The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-06

Idaho,s Panhandle is rich in mines Mon.
tana on the north, leads all OF the rest OF
the United States with her production OF
precious metals Here is Wyoming IN the
verv center of famous mining regions. but
without a mining camp OF her own when
is known beyond the borders. TX Nyom-
ing ms gold and silver in her mountains,
and her people have great faith that the
metals are there. the discoveries ana de-
velopmen;s are yet TO come. A slice OF sne
Black Hills country Is within the eastern
boundary of Wyoming. and when the rush
to the pacers took place few years ago
considerable gold was found on the Wy
onting side of the line. But the guiches
have been worked out. and the veins from
which the loose gold in the dirt and gravel
came have not been discovered. The
miners have found encouraging geological
conditions in the Wyoming Black Hills,
but they have not been able to locate ore.
Albany county, in the southwestern part
of the new state has a mining camp on
Douglass creek. where so ore is obtained.
Further north. in Fremont county. q
French syndicate has put $4,000 into
placer. plant, and expects greas
things. Fremont county has turned
out more gold and silver than the rest OF
Wyoming. Her mines have yielded about
$500 900. but that is a small amount COM
pared with what has been done in Colorado,
Utah. Montana or even Idaho. But Wy
oming people think there is great future
before them in the production OF the pre-
cious metals. They remind the inquirer
that, hemmed in on all sides. the Indians
made their last stand for freedom upon
these plains. Not until the end of Crooks
cam paigning in 1875 or i.77 was it possible
to know much of the interior of wyoming.
All of the development OF Central and
Northern Wyoming has taken place within
about ten years. The prospecting In the
pie are strong in the faith that some day
their state will align with her neighbors as
a gold and silver producer.
As the Indians went out the cattlemen
came in. For ten years Wyoming was the
paradise of the cow barons. The plateaus
and parks were divided. The herds swelled.
In 1884 and 1885 there were in Wyoming
100000 head of cattle, and they were
worth $50 head. The Wyoming Stock
growers Association was bigger than the
governor, bigger than the legislature, big
ger than all other influences in the terri
tory. 1t ran Wyoming politically. socially
and in every other way. The cattle regime
was ten years in building up. 1t was only
three in going down. The great compa-
MES have been shattered. The great herds
have been divided. there is today in Wyo-
ming an order of things entirely different
from that which prevailed in 1885. The
small stockman had come in. He has To-
Gated his homestead in the valleys, along
the water courses. There by irrigation, he
raises what he wants, while his bunch of
stock, grazing on the plains around him. is
making him well-to-do by the natural in
crease. Wyoming seems to have struck
her normal gait toward prosperity. The
small stockman, with his irrigated farm in
the valley and his cattle on the free range,
is the true type. There are 5000 irrsgating
bitches in the state. They draw water
from 600 different streams. They are 5000
miles long. They water 100000 acres.
The total investment in irrigation work up
to this time is $40 000, 900. The small stock
They have made an unqualified success of
their valley farms, and they know just
what the free grazing is worth to them.
Whatever uncertainty may exist about
Wyoming's yet undiscovered mineral re-
sources of the precious kind, there is no
There are no such lavish measures of b lack
and half tons are mined yearly along the
Union Pacific within Wyoming. Every
part of the new state is supplied with de-
posts which can only be described as inex-
haustible. The Rock Springs coal is known
from Omaha to the Golden Gate. There
, are six seams that are worked at Rock
Springs. None of them is less than
range to eleven feet At Hanna there
are three veins, each fifteen feet thick.
Away from the railroad the development
of the coal resources has been only such as
was necessary to get supplies for the
ranches aud interior towns. But the out
groupings on the hillsides and the gopher
diggings show that only little way below
Wyoming. Some of the deposits are of ex-
traordinary thickness. Some of the meas
ures near the surface contain too much
water and slacken so as to be of no value
for transportation. The fact seems
to be that nature overdid herself In
supplying Wyoming, with coal and
erly. When the railroads which are
now pushing their way towards the in.
terror, get fairly TO work on the distrlbu-
ton of this great coal supply there will be
no more corn burning. At Mount Zion a
coal mining plant has been freighted over
land and the seams have been opened.
The company is spending s., 500 100 in get
ting ready To ship coal when the railroad
reaches that point. Two mines opened
there will turn out 200 tons an hour. There
is in sight single vein which will yield
3,500.0OO tons to the square mile. This is
but the beginning of Mornings coal de-
velOpment.
When the gold hunters travelled over
land, years before Wyoming was created,
they fabricated the creaking axles of their
wagons with oil skinned from the creeks
OF that region. The petroleum fields 20
with the coal measures. Their existence
has been known for several years. In only
one locality, however, has any thorough
prospecting been done to show the magni-
tude. OF the supply. The exception is at
Lander, in Fremont county,. Near the
Popo-algie there is small oval valley sur
rounded by high hills which are almost
Cliffs. From the crevices around the val
ley oil and gas can be seen escaping. Three
wells have been bored. They are $50 to
500 feet deep. When the valves are
opened the oils spirits up 75 feet. Then,
when the pipe is relieved of the
to steady flow of 600 to 1000 barrels
in twenty-four hours. The nearest rail-
road point is 100 miles away. The wells
have been closed to await the coming of
transportation. But the pressure is so
great that the oil cannot be entirely shut
OF. Several lakes in the valley are now
covered with this escaping oil to the
amount OF thousands of barrels. The color
OF the oil is black. When fresh 1t contains
absorbed gas in large quantities. Long be-
fore the lakes in the valley can be seen
they can be smelled by the escaping gas.
In other parts of Wyoming oil springs are
found. There are places where, by means
OF shallow pits in the ground, collection
OF oil amounting TO several gallons day is
made Tor local uses. The lavishness of the