, 1882-01-21

This is the only blast iron furnace III
Western Washington. 1t was erected a
little less than two years ago by JOINT
stock company of much capital, who COM
menoed active operations in April lsso-
The capital stock WAS s5O,Ooo IN 9o,oo
shares Of 80 each Mr.. Cyrus Walker,
Of Port Gamble, was elected president,
Mr.. II. L. Blanchard secretary, and Mr..
d. ". Moore superintendent They
bought 10 acres Of water front at the
head Of Por, Townsend Bay, which Is a
salendid bay OF deep, safe, navigaoie
waters FIVE miles broad and thirteen miles
long. Large ships can anchor near this
bias, furnace. The Company have built
a blast furnace, foaster, an ore crusher,
a large heated air blower, sheds, dwell
ings and business houses, and charcoal
house holding 10000 bushels Of char
coal. They have leased 600 acres OF land
two miles west of the furnace for 8 years
of the farmers in Chimakum Valley,
which land has a layer OF very rich hem
attic bog iron two feet thick neai the
surface Of the land. The Company pay
% cents per ton royalty for the ore. The
whole valley seems To be underlaid with
this IRON ore. The valley is Ixlo miles
in extent. The metal from this ore
proved to be too soft for general uses OF
pig iron. So the Company leased OF K.
p. Rithil Of Victoria, b. c., and OF
Hugh Nelson and James Nantremer,
of Bunard Inlet, B. c., for 8 years from
August Ist 1880, SiS acres, with the
privilege OF purchase at stipulated rate
at the end Of three years, part OF an
actual iron mountain which has been
heayed up from the bottom of the deep
sea in times past by volcanic process.
Thousands Of millions of tons of this
rich magnetic iron ore is cast down to the
bottom of the mountain, naked, IN frag-
ments all ready to be loaded into ships or
barks, except some of the larger pieces
which have to be blasted. This noun
tain is upon the island OF Texada, in the
district of New Westminster, b. e., and
about 4S miles north northwest from
Nansimo. 1t lies lS0 miles. from Iron
dale The Company pay for tins ore %
cents per ton royalty to the owners OF the
iron mountain They are to take away
not less than ), 900 tons of this ore each
year. About 90 large cargoes OF this ore
have been delivered at lrondale. Sixty
per cent of the Texada magnetic ore,
and 40 per cent. Of the hematite iron ore
are worked together.
The ores when beat up with sledges is
placed in the rcaster, where all the sui
phnr, copper, arsenic and water are
burnt out. 1t is then placed III the
steam crIsher, where it is crushed to
small pieces, when it is raised fifty feet
and placed III the blast furnace. The
lime for use costs them five dollars pei
ton at their wharves
These ores cost the company only tive
dollars per ton delivered at their wharves.
They smelt out twelve tons per day The
pig metal sells at about $50 per ton where
made. The quality of this metal is equal
to any other such in the world.
They are preparing to double theiI
quantity of pig metal. They intend to
erect large rolling mills at lrondale OF
Oakland, Cal. shortly. But it is nearly
sure that the place viii be lrondale,
This experiment has proved eminently
successful to the company, whose mem,
bers are mostly in San Francisco. Neal
the bluffs OF that bay and in them is found
vast deposit of fre-lroof clay for pot
ter's ware. tiles and brick. The company
talk Of having this clay worked exten'
! sively next year. DAVID NEwSOME-
January, 1882.