Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1920-06-11

graduated zonal rate to the east, es-
pecially TO the upper Mississippi val |
ley grain states, would doubtless OPP
en- up a big market for this mineral I
as the excessive advance in land /
values Of that region will have to /
be padded by increased crop produc-
ton to make them bankable assets,
and phosphorus soil fertilizer is the
vital key to that essential increased |
production
Shortly after this great field was
discovered the federal government
with lack of knowledge OF its prob
able magnitude and high apprecia-
tion of the limited phosphate resour-
ces Of Florida and Tennessee put a
blanket withdrawal on this entire
western phosphate field and reser-
walton for it's future administration
to be governed by the proposed min
eral leasing bill that has been work
ing its tedious way through con-
gress for several years past, but now
seems to be in sight of consumma
ton and should loosen up activity in
this region. Prior to these with
drawals, however, a dozen or so
groups of claims were acquired by
private owners and after a long
struggle we're subsequently patented.
The deposits also run through few
prior patented ranch lands that give
free titles to the underlying mineral.
AS result of the national freight
mix up induced by war activities, the
mineral fertilizer industry of Ameri-
ca was seriously interrupted. This
industry, taken as whole, manu-
featuring complete fertilizer, is based
on the ownership of the phosphate
deposits Of Florida and Tennessee
and is said to represent a total cash
capital investment of 100000, 900
and In normal times before the war,
to have made an annual production
OF finished products valued at $780,
| 100000 and to have been under an
85 per cent control of European CAPT.
tai. The basis of the product of that
industry was largely on the formula
of 2-8-2, or two per cent potash, eight
per cent phosphoric oxide and two
per cent nitrogen.
Since the close of the war the min
eral fertilizer industry of America,
in an effort to catch up on it's inter-
rupted progress during the war, has
taken on the proportions of a boom
in demand for these agricultural
mineral substances, especially of rock
phosphate, with the result that the
old fields of Florida and Tennessee
seem unable to supply the excessive
demands that have been put upon
them. This has stimulated decided
interest and inquiry in this western
field and resulted in a marked in
crease in production during the past
few months with calls for the min
eral as far east as Chicago and lower
Canada, in spite of the high freight
rates charged to those points and
this movement should prove decid-
ed factor in the introduction of this
rich western phosphate mineral and
its progressive development.
The only two important points of
underground operation on these Ida
no phosphate deposits SO far, are at
Montpelier and Paris in Bear Lake
hn Svn cd
of the Oregon Short Line railway,
one of the richest traffic units of the
Union Pacific system serving in Ida
no.
Western Phosphate Company.
On the opposite side of the broad
Bear River valley three miles south
of Paris, the county seat of Bear
Lake county, the western Phosphate
Mining company, a Salt Lake. corpor-
alton, &. ]. Hanke, manager, has de-
veloped the same bed of rich min
eral which, however, at this point
due to an overthrust fold, shows the
same west dip as the Waterloo vein
but is of the same uniform thickness
of five to seven feet at more favor.
able dip of 45 degrees. It has beer
opened by a adit tunnel driven on the
vein already 1,4OO feet long with
gravity overhead Slopes and has pro
duced about $4,000 tons of average
. 20 per cent tri-calcium phosphate
rock that has also been largely ship
ped to Pacific Coast points, to The