, 1888-01-05
THE FUTURE GREAT
Wyoming the Coming Scene
of Immense Activity.
Its Mineral Wealth Attracting
Universal Attention.
Growth Which Will Follow
the Railroads Trail.

$500 ~ N1S0
upon a considerable percentage of its gen
parts. The outlook for the stock growing
interests was never better. The grass is
good and plentiful, there has been no
scarcity Of rain, and the cattle are in good
heart to stand the winter. Small herders
have zone out of the business and over
production is ceasing.
But the mineral of the terri
tory are attracting most attention. WYo-
ming has long been known as a great pro-
Queer of coal. Her output of coal cannot
now fall much short of a million tons per
annum 1t comes to Salt Lake, it goes
to Virginia City and San Francisco, it
finds its way to Denver, and all through
Nebraska to the Missouri, there is an in
c~reasing demand for it from the ever in
creasing settlement in that ~treeless state.
When the westward setting tide followed
the Kansas Nebraska act across the Big
Muddy in lS54.6c, everybody headed for
bleeding Kansas, no one regarded Ne
braska as worth a thought. Twenty years
later, QSS0) she had but $50, 600 popula-
ton, she now has 900, 900. Maj. Wilkes,
who went across the state last September
in the newer parts OF it with a railroad
expedition, says he never set eyes on a
finer farming land or upon finer farms
and crops. AT the same time, poor Kan
sas, from the failure o fthe rains, made not
half a crop.
Within twenty days all have heard
much of a coal famine in those states,
and especially in Kansas, yet an expert
figures up 600 millions of tons of market
able coal in a single quarter section at the
Twin Creeks, one of Wyoming's coal
fields which comprises 10000 acres. 1t
must be. that the railroads required to get
this coal down into this valley and over
on the West Coast and into Nebraska and
Kansas where it is wanted will soon be
built. The deposits of coal in Wyoming
are wide in area, and some of the veins
are a hundred feet thick with no waste.
A Pennsylvania expert who examined the
Twin Creeks coal field says that a railroad
tunnel through the ridge which contains
the coal would enable a million tons a
year to be shot down on the cars for a
hundred years. The supply Is practically
unlimited.
On or near the North Platte, in the
vicinity Of Independence Rock are liter
ally mountains OF iron ore, supposed from
analysis Of samples to be the best of Bes-
semer ore. There never was more beau
titul ore to the eye. The fine coal of
Bitter creek is believed to extend north
ward to the Swcetwater. Whether this
iron ore can at present be changed into
iron and steel on the Sweetwatcr or the
North Platte, near where it lies, to profit,
is perhaps problcmatical. 1t can hardly
be so regarded, however, if we look
ahead a few years, and contemplate the
ever coming population with their rail-
roads and machines and all kinds of uses
for iron. The Michigan and Wisconsin
(Lake SUPERIOR iron mines are shipping
between four million and five million tons
Of ore per annum to Chicago, Cleveland
and Pittsburg. So prodigious an output
must tell on them in a few years, and new
sources OF supplies will have to be sought.
1t is not a violent supposition that this
ore even now might be transported East
at q profit. The haul is long, the guam
tity unlimited. 1t is down grade most of
the way, and empty cars have often to
be hauled eastward.
In the same neighborhood, about indie
pendence Rock, are the Soda lakes. picked
up by the Duponts, powder makers OF
Delaware, nearly twenty years ago. If
there is a ton of bi-carbonate of soda, the
base Of several articles of everyday use,
everywhere, in these lakes, there are ten
million tons, and if it is valuable at all it
is worth a dollar a ton as it lies. All the
soda in its various forms used in the
United States might be supplied from
these lakes for fifty years. 1t can be
transported to Chicago for manufacture
or manufactured on the spot, SO as to I'M
dersell the imported article, if the tariff
on the latter be left undisturbed. Some
of the lakes are filed almost to the brim
with it, and the process of depositing it
from the water goes or pcrpetually. Like
the contents Of the widows cruise, there
fore, it can be taken out with little per-
ceptiblc diminution Of the supply.
Then there are the oil fields on the up
per a~fiuents Of the Big Horn and Of
Powder rivers. These fields promise to
prove DIS rich as any in the world, They
are dotted all over with surface indica-
tons and in area they comprise nearly one
fourth of the territory. The oil found
swimming on the surface Of springs is of
most excellent quality. Let no one imag-
inc that there will be no market for this
product, that there is too much oil now.
New uses are being found for it, AMI es-
pecially one most NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
1t for coal as fuel for locomotives and ma
rine engines. Although it is to be piped
from eastern oil fields to Chicago, as it
long has been to the sea-board, it is not
likely to ever be cheaper than it is now.
1t is not among the paper resources of
our sister territory. 1t is one of her most
genuine and will become one of her most
important sources of wealth.
Again, there are the gold mines of the
Wind River range. Something, but not
much, has been done towards their devel-
opment in a single locality. Something,
but very little as yet, is known oftheir OK
tent and possibilities. The same thing
may be said OF veins OF copper, of beds Of
manganese, and no one knows what other
minerals and metals.
Finally, the key to unlock all these
treasures is fairly inserted in the front
door of the great treasure box. One rail-
road has long rested upon the southern
border of the territory, and upon its splcn-
did steel track the iron horse has rgonc
back and forth. through sunshine and
storm, through the day and the night,