The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-04-16
TREGO "GOLD" FIELDS.
Government Experts Call Deposits
Kansas Sea Mud

Washington, April 16.-The Oner OF
IregO county, Kansas, owners or gold
bearing shales, to give 100000 TO the
discOverer OF an economical process OF
extraction. details Of which were recent
" published in The Star, excites the
same sort of merriment among men IN
the geological bureau that Funston
plan 10 capture AgulnaldO did among
officers of the war department. Indeed.
the experts connected with the National
Geological survey are very skept1cal IN
regard to the gold fields in the shale
districts OF western Kansas and do rot
believe that they will ever yield the vel
low metal in paying quantities IoGay
a correspondent for the Kansas City
Star in an interview with some OF the
bureau officials, ELECTED some interesting
If not promising information in relation
to these Kansas shales.
Prof. Hill. a geOlogist who has had
practical acquaintance with gold min
ing regions, very cheerfully gave the
scientific explanation of this shale for
nation. which is no more nor less than
sea mud deposited when all Kansas was
covered by water. thousands of years
ago Since the recession of the waters.
the ages have hardened this deposit into
q semi-rock formation Although all sea
water is known to contain slight per
cent of gold in solution, he does not
think 1t possible that the shales of
IregO county contain gold IN sufficient
quantities Ito pay for working them, not
denying. however. that the sea water
may have left a modicum of gold with
the other elements constituting this orig
1nal mud deposit. He thinks it may be
true that a slight per cent of gold can
be found in them, but only by the most
acute chemical process. His belief that
no gold in appreciable quantities can
exist in these shales is based upon the
expert knowledge that such formations
are not cut through by assures or other
veins of a gold bearing nature In other
words, the only gold the TregO shales
can hold viii be the infinitesimal amount
0p0OG1rpd
Hill was emphatic in the statement that
it would be against all precedent to find
gold in the western Kansas shale for
nation, as described to him. in sufh-
cient quantities to pay for working. He
admitted however, that he had never
studied them on the ground.
And 1t may be the discoveries of the
TregO county fields are entirely mis-
taken in the character Of their find.
Prof Hill says all these shales also con-
tain iron pyrites, almost invariably mis-
taken by the uninitiated for gold. In the
shales of southwestern Arkansas gold
was supposed to have been found over
seVenty-fVe years ago Experts quick
" proved that the alleged gold was mere
~ iron pyrites. and for a time the. Ar
kansas gold fever died out But peri
Odlcally iron pyriteS humbug some over
JOyed ''diScOverer'' into the belief that
he has a fortune in sight, and to this
day specimens Of gold from south
western Arkansas continue to find. their
way into the Smithsonian experts hands
LOT ASSAY ana GlaSSlIlcallOn. IL IS a pop
ular error which apparently cannot be
permanently eradicated.
The information CLEANED at the geOIOg-
zeal survey bureau gives little hope that
the Irego county landowners who re-
Gently offered 500. 600 reward, or were
preparing to offer it, for some device to
recover the gold from the shale deposit
VIII secure their end, although it is true
that even tailings of old abandoned
mines in different quarters of the world
containing no more than per cent of
gold, are now washed and otherwise
handled by new processes at a profit,
All this is the view of the govern
ment's biologists The desk warriors of
the war department said that Funston
couldn't catch AguinaldO. Perhaps the
shale owners Of TregO will put the geolo-
gists to rout. The truth is that now
adays when anybody goes around among
the dusty officials and says he is from
kansas and that he is going to do this
or that difficult thing-says it with easy
nonchaiance and intimates that preced-
ents are illusions, he wrapped up with
his baby frOcqs-then, as the French
say, He arrives" And when the kan
sas gold in the Trego shale arrives y
these geological sharps who now say it
can't. viii then say 20, well; that's Just
Kansas"