The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-12-24

uries. A beautiful city hall has recently
been erected and is not it overdrawing the
picture to state that in beauty it is equal
to any in the territory.
A MOUNTAIN oFgGYPsUM.
Up the canyon from Nephi, on the San
pete Valley railroad, is located the richest
and largest deposit of gypsum to be found
in the United States, solid mountain OF
this great mineral calcium plaster. The
property is owned and operated by the
Nephi Plaster and Manufacturing COM
pany. Great credit is due them for not
sparing time, expense or labor to develop
and put on the market the plaster. Ey-
erytnlng is so arranged as to save labor
and the machinery and building alone
represent an outlay of about S17 GOO.
The arrangement of pipes gives them a
fall of over 100 feet, and water power SUI
ficient to run a James Leffel double
discharge 100 horsepower water wheel.
The mill is situated near the bot
tom OF the canyon and the quarry
little to westward one-quarter
of the way up the mountain; running
| from the quarry to the mill they have a
/ track, and owing to the grade need no
power to run the heavily loaded cars right
down the track to the crushers in front of
which the car is stopped and large blocks
dumped into them to be crushed and
broken into small pieces. These small
pieces are then run into the three grind
ing stones, to be ground into fine
powder ready for taking.
Gypsum, on an average, in its crude
state, is about IS per cent water, and this
necesstates the boiling or baking in the
ovens Of the raw powder, to exclude the
water and leave only the pure powder
ready for use in plastering your house,
and generally known as ''Fine Calcine
Plaster.' This company is now produc-
ing the best of this plaster and supply to
a very large extent the demand through
out Utah, California and the northwest.
The capacity OF the mill 100 tons per
day, and their shipments for the year will
run pretty close to 2, 800 tons.
MINERALS.
On the mountains surrounding the
| town are found deposits of gypsum, salt,
ochre, marble, iron and various kinds of
building and ornamental stone. Just up
the canyon from the city located on the
line of the Sanpete Valley railway, we
find one of the richest deposits of gypsum
known to exist in the United States.
There are mountains of it and they stand
out clear and white without the usual
covering of soil, making it very easy
matter to quarry and handle the products.
The Nephi Plaster company own and run
a fine mill with all the latest and best
machinery within a few rods of the
quarry, and they manufacture and ship
to all points in the west the highest grade
of ''plaster of paris to be bought.
Some of the largest beds of rock salt
found in the west are located in Salt Creek
canyon at a distance of five to ten miles
due east OF Nephi. The deposits seem to
be almost inexhaustible and thousands of
pounds of rock salt are shipped from
Nephi every year.
POPULATION, BUSINESS, ETC.
The population today is believed to be
about 3 800, and with the advantages and
opportunities offered to everyone to settle
there it will shortly be double that num-
Der. Nephi has today a bank which is
doing a good business and is already on
sound and paying basis.
The general merchandise business there
is in the hands of some of the brightest