The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28

and a great agricultural area, included
within the boundaries of numerous
wide valleys, extending among the
broken ranges of its mountain system,
from Idaho on the north to Arizona on
the south. These valleys are under q
system of irrigation said to be second
in rank to that of Spain. IN Utah
farming is a profitable occupation,
and every acre of cultivated land re-
turns every year its tribute of crops.
1t is conducted without regard to the
rain fall, and the farmer is wholly re-
Heved from fears of drOuth, which are
ever present in the portions of tale
country where irrigation is not en-
ployed. Thousands of acres of valu-
able land are yet to be brought under
the influence of water. These are rap
idly acquired under the acts of Con-
greSS, and the business of agriculture
is increasing in a marked degree. a
recent act of Congress liberated from
Indian ownership the Uintah and
Uncompahgre reservations, which have
an area of about six thousand square
miles. These reservations are filed
with productive valleys and contain a
great diversity of mineral resources,
chief among which are numerous large
deposits of aSphaltum, which cannot
fail in time to diSplace the Trinidad
poduct in the street paving of the Uni
ted States. The Utah farmer boasts
that in the Salt Lake valley irrigation
commenced in the United States. The
Utah miner may also boast that in the
mineral development of the west he
was an early factor. There were fam
Gus mines in Utah a quarter of a CEN
fury ago, mines like the Mona, the
Horn Silver and the Emma, out of
which fabulous fortunes were taken.
Probably there is no richer mineral
region in the United States than that
included within the territorial lines.
The secretary of the Salt Lake cham
Der of commerce, in his recent report
to the stockholders of that organiza-
ton, referring to this branch of Utah
resources, makes use of the following
language: 1T is a noteworthy fact
that science has been mystified with
more illustrations of creative eccentri-
city in Utah than in any other portion
Of the Union. Our territorial domain
seems to have been a sort of play-
ground for the Almighty. Almost
every mountain range has its inexplic-
able. geological anomaly, and every
mining camp some curious deposit to
exhibit We are alone in the possession
OF silver-bearing sandstone, and of the
chloride of gold in nature. In our ter
ritory, petrified forests are mined and
milled for silver. We have lakes of as
phaltum, fields of sulphur, mines of
ozocerite, reservoirs of natural gas.
and every little while some new pro-
duct is found. the uses of which we do
not know" Within forty miles OF Salt
Lake there is silver mine-the On
tario, which as a straight silver pro-
Queer leads the dividend payers Of the
United States. This mine has pro-
duced something like s55, 200, 900 in
eighteen years, and has paid $13,175, 900
in dividends. 1t employs little army
OF men, and its monthly payroll is
something enormous. Yet this is but
one of the great mines in the Park City
camp. which bids fair to take the first
place among the silver camps of the
United States. Numerous other min
ing districts exist within the territory.
the mines of which employ large num-
bers of men, and output annually mill
lions of dollars. Within fourteen
miles of Salt Lake, during the past
month, large bodies of wonderfully rich
free gold ore have been discovered.
and while this article is being written
a rush to the new gold field is going
on.
Utah contains an area of sc. 600
square miles, and is said TO contain q
greater diversity of mineral resources
than any similar area in the world.
Having all of these rich possessions
the conclusion is irresistible THAT the
new state will forge ahead rapidly
and will become one of the most pros /
porous and thickly populated Gem
monwealth in the west That Salt
Lake city will be in the fu-
ture, as it has been in the
past, the center of population