, 1901-12-27

stories told by some who knew, of lh'
mineral wealth of your state, modes
as some of you have been In your es
Inmates, unwilling rs some of yol
have been Ito blow your own horn,
it is now beginning to be understood
that there is scarcely a mineral need
ed in the laboratory of the chemist
scarcely an article required in the vas,
manufacturing industries of the world
scarcely a kind of building stone need
ed for the building construction OF the
world, which cannot be produced II
abundance within your borders.
Soda enough to raise the biscuits o.
all the world or to wash the popula
ton of the earth, Indians included
coal enough to run the engines and fur
mace fires of a continent; iron enough
to fill the blast furnaces of the union
and of highest commercial value; OF
fields rivalling in extent those of Penn.
%sylvania, of West Virginia, of Texas
or of California; natural gas in guam
titles sufficient to supply every home
and every mandatory in Wyoming;
mica, asbestos, lime, onyx, marble, ev
erything indeed, in the line of mineral
wealth is here.
OF your Il in the way of wind
l hardly need speak before a Laramie
audience. Laramie, l understand, dis
putes with proud Cheyenne the distinc
ton of being the windiest city of the
world" Upon that delicate point your
speaker would hardly venture an opin'
ion. Suffice it to say that or these
plains are generated winds sufficient
in volume to turn the windmills of the
continent, sufficient indeed, to fill to
repletion the depleted lungs of every
statesman, bowling today in that mod,
ern cave of the Winds the house of
representatives at Washington.
What you need is capital What you
need are railroad facilities, the open
ing up of the country, the increase of
your markets both at home n abroad.
This is the day of expansion, expan-
sion of territory, expansion of mar
kets, of trade, of commerce. We have
been expanding for years. We began
with the blowing up of the Maine.
When the Maine went up the republic
went up with it. When we came down,
we came down everywhere, east and
west in the islands of the Atlantic, in
the islands of the Pacific, and where
we came down, we came down to stay.
Why not expand here among the
mountains of the west? Why not fol-
1 Ao" ShS VI NhoI q
liant gentleman-son of the west as
we'll as son of the east-our own hon
ored president, Theodore Roosevelt,
and build, up here in the mountains,
the reservoirs, the waters of which,
wisely administered, will cause all
these valleys ito laugh and sing for
joy; which will add thousands Of
homes, hundreds of thousands of pop
ulation. and open markets for the man
~ufactories of the republic, greater by
far than those anticipated in the isl
ands of the seas. This Roosevelt be-
lieves; this the west believes, and this
the east is beginning to believe.
To all these resources add yet more,
your of gold, of silver and of
copper, of copper in particular. How
great your copper resources are 1t is
difficult to set forth. They are not un.
derstood. The data are not yet avail
able. Four years ago next to nothing
was known concerning them.
Your Bureau of Mining is yet to be
created: Your statistics are yet to
be gathered: Your estimates of cop
per wealth yet to be made. These are
the embarrassments under which we
labor.
For the data gathered and here pre-,
sented we are chiefly indebted to men
who have made themselves familiar
with but a single district of the many
in which your copper wealth is stored.
The great Encampment district
opened up only within the last four
years, chiefly through the energy, the
faith, the persistent courage Of Emer-
son and Mccartney, and others, who, in
defiance Of all scepticism, have demon
strated that in that single great section
of Carbon county is a wealth of copper
destined to make the Grand Encamp.
ment country the copper Mecca of the
union and of the world.
Within four years five thousand peo-
pie have gone into this hitherto unin-
habited section of your state. Millions
of money have gone there, and millions
more will 60.
Towns have sprung up as If by
magic, and their representatives sit
here today in this convention.
The copper is there; a smelter- is
there; mines, not prospect holes, are
there; wealth as great as that Of Mon.
tana, of Tamarack, of Hecla and Calu,
met, of any copper region Of the world
is there.
That these are not idle words, consid,
er the following facts:
First: The Development of the Dis
trict.-A steady and healthful growth
of a decidedly enduring nature is IN.
verting the Sierra Madre mountains, in
southern Carbon county, Wyoming,
into the most active newly discovered
mining region in America. The coun-
try commonly known as the Grand En-
campment has revolutionized in four
years from a practically uninhabited
mountain range into a prosperous min.
ing district containing eight new
towns, twenty steam plants, two con-
centrators, a smelter, twenty-five hun.
dred buildings and five thousand peo-
pie.
In a mining way the greater part of
this vast territory has been scarcely
more than scratched, and yet sufficient
mines and good prospects have been
found to Justify mining men in the as
sertion that there is not in the entire
union a mining region with a brighter
prospect.
An accurate estimate of the amount
of money expended to date. in opening
up this region, is impossible. Perhaps
two million Ave hundred thousand dol
lars would fall short of the amount
expended during the past five years.
From reliable sources an itemized
estimate Of the money expended in de-
veloping just forty Of the best known
properties of the copper fields is as
follows:
Ferris.Haggarty, $3.50, 900; Rambler,
$3.50, 900; Kurtz-C hatterton, 500, coo;
Northern Bell, $35, 900; Cox. $45, 900;
Hercules, $40, 900; Charter Oak. $780,.
600; Haskins, 10000; Copper Belt,