Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-01-24

the limestone which were generally
rich in lead. The old pits can be seen
to-day at any of the mines on Flat Ri y
er. 1t is only within the last thirty
years that this disseminated lead was
discovered by the St. Joe Lead Com
pany in their mines at Bonne Terre.
This discovery, of course, has made
the Flat River country one of prosper
ity.
WASHINGTON COUNTY
adjoins St. Francois and is noted for
her lead and barytes. 1t was in this
county, and near Potosi, that the first
mining for lead ore in Missouri was
commenced, and since the purchase of
Louisiana by the general government
it has been almost uninteruptedly con-
tinued to the present day. Washing
ton county embraces not less than six
hundred and eighty square miles, and
this area may BE considered as one ex-
tensive lead diggings, for there is
scarcely one section of land in the
county on which mineral has not been
actually found Potosi is undoubtedly
the center of this great lead-bearing
region of the county. The Macarthur
Brothers of Toronto, Canada, own
about ten thousand acres of this min
ing territory, including some valuable
property in the town of Potosi. This
property extends continuously for about
five miles west from Potosi, the coun-
ty seat. The country is very broken
and billy, traversed by ridges of lead
bearing limestone not more than two
hundred feet in height. Many fertile
valleys, well adapted for mining pur-
poses and we'll irrigated by Breton and
Bates and other streams, are inter-
spersed. On this property are located
several well known diggings, such as
Citadel, Gum, Lambert, and number
of others that have and are still pro-
duclug large quantities of galena. The
deepest shaft on this property is about
one hundred feet. The mineral is
found in perpendicular veins or open
ings. These openings extend down
ward through the limestone, commun-
icating with the fat or sheet openings,
the first opening being about twenty
feet, the second about fourteen feet be-
low the first, and the third about twen-
ty feet below the second. Each open
ing always produces large quantities
lead ore. The openings are generally
filled with lead and barytes, lead being
very rich. and the barytes of the best
quality. The drifting is limited to the
course of the openings, which extend
out for considerable distance, some
times several hundred feet, in very
rich ore. Very little deep mining has
been done thus far on this property.
This region is broken and billy. 1t is
lutCfSpoFSoU WIFI Hills duu rluScS duu
knobs, most of which are composed of
magnetism limestone belonging to the
lower Silurian formation, where the
lead deposits are found. In the year
1898 Moses Austin of Virginia obtained
grant of land in the neighborhood of
Potosi from the Spanish Government,
sunk the first regular shaft, and erect
ed a reverberatory furnace. Soon
other Americans immigrated and set
tied in this region. After the purchase
and possession of the country by the
United States, this mineral region at
tracted more attention, and since then
mining has been carried on at some
point or other. If we approach this
lead region from Ste. Genevieve the
first geological formation we observe
is the carboniferous or coal formation,
and then the Silurlan or magnetism
limestone, in the lower beds of which
are found the lead ores of Southeast
Missouri.