposed the volcanic cores now the black mountains of volcanic matter having around their bases other smaller domes stand out in great con in the midst of gray and soft clays which form the desert around them these mountains reminds one of a hen and chickens A lonz lone time after the formation of these mountains there was a second disturbance like but smaller than the first which thrust up large dykes of volcanic matter through the original eruptive rock these dykes run in series parallel to one another and in secondary series crossing the first ones at varying angles they are generally along the hanks flanks of the higher peaks from the nature of the case as the volcanic matter is limited the dykes soon pass out beneath the soft clays of thi the desert the veins of quartz are along these dykes for many years gold has been found in abundance along the colorado river opposite these mountains at dandy crossing but it was supposed to have come from the main river and its branches such as the dolores gunnison and grand rivers it is only re prospectors have found gold in the streams leading deadina down from the henry moun bains this led miners to trace up the gold sufficiently rich to maw a paying and productive mine if properly handled there is practically no water at the mine with the exception of a small spring there is considerable timber along the mountain mountainside side sufficient for fuel and mining use A number of other claims have been located adjoining a the bromide vein both as extensions of it and on parallel veins further up the mountain other veins have been located which run in other directions and further over to the north on the drainage of the main creek which flows from mt ellen near the saw mill are claims showing some gold there is a small amount of placer gold along this creek up to this time practically no work has been done on any claims outside 0 of f th the e bromide mine this is a beautiful region high up in the mountains it is prettily and heavily wooded with yellow pine and other evergreens ever greens it has an abundance of grass and at the saw mill there is a beautiful little stream of the purest and coldest of water there is con lik 00 1 I 1 4 rw S N jr t I 1 41 X ammell I 1 f V I 1 dwar 4 cene on the datil De til vi rivier caer henry mountains desert until it was established that it came f from conf the eruptive rock in the henry mountains after a great deal of prospecting miners at last located some veins on the southeastern side of mt ellen at an elevation of nearly feet above sea level the principal vein discovered was the bromide this thia is a quartz vein lying nearly vertical and running southeast and northwest it runs all the way from a few inches to four feet in width the gold occurs in a chute which is not far under ground and contains very rice values though the hil high ah grade rade ore is not nob so abundant as the low grade the property has been opened up down to water level and considerable ore has been milled or shipped A small stamp mill was erected on this property about ten years ago ago and an attempt made to mill the ore and collect the gold on its short plates this was necessarily a failure because most of the ore is base no attempt was made to handle the tal tailings lings which were run oft off in the gulch and lost the operation of this mill wasby was by the rule of thumb the ore in this property is sid erable game in this region such as deer and chickens the mines are only about twenty five miles from hanksville Hanks ville where produce and supplies can be had there thee the e is no place in utah which affords an opportunity of knowing better what a real desert is like than that which is ia found along the rodd road from loa to the henry mountains mountains the air is as pure as crystal very dry and bracing and the scenery is beautiful as well as strange here the magic rain sculpture on the soft oft s hills has changed chan cred them into the most peculiar and remarkable remarkable remar kalle shapes the different differ ont layers of orrock rock and clay are beautifully colored in bands of bf blue pink yellow green eray and black the clay underlying these beds of rock being softer than the overlying material has worn away so rapidly that most m ost of the hills face the rivers and streams in precipices here the geologist traveling along can read the story of the rocks in the different layers of strata as easily as he be would turn the pages of a book two illustrations of this sect section on are given in this article to show the different kinds of ture this region is valuable not alone for its gold but also for its gypsum oil and anthracite coal |