SHORT TONS.
Nanaimo Colliery 112,761
Wellington Colliery 185,846
East Wellington Colliery 28,029
This coal is marketed chiefly in California. The coal is lignitic; and
yet it is said to coke well. It is also good stocking coal. The beds
dip from 5° to 30° southward. The cost of transportation to San
Francisco is about the same as from Seattle, and the cost of delivering
on board ship about the same as from the Newcastle mines. The tariff of
75 cents per ton on foreign coal is regarded with satisfaction by the
coal men of Washington Territory. The repeal of this tariff would
inflict a heavy blow upon the mining industry of the Territory.
[Sidenote: The Iron Ores.]
II. IRON ORE.--The iron ores of Washington Territory consist of Bog ore,
Brown ore (Limonite), some Red, or Specular ore (Hematite), and Magnetic
ore (Magnetite). The bog ore has been found in considerable quantities
underlying the flats bordering Puget Sound, and has been worked in a
furnace on Bellingham Bay. These ores, no doubt, come from the
decomposition of the limonites, the magnetites and the basaltic rocks of
the high lands, especially on the Cascade Mountains. These Bellingham
Bay ores generally have an excess of phosphorus, and yield about 42 per
cent. of metallic iron. Brown ore is reported on the Skagit River,
sufficiently abundant, perhaps, but not containing more than 40 per
cent. metallic iron. I saw a remarkable deposit of brown ore on the
Willamette, near Portland, Oregon. It is a horizontal stratum varying
from 4 to 20 feet in thickness, lying between masses of basalt. It has
been worked in the Oswego furnace, but yielded only about 40 per cent.
metallic iron. I did not see any specular ore in place in Washington
Territory, but saw samples, said to have been brought from near the
Middle Fork of Snoqualmie River.
[Sidenote: The great magnetic ore beds of Cascade Mountains.]
[Sidenote: Resembles the Cranberry ore deposits.]
But unquestionably the most important, as well as the largest, are the
magnetic ore beds on the Cascade Mountains. These ores are found 1,000
to 1,500 feet above the chief water-courses on those high ridges and
peaks which make up the Cascade Range along the headwaters of the
Snoqualmie, on the west side of the mountain, and of the Yakima on the
east flank of the mountain. These ores are underlaid by syenite and
quartzite, and overlaid by limestone. The ore itself is found in
conditions similar to that of the Cranberry ore in the Unaka Mountains
of North Carolina; that is, it lies in pockets of various sizes in
hornblendic, porphyritic and epidotic rocks.
[Sidenote: Guye Mine on Mount Logan.]
I visited two exposures of this ore, one on Mount Logan and the other on
Mount Denny. These are only a mile or two from the line of the railroad.
On Mount Logan there was only one large outcrop of iron-bearing rocks,
but float was seen at numerous points on the mountain. The main exposure
showed an ore-bearing rock, presenting a horizontal front some sixty
feet in length, and forty to fifty feet in height or thickness. At one
place a considerable area in this space seemed to be pure ore. For the
rest, the pockets were smaller, and, of course, the amount of rock
proportionally larger. What is to be found on going in from the surface
can never be told in advance in ore beds of this sort. In working the
great mine of Cranberry, North Carolina, the largest body of ore was
reached 100 to 200 feet from the surface.
This bed of ore is known as The Summit, or Guye Mine. Its elevation is
1,250 feet above the grade of the Lake Shore Railroad, and about 1,000
feet above the small stream at the foot of the mountain. There would be
no difficulty in building an inclined plane from the ore bank to the
small valley below. The snow in winter might interfere with mining.
Ascending the mountain above the main exposure, I found what seemed to
be another level of iron ore 100 feet higher; but possibly it may be the
same bed displaced. Still higher appeared to be a third level of ore,
and higher still, I observed a little float ore at a point nearly 2,000
feet above the grade of the railroad, on what may be called the summit
of Mount Logan, at a point which my barometer made 4,700 feet above
Puget Sound.
[Sidenote: Denny Mine.]
The Denny Mine is on a different mountain, somewhat farther to the west,
but about the same distance from the railroad. It is reached also by a
narrow valley from which a steep ascent of nearly 1,100 feet is made to
the main exposure, which shows an edge of pure fine-grained magnetite,
about twenty feet thick, with limestone above, and also beneath,
apparently. Fragments of epidote, porphyry and flinty quartzite lay
around. The limestone did not show so large here as on Mount Logan. The
ore dips steeply toward the south, and seemed to encrust the mountain
for a distance of, perhaps, 225 feet, but with a somewhat broken
surface. It then passed with its limestone under quartzite cliffs which
crest the mountain. The bed might have been followed around the
mountain, where it is said to show at a number of places. It seemed to
pass into a matrix of chert.
[Sidenote: Chair Peak, or Kelly Mine.]
I did not visit the Chair Peak, or Kelly Mine, which is some miles
distant; but I conversed with probably every man who ever saw it, some
half a dozen, including Mr. Whitworth, who made a survey of the
property. It is reported as probably the largest and purest of all the
deposits of magnetic ore, and lies at about the same height on the
mountains. This ore would come out by way of the Middle Fork of
Snoqualmie.
[Sidenote: Middle Fork Mines.]
I did not visit Guye's other mine, which lies high, perhaps 3,000 feet
above Middle Fork. Mr. Guye represents it as similar in character to the
bed elsewhere, with the addition of some brown and red ore. The other
deposits mentioned I received no description of.
[Sidenote: All easily reached from Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern
Railway.]
None of these mines have been developed beyond the uncovering of a face.
As yet there is no furnace for smelting them, and no means provided for
bringing them off the mountains. There is no difficulty about reaching
them with spur railroads and inclined planes. It has occurred to me as
possible that a narrow gauge railroad might reach all of these mines,
without heavy grades, by starting at the highest point of the Lake Shore
road and following the divides from mountain to mountain. This, however,
can only be determined by a special reconnaissance.
[Sidenote: Cle-ellum ore beds.]
There are large deposits of iron ore also on the east side of the
Cascade Mountains, not far from the crest line, on the waters of the
Cle-ellum River. Three distinct beds are reported. They are all in the
valley of the Cle-ellum River. The upper bed is situated about eight
miles above Cle-ellum Lake, on the main and east fork of the Cle-ellum
River. This bed has been described to me by Mr. Whitworth and Mr. Burch.
The distance from the Northern Pacific Railroad is twenty-five miles,
following the Cle-ellum valley. It is within sixteen miles of the most
distant location made of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway;
and by another route which has been spoken of, this railroad would pass
close to the ore bed. Mr. Whitworth says concerning it: "The ledge is
well defined, and is traced and located about two miles, its course
being nearly north and south. It is apparently from forty to sixty feet
in width, and pitches at about an angle of 20° to the west. The casing
rock is porphyry. The deposit is evidently extensive. The ore appears
rich, is magnetic, and is reported to assay from 56-1/2 to 66 per cent.
I obtained samples of the rock, from which satisfactory tests can be, no
doubt, obtained."
The elevation of the iron ore outcrop is estimated at 3,000 feet, which
would place it nearly on a level with the summit of Snoqualmie Pass; but
it is only about 200 feet above the local water-level.
Mr. Burch says concerning this ore bed, which has now been bought by
Mr. Kirke for the Moss Bay Company, that the strike of the bed is
northeast, whilst the outcrop runs northwest. The ore is in five or more
separate beds, each bed being on an average forty to fifty feet thick,
and the beds separated by rock. The ore can be followed but a short
distance along the strike.
[Sidenote: Burch's ore bed.]
Burch's iron ore bed approaches the Cle-ellum River about four miles
below the Kirke bed, and extends in a northeast direction to the
headwaters of Boulder Creek, a distance of five miles. The outcrop
crosses three high ridges. The dip is south, at an angle of 45°. The
width is at least twenty feet. A ferruginous limestone lies against the
ore on the south side. The limestone is 300 or 400 feet thick. It seems
to overlie the iron bed. Its outside or top layers are pure blue
limestone.
A gray sandstone, rather soft, overlies the limestone, and over this
comes a coal-bearing rock in which are dykes of gray iron ore, some of
them standing out of the ground 80 or 100 feet. The magnetic iron ore is
associated with hornblende and quartzite. All rocks dip south. Mr. Burch
says that this ore resembles the Kirke ore, but has some of the
characteristics of hematite. Mr. Guye talks in the same way about his
iron ore on Middle Fork.
At one point, not far from Cle-ellum River, a bed of gray iron ore
crosses the magnetic ore at right angles. This gray ore is not well
understood. It may be an altered copper lode. The main ore bed is more
strongly magnetic near the intersection than it is elsewhere.
I may here remark that Mr. Burch reports considerable float of rich
magnetite on the shores of Lake Chelan.
[Sidenote: Dudley ore bed.]
I have no description of the Dudley iron ore bed, but it is said to be
large, and of the best quality. Its location is also in the Cle-ellum
valley, between Burch's bed and the lake, and within four or five miles
of the lake. This information I get through a letter written from
Cle-ellum to Mr. Whitworth. I have no personal knowledge of these
Cle-ellum beds.
[Sidenote: Undoubtedly large beds of steel ores.]
There can be no doubt as to the existence in the Cascade Mountains along
this line of superior iron ore in large quantities, the most of which is
suited to the manufacture of steel.
[Sidenote: Of superior quality.]
There can be no doubt as to the superior quality of the Snoqualmie iron
ores. Analysis shows that they rank with the best steel ores in their
large percentage of metallic iron and small admixture of deleterious
impurities. Of the following tables, the first gives all the reliable
analyses I could obtain of the ores of the Snoqualmie region of the
Cascade Mountains. Those reported from Mr. Kirke and Mr. Dewey are of
high authority. Those from Mr. Jenner are given in Governor Squire's
report for 1885, and are probably equally reliable.