Show minerals a of iron county JOHN M POSTER FOSTER attorney at af law cedar city utah there is no locality any where to be found that offers a better 0 opportunity pot unity for the study of pure geo geology S agy ogy than the region extend extending i ng from cedar city southward to the bottom b ot torn of the grand canyon of the colorado and there is no other locality odthe same dimensions which contains a greater variety of minerals of economic value than does iron county yet both of these fields have been almost wholly neglected until the past few years aside from the great bodies of iron ore tn in the iron mountain district and extending westward into the bull valley district we have in this county and extending into kane county a great reat pody body of bituminous coal covering F six hundred square miles or of ground this vein of coal outcrops near the top of the cedar mountain just east of cedar city appears again in several places in coal creek canyon and is ia seen in many 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 cast of cedar cited city but is buried too deep for one to determine the thickness or extent white while this coal has supplied iron county and to a limited extent washington county with coal from the working of four or five mines in coal creek canyon and the mountain since the tint firt settlement of utah yet there has beeri 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 I 1 iron ro A county at this place the great intrusions of f andesite forming the pine valley mountain and the mountains northward have converted the bituminous coal into inte art an anthracite eastward extending from li lion iron on county into kane county there is a vein of cannel approximately coal six feet thick this coal isi comparative ly rare and used chiefly for the making of bricketto bric ketts burning in open grates grains 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 outcropping cropping out on thi the face of cedar mountain is a great body of the best bality quality of gypsum the stratum of this is mineral see seems TAS to be coextensive with the coal in caa coal I 1 creek canyon s and within two miles of cedar dar city the gypsum is completely exposed in many places all of the overbearing rock having been completely away this deposit depoo it will not remain neglected much longer I 1 I 1 I 1 in the mountains extin extending ding from newcastle northward lead silver gold and copper are found in a great many different places none of these veins have been developed to any ex extent me except the property of J B R Ri richards charas and his associates the best deposit of gold yet discovered in iron county is found at state line here alere there was considerable activity about twenty five years ago but the camp was abandoned without half testing out the field the gold occurs there at t the contract of two igneous intrusions ofie one a balry porphyry and theother the other a more basic ro rock dc but ut I 1 examined it carefully enough to know just what wis it is the gold fout found idin in this ca camp mp was of ve very ni high gh grade we we have ave limestone and build buildup buil dug hg stone of unlimited quantities and of good gua quality lity both of which are easily ic accessible access ces sabie able and none of which is used to any appreciable extent shale and gravel lie at our door this material makes make s excellent surface for roads and has already lieen been used to a considerable extent in building the roads of this county on several occasions over two hundred 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 cast of ce continued continued on page pace four W 4 q 1 1 i d p k of 0 f J J C e d V daae one jr alij 1 gujt wa P ly in T not fiat sufficient for shipment these obese in minerals Ine rals chowe yer ta bave helped to nake up the soll soil of cellar valley realley which I 1 soil sofi to be oatle found 0 o on the continent whether 1 there ii fit an pm oil in this county remains to be discovered we anokye know we hare some formations and the of oil outcrops in fid adlers canyon and in d in coal creek canyon but as as yet ano no holes I 1 have been put down ya thea be I 1 country is pretty well faulted and ind broken V ro k up except excel t in cedar valley and we westward into the escalante valley in I these places it would seim seem would be most favorable for wells Q 1 Accordi according neto to statistics from several a sources 0 u r c est I 1 ma mainly I 1 illy that of the united states s t t government the iron ore body found hi rn iron county is the largest known in the world today its dimensions men are twenty four miles north and south and six sit 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 arill tests have been made m in the district mentioned shows thi the depth of at the ore to be b e inthe neighborhood of bf feet and at that depth is quite heavily with copper ln in the iron mountain and blow I 1 out district of the tha iron ore belt the surface showing are equal if not larger than in the first mentioned district the blow out surface showing is 91 purely 1 e ly a mountain of 06 ore of a very 1 high r 91 x quality qua i ity tests having proven that the ote ore runs from 48 per cent pure iron ironto to 78 7 per cent fifthe in the iron springs district tho the affo iron n content of the ore averages 43 per cent but is of a very high grade in fact it is claimed that tho the ore from fr om this section makes the best bessemer steel and is coveted by the corporations who use iron in the manufacture of their products to I 1 this vast aaa body of ore remained undeveloped until fourbears four years ago w when h en the advent of the railroad from lund Lun d to cedar brought on a stimulus in the iron from development through ji rou g h 1 the columbian steel corporation which erected a 4 large smelting smelling sm elting plant at ironton near provo city utah the com completion of this iron plant forced the columbia Coldin bli steel to do a great deal of development work and the company opened up t large workings in iron springy mining the he ore by the glory hole process on an average of 1000 tons per pei jj day shipped to ironton finally last desir year the columbia effel d decided to add a second d unit to the plant at ironton which again necessitated great development and a deal was made by this company wi with th the milner interests owners of the desert D esert alph M mound property a large hill of ore of high grade de capped only with a small covering of limi limestone istone at atthe the desert mound gound the second ore crushing machine was erected which is the abo second largest ore Ibrus crusher ber in the united states temporarily the columbia steel is shipping hi ore daily from fro inthe the desert altu mound n while repairs and further stripping of ore is going on at iron springs and h a and shipping ground being got ready at taron 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 it at ironton the ore orthis of this section is also ased for fluxing flexing purposes in the great 8 shelters smelters sm it elters of precious ores Nor northern thirn utah and it has proven to be the best fo the intermountAIn inter mountain west the th e development develop men vip ao far fai done is 4 only h i fy al a 1 small beginning current arato art to be relied upon the Cold colorado rado fuel iron with larger holdings the united states steil steel the pacific coast steel and othe rare working r the end for further development ot he ahe athe ore the claim being the pacific t st at manufacturers are i desirous of cecur ing ine the ore ord fora their purposes us it ranks higher high fir inequality an fn t than any known I 1 in all of 61 West Wes X United n states |