Show of ron county JOHN M FOSTER attorney at law cedar city utah there is no locality any where to be found that offers a better opportunity for the study of pure geology than the he region extending from cedar city southward to the bottom of the grand canyon anyon of the colorado and there is 10 ther other 0 locality of the same dimensions which contains a greater variety of at minerals of economic value than iron county yet both of these fields have been almost wholly until the past few years aside from the great bodies of iron ore are in the iron mountain district and westward into the bull valcy district we have in this county and extending into kane county a reat body of bituminous coal cover ng six hundred square miles of ground this vein of coal outcrops near the top of the cedar mountain east of cedar city appears again in several places in coal creek canyon and is seen in many outcrop out cropping east as far as Or derville it is approximately five feet thick on an average no doubt the same vein extends westward from the fault plane just east of cedar city but is buried too deep for one to determine the thickness or extent while this coal has supplied iron county and to a limited extent washington county with coal from the working of four or rive five mines in coal creek canyon and the mountain since the first settlement of utah yet there has been no extensive development of the vein to the present time in the south end of this county in the vicinity of new harmony there are three distinct veins of coal extending into washington county from iron ron county at this place the great intrusions of andesite forming the pine valley mountain and the mountains northward have converted the bituminous ZU into an anthracite eastward extending from iron county into kane county there is a vein of cannel coal approximately six feet thick this coal is comparative ly rare and used chiefly for the making of bricketto bric ketts burning in open grates and producing gas no development work has been done on this coal and at present it is too far from a rail road to be of commercial value beneath the coal a few hundred feet and out cropping on the face of cedar mountain is a great body of the best quality aliby of gypsum the stratum of wis this mineral seems to be coextensive with the coal in coal creek canyon and within two miles of cedar city the gypsum is Is completely exposed in many places all of the overbearing rock having been completely away this deposit will not remain neglected much longer in ili the mountains extending from STew castle northward lead silver gold and copper are found in a great many different places none of these veins have been developed to any axce extent ul except the property of J E R richards and his associates the best deposit of gold yet discovered in iron county is found at state line here there was avas considerable activity about twenty five years ago but aut the camp was abandoned without halt half testing out the field the gold occurs there at the contract of two igneous intrusions one a porphyry and the other a more basic rock but I 1 examined it carefully enough to know just what it is the gold found in this camp was of very high grade we have limestone and building stone of unlimited quantities and of good quality both of which are easily accessible access able and none of which is used to any appreciable extent shale and gravel lie at our door this material makes excellent surface for roads and has already been used to a considerable extent in building the roads of this county on several occasions over two hundred bundred loads per day of this material has been put on the streets of cedar city by voluntary service potash and phosphates are found to some extent in the strata east cast of ce continued on page fo four u r minerals of iron county continued froni pace one dar city but probably in not sufficient richness to pay for shipment these minerals however have helped to nake up the soil of cedar valley which is not surpassed by any soil to be fund found on the continent whether there is any oil in this county remains to be discovered we know we have some oil formations and the presidium of oil outcrops in pid fid diers canyon and in coal creek canyon but as yet no holes have been put down the country is pretty well faulted and broken up except in cedar valley and westward into the escalante valley in these places it would seem would be most favorable for wells according to statistics from several sources mainly that of the united states government the iron ore body found in iron county is the largest known in the world today its dimensions men are twenty four miles north and south and six to eight miles east and west surface showings at what is known as iron springs lindsay hill desert mound and the three peaks just twelve miles west of cedar city indicate that there is an unlimited quantity diamond drill tests have been made in the district mentioned shows the depth of the ore to be in the neighborhood of feet and at that depth is quite heavily with copper in the iron mountain and blow out district of the iron ore belt the I 1 surface showing are equal if not larger than in the first mentioned district the blow out surface showing is surely purely a mountain of ore of a very ligh high quality tests having proven that mhd he ore runs from 48 43 per cent pure iron to 78 per cent in the iron springs district the fron content of the ore averages 43 per cent tut but is of avery high grade in fact it is claimed that the ore from this section makes the best bessemer steel and is coveted by the corporations who use iron in the manufacture of their products this vast body of ore remained undeveloped until four years ago when the advent of the railroad from lurid lund to cedar brought on a stimulus in the iron development through the columbia steel corporation which erected a large smelting smelling sm elting plant at ironton near provo city utah the completion of this iron plant forced the columbia steel to do a great deal of development work and the company opened up large workings in ag iron on springs S p rings mining nii n ing the ore by the glory oily hole ole process on an average ironton of 1000 tons per day shipped to finally last year the columbia are el decided to add a second unit to the plant at ironton which again necessitated great development and a deal was made by this company with the milner interests owners of the desert mound property a large hill bill of ore of high grade capped only with a small covering of limestone at the desert mound the second ore crushing ma machine chirke was erected which is the second largest ore crusher in columba the un united ted states temporarily the columbia a steel is shipping thi ore daily from fr the desert mound while repairs and 1 further stripping of ore is going on at iron springs and a new camp and shipping ground being got ready at iron mountain so that sufficient tonnage per day can be had to supply the first and second units of the smelting smelling sm elting plant at ironton the ore of this section is also used for fluxing flexing purposes in the great smelters shelters sm elters of precious ores in northern utah and it has proven to be the best found in the intermountain inter mountain west the development so far done is only a small beginning if reports current are to be relied the upon colorado fuel iron with large united holdings the states steel the pacific coast steel and other are working to the end for further development of the ore the claim being the pacific coast manufacturers are desirous of securing the ore are for their purposes as it ranks higher in quality than any known in all nf tu ti ii f |