The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-29
Value of Years Product.

Comparatively little fluctuation was
shown by statistics of production from
1898 to 1906, but in 1906 considerable i'm
prOvement was evident the production
having increased from ,643.S32 short tons,
valued at s., S23. $50 in 1905. to 1929 921
short tons, valued at S9,240,359, in 1906,
gain of 1S6.0S9 tons or 11.3 per cent in
quantity, ard Of S4l7C01, or AS per cent
in value
There were only six other states whose
production in 1906 showed a greater per-
centage of increase. and four of these
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wash
ington-were west of the Mississippi
river The other two were Kentucky and
West Virginia All of these, including
fected by the suspension of work on
April ]. and the larger rate of increased
production in these states was due to
the shortage caused by the idleness of
from two months TO ten weeks I'm the
other coal mining regions.
Number of Mines and Men.
The number of men employed in the
coal mines of Montana increase from
Psi in 1909 to 1894 in 1906 the average
number of working days being the same
(243) in both years. The average produc-
ton pei man ia 1866 was 76i.4 short tons,
against 1877 in 1905, and the average daily
production per man was 3.15 tons in 1906
against 80 tons in 1905.
Most of the mines in Montana are
worked eight hours day. In 1906
tNeDIN-Ifl1ee mines, SilDiONlilB 1AJJ men,
reported eight hours to the working day;
five mines, employing 913 men, reported
eight hours for miners and ten hours for
day men. One mine employing eighty
five men, worked nine hours
The statistics relating to the use of
mining machinery show that In 1906 there
were seventy-siX machines in use, as COM
pared with fifty-efght in 1905 and fifty
seven in 1904 The machine-mined prod
uct in 1906 amounted to 974 306 short tons.
or over 80 per cent of the total, against
1885 short tons. or 45 per cent of the
total in 1905, and 1924 short tons, or
35.5 per cent of the total. in 1904.
Coal Bed Area Is Large.
The area of Montana underlain by coal
beds is estimated at $1,000 square miles
to bituminous, some of the latter being
fair cooking Goals, and the producing
areas lie in somewhat widely separated
fields.
In the Bull mountain field, northeast
of Billings where a considerable amount
of prospecting and development work has
been DONE the coal is Ignite in char
acter.
In the Clark Fork field, which is partly
in the southwestern portion of Yellow
stone and the northeastern part of Sweet
grass counties and extends southwark
through Carbon county. the coal is lig-
Mite and is not now worked to any large
extent.
The Rocky Fork field in Carbon coun-
" COnldlHS i've ullleIeUl DeuS VI COdi,
varying in thickness from four feet to
seven feet nine inches. All of this coal is
between Ignite and bituminOus in char
acteT and is said, to be excellent steam
and domestic fuel.
The Yellowstone field and the Trail
Creek fields are located in Park and Gal
latin counties. and cover the operations
in and around Bozeman and Livingston.
The Cinnabar field is a small area lying
just north of the Yellowstone national
park and west of this are the West Gal
latin and Ruby Valley fields, which have
not yet been greatly developed
Other areas are the Toston, Smith river
and Belt (or Great Falls) fields the last
mentioned being the most important
Some of the largest mines in the state
are those at Cottonwood in Cascade
county. Carbon county, which ranks sec
ond in importance. produced a little less
than One-third of the total output in 1906