Show I THE GREAT IRON DEPOSITS j General View of Them and their Immensity The Locations I Comparatively little Is known by the I general public of tho discovery and an j dent workings of the Immense iron and coal deposits of Iron county which arc Just now attracting the attention BO many mining men and capitalists not only 1 within the borders of our own Nation Na-tion but also of Europeans That It exists here in almost limitless quantities ties and rich In quality Is well understood under-stood but why It has never been util ised to any material extent or how KB i discovery came about Is a subject on which little has been written and It Is tp the purpose of enlightening thoae Interested I In-terested In Its early history that this chapter Is dedicated THE DISCOVERY From the best accounts obtainable j Iron ore was probably first djscovered 1 In Iron county In the year JSfiO by a company of explorers under the leadership I I lead-ership of George A Smith On the I was duly recognized and took his satIn sat-in the winter of 185L The finding of the Iron was reported to President Young and In October of ISol an expedition was fitted out to set Ik on Coal creek or the Little Muddy and commence the manufacture of Iron At Parowan a number of residents who had had experience In the old world In the working of iron Joined the expedition expedi-tion and came with their families to this valley settling on tho north side of the creek where they built a fort for protection against the Indians This consumed the winter of 5152 but the following summer a company was organized or-ganized and preparations for the manufacture man-ufacture of Iron commenced The following fol-lowing were members of the original company Richard Harrison George Wood Jonathan Pugmlrc Thomas Cnrtwrlght Joseph Bateman Joseph Walker Henry Lunt Joseph Chatter icy Benjamin Hultz Thomas Bluden and James BosnUH Of a large pine tree a water wheel was constructed and two blowing cylinders the machinery being propelled by waterpower water-power A small experimental furnace was constructed pf adobes lined with fire clay and white washsand from the creek The iron was hauled ten miles Jfrom tiro Great Western iron mine at Iron springs and after belngcalcined was put to a test In the n diminutive furnace The result wia most gratifying A quality of Iron was produced which experts pronounced superior to the Eastern product Thirteen Thir-teen small pigs were smelted out averaging about thirty pounds each from whloh a number of castings were made among them being dogIrons for a lire place These wero taken to Salt Jake City and exhibited on the stand at the next semiannual conference of the Mormon church The ftirnac being of adobes of course did not last Jong and I larger concern now coming upon theBCeno the smaller company was absorbed Into It Tho principal promotersof the latter company com-pany arc TCrastus Snow Franklin D Hlehards and Messrs Arthur and Ten i nant The new company was Incorporated Incorpo-rated under the name of I TUB DI3SERET IRON COMPANY Erastus Snow posing as president I This latter project was conceived in Wales by Mormon missionaries some of whole converts were experienced Ironworkers About one hundred people peo-ple Immigrated from Proo and other northern settlements and apparently n I boom was on Furnaces were con I structcd lit a cost of 7000 and for the second time tho manufacture of Iron was commenced In Iron county this time in 1SG1 The funraccs were of n substantial I character HC Into Buns Morris having charge of the nrchitec tiinl t I work and everything appeared propitious for the cnUijprlae nut the fond hopes of the promoters were dnomcd to disappointment Inexperienced Inexperi-enced persons were placed at the hoad or the project who did not understand treating the ores and the product wag so hard us to be almost useless Having I Hav-ing no chemist at hand they were unable un-able to detect the defect Some say that the dlfllculty resulted from the use I mf what was supposed lo be bog ore but what In reality was copper ore others that the blast was not strong enough whllo yet others held that the right kind of Iron ore was not used Whatever was the mistake however the project proved a failure and wan finally abandoned entirely The last I attempt of this company 10 make lon I was In 1S3G URKAT WESTERN IRON COMPANY I After a suspense of some four years I It wus again decided to erect I j plant j for the manufacture of Iron and accordingly 1 ac-cordingly about 1870 the Great Western Iron company was organized By this time the superiority of the Iron City Iron had been discovered and the new plant was erected at that place Among the heavier contributors to the later enterprise were John W Young Nleho lous Groosby James Williamson Um Head Rencher and Thomas Taylor The expense of building up the town ercctng smelters shops etc and supplying sup-plying thc needed machinery consumed about 200000 In the previous attempts at-tempts to smelt Iron a mixture of co can c-an charcoal had been used but this lime charcoal was exclusively employed em-ployed Substantial charcoal pits were erected which arc stiit standing aJ also are n number of the other buildings build-ings The company made many hundreds of tons of excellent Iron much of which Is 1 still on the ground the properly of Thomas Taylor the present owner Castings were made for the quartz mills at Ploche Bristol and Bulllon vllle and quantities of pig was shipped all the way to Salt Lake City by team where It was used by DavIe Howe Co the Salt Lake foundry under the management of Thomas Plerpont and by William J Silver all of whom pronounced pro-nounced the product first class Silver manufactured the finest kindsof castings cast-Ings platen with filigree work etc which require thievery best of Iron r was In fact declared to be better than the Plttsburg product But with all the success attained by the latter company in the merit of their output the project proved a financial failure on account of being so far removed re-moved from the railroad the nearest terminus then being at Salt Lake City The company became heavily involved Thomas Taylor of Salt Lat City who had credited them to the amount of 10000 worth of merchandise from his store being the heaviest creditor The company confessed Judgment to Mr Taylor who thus came into possession or the entire property which at thin time consisted oCa Julei ted quartr section of land with the buildings upon I l the tlllo tothe small stream of water and some thirty Iron claims with no government title to any of them The property was a white elephant ele-phant up6n his hands and he offered to sell a onehalf the c st to him but was unable to do so and was consequently conse-quently obliged to make the best of this bargain ot By a careful analysis of thtf t various ores he was enabled setycf the best of the claims which he proceeded to patent Ho also acquired bal lands In the canyon east of Cedar City At the time Mr Taylor came Into possession of his iron properties he was financially able to have carried on the manufacture of Iron on quite an extensive scale but he was so constantly con-stantly harassed by people who wero trying to force his acquisitions from him that he was eompolled to waste the bulk of his fortune In litigation Mr Taylor came Into possession of the property In 1877 twentytwo years ago UgO and has since labored Incessantly to place It to an advantage Ho has sought to convince capital of the I excellence ex-cellence of the opportunity It offered for a safe Investment he has repeated ly tried to organize f cOQ an of capitalists capi-talists to take up the project offering to turn In his holdings for stock In tho company but always met with rebuttal rebut-tal he made a trip to Europe for the purpose of raising capital to further fur-ther his projects but reached there Just at the time of the breaking out of tho SpanlshAmcrlcjin war The Englishmen profQsslng to be doubtful as to Its outcome refused to invest money In American territory until un-til the war was settled Mr Taylor was obliged to return home with the Injunction Injunc-tion to return when the war was ended and his project would receive consideration consider-ation as his only solace rIme has I dragged on until It now seems reasonably reason-ably certain that a sale of his proper ties Is about to be accomplished I THE BLOWOUT The cut shown on this page gives the I I apex of tho Blowout mine owned by Mr I Taylor which holds undisputed title to being the best Iron deposit In the country I Is 1000 feet In length by POO I I feet In width and rises from the level of the earth IRQ feet at the apex a sold muss of Iron almost pure On the top of the ore may be seen Mr Taylor and I I Don Magulre while on tho side Is shown William Taylor son of the Vlllnm the proprietor pro-prietor The pine tree In the left of the I cut Is growing in the sold Iron ore Time photo was taken for the Worlds Columbian exposition where It was exhibited with samples Ore from the I 1 same mine which were awarded first I prize Specimens of the ore from the i Blowout have assayed as high as 70 I I per cent metallic Iron I I Bcsldps tho wonderful Blowout Mr Taylor has a considerable number of other very valuable Iron proportion om bracing the best nnd richest proponl tlons that tho district affords Within them are Included magnetite hemetltc world and all tho other varieties known to the VAST FIELDS OF COAL I would bo an utter impossibility Lo give n correct Idea I of the extent and ImpoiTance of the iron deposits of Iron county without making reference to tho vast titIds of coni so nearly arc tho to commodities allied to each other Ih tho industrial pursuits of tho world While on the culcrn side of the valley the mighty mountains of Iron rear their I majestic peaks to the east lies slum boring their dusky brother none tho less gigantic for being lens revealed The coal fields of thin region which have been 30 materially enhanced In value by 1 the discovery of the Hem mlngway process of coking will probably proba-bly never be exhausted They have been traced back as far as the Colorado Colo-rado river and It Is a popular theory that they even extend beneath the city I and out Into the valley but whether or not this theory bo trite there Is enough coal In the hlllK cast of town to supply all tho country that could bo mudo tributary to Lime mines for centuries to I come DISCOVERY OF COAL l Coal was first discovered In Iron county In 1810 by Capl Charles C Filch r and Amosy Lyman who were on their I way ullh a company of emigrants to settle In San Bernardino county Cal sette I When crossing Coal creek some distance dis-tance west of the present site of Cedar City they picked up a small piece of coal whereupon ihoy christened the l stream Coal creek and It has ever since been knpwn by this inLine But It was not until the following year that a real vein ofcoal was found In 1S50 Vashburn jChlpman with Bishop Ensign and Peter Shirts were crossing the mountains east of Cedar City when they came upon a vein of coal exposed to view and filled a small grubsack with coal which they carried lo Parowan and burned This was taken ta-ken from what Is now the Cluff mine which consequently la entitled to the distinction of being the first mine discovered dis-covered In the county This was the signal for considerable prospecting l for coal and several other veins were discovered but It was not unlll 1SSO that the first coal filing was made This was on the Vood and Taylor Tay-lor mine which Is now patented and Is recognized as one of the best Tho coal I from this mine Is said to very nearly resemble the Portland coal of England I Is remarkable for Its heatproducing qualities nnd under the llemmlngwuy process will doubtless make a very superior su-perior coke Once the Ice was broken many claims were filed on Some few have been patented some have been held by repeated re-peated filings by various members o tho families concerned while many have been permitted to run out and have been taken by others or still remain re-main vacant Each threatened boom has been the signal for new filings with the expectation that the land was about I I to become suddenly valuable until one by one the majority have sacrlllced I their right to purchase Among time more prominent coalpro ducing mines might be mentioned tho Jones Bulloch mine from which was taken the coal recently experimented upon In Chicago the Cluff mine from whlet considerable Olll Is tnkcir annually an-nually the Corry mine one of thti heaviest woducenv and the Wood Taylor Two or three mines are also being worked hi the vicinity of Kan arra What with the new tilings recently re-cently made and previous tilings not yet expired tho greater portIon of two lownshlps is takon Titl PRECIOUS METALS I seems to bedie theory of many i geologists and experts that the Iron deposits de-posits of Ironjopunbare us they have Irc t been found liiOTanyEpthor places to be the capping loTfabuiGusly I rich treasure vaults of the proclous metals but however how-ever this may boJ It IH a fact that important im-portant finds of silver copper and lead have been made In that vicinity As much ns thirty ypars ago claims In that vicinity were worked for the precious metals THE OLD BLAIR MINE situated some seven miles north of Iron City was extensively worked about the time that the oJ Iron foundries were In operation by Soth N Blair Thousands Thou-sands of dollars was expended In developing devel-oping the property hich carried both silver and copper and shipments were made to Salt Lakoby Uam Later the property was orked quite i extensively by a son of the former proprietor but not being a practical mining man he did it great amount of dead work and finally went broke on the proposition Falling with the assessment work the property was taken In by a company of apparently live PeoPle who are do ing their assessment work and develop ing the property Extensions have boon taken unlll the bounclrks encompass some nine or ten claims The ledge which Is beautifulgray quartz crops from the surface In half a dozen places four or five feet In width and assays have been obtained that run up into the hundreds of ounces In silver 3 percent per-cent copper and a trace of gold I The Page Bros of Little Pinto also I have a promising prospect in the same district which they are working for silver sil-ver and lead and from which they have f obtained llatlerlng assays Copper ore has been shipped from the mouth of Pinto canyon to Salt Lake City all the way by loam and then at a prolU but thus far It has been found only In pockets pock-ets although It Is generally believed that HiLre Is I a good body benoalh Assays As-says have been made showing as high an 70 per cent copper Many people are anxiously watching the situation here and once It watchInG certain that the railroad Is building this way there will be a great Influx In our population With railroad cominunlca lon fstabllahud with the outside world i lIoU county will bo the mOlt prosperous I district In tho Stale In looking over tin history It seems r st range thai tho now murhsoirghtiif tel Iron and coal was allowed to lie so I long unclaimed during the early net j llcrnont of Utah I Was not unlll between be-tween 70 and 72 that the first Iron claim was located by Seth N Blair the claim taken being the Great Western and It was taken up under tho old law as agricultural land But this Is only another example of the shortsightedness shortsighted-ness of mortals Tho God who rules the universe shapes the destinies of men |