The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-13
WESTERN PHOSPHATE ROCK
Government Experts Make Report on
Deposits of This Region.

The discovery of important phosphate
deposits over a considerable area in south
eastern Idaho, southwestern wyoming,
and northeastern Utah has opened up a
new industry in the west The future of
the industry is. however, shrouded in I'M
certainty as il is largely dependent on
the granting of such rates by the rail-
roads as will enable the manufactured
product or raw material to be sold at a
profit in Australia. Honolulu, Japan and
the middle states. the home market on the
Pacific coast not being at present e&-
tensive enough to warrant large develop
ment This phase of the subject is rec
ognized by F. B. Weeks and w +. Fer
rier Of the United States geological sur
vey. who have investigated these depos-
its and prepared an article about them
for the surveys forthcoming volume,
Contributions TO Economic Geology
1906"
Prospecting has been carried on at a
number of widely separated localities.
The strike of the beds follows the gen.
eral northwest-soFtheast trend of the
ranges along which they outcrop In Ida
no the beds outcrop along the Preuss
range extending from the line of Bannock
and Bear Lake counties In a southeasterly
direction along its west face.
A probable southern extension OF these
beds near the Idaho-Utah line is found
on the plateau east of Bear Lake, where
has been eroded. East of the Preuss
range in the Sublette range in Wyoming,
are similar beds which follow the south
erly trend of this range 20 Smiths Fork
The deposits are found In oolitic beds of
the upper carboniferous rocks and con-
tain variable percentage of pos
This general region is drained by Bear
river and its tributaries. The Oregon
Short Line railroad follows the valley of
Bear river and affords the only means of
transportation to market. At present
those beds which can be developed at the
least cost and which lie nearer the rail-
road shipping points are worked
In Utah the phosphate series has been
found some distance south of Bear Lake.
in the vicinity of Woodruff. The beds
also outcrop in Weber canyon. about one
and a half miles below Croydon, and in
some of the side canyons. None of these
beds is at present worked. The Union
Pacific railroad, which follows the course
of Weber river, will make possible rapid
development in this region.
Beds of good grade, but too thin to be
profitably worked have been observed at
other points in these states and also in
Nevada. II IS highly probable that fur
Their exploration win show that these
oolitic phosphate beds have still wider
distribution.
The phosphate series consists of alter
mating layers Of black or brown phos-
plate material. shale and hard blue or
gray compact limestones. The limestones
are in the main very fossiliferous. The
phosphate series is in places about ninety
feet thick. The beds vary in thickness
from few inches to about ten feet but
wherever they are of this extreme width
they are broken by thin layers of shaly
material poorer in pos. The main phos-
phate bed is from five to six feet thick
and is almost entirely oolitic in structure
and high in POS. All the sections that
have been examined show one and some Of
them two beds which are OF commercial
value.