Show i GILSONITE PRODUCTION NEARS MILLION DOLLAR MARK J AU u n AI New lew Uses for Product Make Industry Vital VU Pan American Interests Are Am Seeking to Buy Up De Deposits posits of in Ulu Uin Uin-tah Uin tali tah County Named for i Discoverer Discover I When Samuel H Gilson carried home in 1885 a sack of sub sub- substance sub substance stance and filled the tha family a 8 pots Istance and p pins with the messy m sy stuff stun as Mrs Glison Gilson termed It heas he as aas B S be be an Industry that Is roW roar An almost exclusive Utah enterprise For so named In hon hon- honor honor hon honor or of the man wan who ho discovered ItIs It tt Is today used by manufacturers manufacturer of high class varnishes japans a acid ld proof paints waterproofing com coin compounds pounds Insulation and mineral rubber Iras has been In such demand demand de- de mand that Inn American interests haw have sent representatives hero liere her to seek to buy up rights to mini mine the hydrocarbon deposited In the talc tah mountains Gilsonite Is said to be found In fn Rumania Mexico and De- De Deku Ba Baku ku but so far tar as is la known cast eastern east cast ern irn Utah hold holds the only deposits producing producing- commercial quantities inthe inthe In Inthe the United States M 50 Mlles Miles 1 Square In an area approximately fA f 0 miles mUes square In Uinta s fund and Duchesne counties five companies now pros proa- proa for commercial Oll aU onite The Uintah Basin Dasin fields are bounded as M follows 8 Pi cm a point 10 lo miles northeast of Roosevelt Roose elt southeast for 60 50 aniles to a n point near the Colorado Utah state tate line west bout O SO miles mUC northwest t to a short distance northwest of My Myton ton and thence 20 miles back to the point of beginning The largest developments de are I east of or Roosevelt near Myton My ton Ft Duchesne add at Watson near the Colorado line Une When Mr first fir t found the tha Ithe substance which he thought wa was an oil shale he called It Uintah- Uintah lie Because of his own Uon tion 10 lor it vas as he who discovered ered many uses for the bitumen others honored the discoverer by naming It Gilsonite And today the mineral min min- eral era I Is known throughout the world by that name The prospector Gilson who went to California In the gold rush and also Aas as among the first to work wort in the famous Comstock sIlver lod lCK tIn In Nevada was truly pre one pres pioneer He Sr lie i field fieldS s S re e are several stories as t to- to to how Mr GUson Gilson first discovered th the the- hydrocarbon One tale is that fir a groundhog nas as kicking up thE tho coat case black substance when Mr came became came Interested d Another was that red ants carried small par par- par particles of the mineral to their mound and the prospector found them Tells of Find But Dut Mrs Gilson 90 80 years old In her home in Salt Lake City gave her version erslon of the find as clearly and graphically as though the dis- dis ery co was made yesterday middles Mr Mr Gilson had been to the mid mid- est with fifth ith a load of ot horses he had sold and was returning to OUt our home in Salina canyon when he stopped overnight at Rt the Fort Du- Du Duchesne Du Duchesne chesne Indian reservation a good friend of ot the Shoshone End and Pluto Indians Mrs Gilson said An An Indian chief told Mr Gil- Gil Gilson OU I saidI son the tribesmen had found und a substance which wouldn t bu buTi n n The I Indians took tool Samuel to a ledge that contained the black mineral I 11 never er forget the I g brought the substance home Then began A t series of experiments that as aas distracting to me because every ev- ev every jery ev-jery ery place I there was some someI of the sticky stuff He made chew chew- chewing chew chewing ing gum paint Insulation for wires and painted the piles at Saltair M Most t of Df his experiments proved hat chat a useful mineral Gilsonite I actually Is Although Mr Gon Gilson sold one o I mine several set others including Isome some of the mot most valuable sUPPed slipped ay a from him hint because of his fail failure ure to file upon the claims others applying and being granted per per- permits permits per permits I mits to work tho the properties The Gilsonite may be found in I vein from a few Inches to 18 feet I wide Near Watson the Rainbow vein has been mined fur tor a length of three miles mUes and to a depth oP of more than feet teet in places places- places But But the best quality Is to ta taken e from a depth of at least 70 f feet t below the I Continued on page four foam UINTAH GILSONITE PRODUCTION TION NeARS MARK T from page one one- one surface resembles solid asphalt It Is 1 more homogeneous than coal is very pure requiring no refining lor or other treatment when hen properly I mined Although Its general uses es have previously preciously been enumerated rec recently manufacturers hair ha learn learn- learned learned learned ed that GiLsonite is adaptable in refrigeration where a higher melt melt- melting fag ing point that that by asphalt or other petroleum residues I required rn r Valuable Experiments have hll convinced the manufacturers that Gilsonite Is es- es especially especially es especially adaptable for cementing hardwood hard cod tile to floors In concrete buildings and for attaching cork cork- corkwood corkwood wood linings to refrigeration chambers cham cham- chamI chambers bers I the th annual production of 1817 1917 has varied be- be between be between tween tons In 1921 to tons In 1920 with w the discovered new u uses es the Industry is Ie expected to attain new production records In the t e next net few years Following Is the tho Industry s record rec- rec record rec record ord since 1917 1917 35 tons 1918 1018 30 tons 1919 34 tons 1920 1020 56 tons 1921 10 tons 1922 29 tons 1923 34 tons 2 1924 35 tons 1925 39 tons 1926 tons i 1927 42 tons 1928 47 tons 1 1929 42 tons 1 1930 37 tons 1931 1031 32 tons 1932 25 tons 1933 28 tons 1934 30 tons 1935 35 tons tans 1936 33 tons Through Shafts I I Today Gilsonite is mined thru shaft mines which drift and slop slope oft off at intervals into the bearing fissures similar to the usual run of ore and mineral producing mines minE's I The fissures extend downwards nl to the upper of at the ba- ba basin I ba-I ba sin beds The depth of the explored explored ed deposits averages average close to 1000 feet Hauled to the surface the ore Is shipped In its natural state Gilsonite Gil- Gil I is transported In carload lots from Craig Watson and Heber While V much of the Gilsonite is hauled to railroad points In large trucks the Gilson Asphaltum com com- company company pany a subsidiary of the General Asphalt company of Philadelphia which owns acre acres In the he DB- DB Basin Ba Basin sin has a narrow guage railroad 68 miles long running from Mack Colo to Watson Tribune Watson Tribune |