Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-01-28
The Puget Sound Iron Works.

The Puget Sound Iron Company
was incorporated under the laws of
Washington Territory, July 20, 1879,
with lis principal place of business
located at Port Townsend, Jefferson
county, Washington Territory, its
object being the mining and smelt.
ing of iron ores in that vicinity;
chiefly the Chimacum iron ore. San
Francisco capitalists were prevailed
upon to furnish the needed finances
for the construction of works on
Port Townsend bay, work upon which
was begun in April last, under the
superintenence of d. w. Moore,
Esq, practical iron manufacturer.
At this writing the works are
NEARING COMPLETION,
And will no doubt be in blast by the
first of February next. An excep-
tionally good furnace has been con-
structed under the charge of Mr..
Fitzgerald of San Francisco, who is
a practical furnace builder of many
years experience. The furnace is
forty feet high, with capacity of
from fifteen to twenty tons of pig
iron, daily. The company have a
new Weimer blowing engine, right
from the Weimer Machine Works,
Lebanon, Pa. The hot blast will be
used. Upwards of 10000 bushels
Of charcoal and 1000 tons of iron
ore from the company's mine are
down at the works. The result will
soon be known. The company have
secured the right to mine with the
privilege of purchasing at a fixed
royalty, as we'll as an absolute grant,
the ores from tho
CHIMACUM IRON MINE,
Situated about one mile from the
furnace; also the famous Texada
iron mine, on Texada island, in the
Gulf of Georgia, distance about 80
miles from the furnace, water trans
portation. The former is composed
of bog and brown hematite iron,
with an average assay of 55 per
cent. pure metallic iron. The de-
post runs in line as far as traced,
with an average width of l 500 feet.
Large quantities of the ore are from
two to four feet thick, lying exposed
in many places, where thousands Of
tons can be mined without any dead
work, and in other parts the top
soil lies from six inches to three feet
over the beds of ore. 1t is expected
that the cost of mining and deliver
ing this ore to the furnace, incfud-
ing the royalty, will not exceed 50
per ton. The
TEXADA IRON NINE
Differs from the Chimacum in that
it is of volcanic, formation, and the
ores are highly magnetic in their
natural state, essaying upwards OF
20 per cent. of pure iron of superb
or quality. This is a very large
mine and we are reliably informed
exposes on it's surfect by actual
measurement, more than 300, 900
tons of it's orc. Reliable mineralo-
gists report this mine as containing
not less than from nine to ten mil
lion tons of ore. 1t is easily acces-
sible to water transportation, a
chute 500 feet long conveying the
ore from the place where the mine
is opened to q pier, alongside OF which
vessels receive the ore. This ore,
including duty, will cost, delivered
Ar'THE FURNACE,
About 50 so per ton. The iron COM
pany hope for a superior quality of
iron from their ores, in which event
a fourishing iron manufacturing in
dustry will have been added to the
various industries on Puget Sound.
Up to the present time this company
have only employed the men neces-
sary to construct its works, and to
get in small quantity OF charcoal
anG iron ore for testing purposes;
but it is expected that this iron en-
terprise will give steady employ
ment to from 25O to 800 men as soon
as it is started in a business way.
The officers of the company are as
follows: Cyrus walker, ii. L..
Blanchard and d. w. Moore, Trus-
tees; Cyrus Walker, President;
Louis Poole, Secretary; G. II. Simp-
kins, Treasurer, and D. W. Moore,
Superintendent. All except q. w.
Simpkins reside near the locality OF
the company's works, and he is a
resident of San Francisco.
CoLoRED Baptist associations in
the West are beginning to take steps
Cor tho sunnort of missions in Africa.