[Sidenote: Handling the iron ores.]
[Sidenote: Furnace sites]
[Sidenote: Salal Prairie.]
[Sidenote: Charcoal cheaply produced.]
The question here respecting iron ores along this road is not as to
their quantity, or quality, or as to their utilization, but only as to
what road or roads will handle the business that will arise from this
source. Naturally the bulk of it belongs to the Seattle, Lake Shore and
Eastern Railway, and at one time there seemed to be no doubt that large
iron-works would at once be established at Salal Prairie by the Moss Bay
Company, of England; but the east shore of Lake Washington has finally
been settled upon for the great plant of this wealthy company; which of
itself will go far to establish the natural monopoly which the Lake
Shore Railway seems to have of the ores on the west side of Cascade
Mountains. And in regard to the magnetic ores generally, this road, from
its location, would seem to be master of the situation. All the iron ore
on the west side of the mountain is owned by men whose interests are
identified with Seattle, and with this line of railroad. The best point
for manufacture in itself considered, the best chance for fuel, the best
line for transportation, the best point for trading and for shipment,
are all on the line of the Seattle Railway. Good furnace sites may be
found at many points, but Salal Prairie is a spot which seems to have
been set apart by nature for a manufacturing town. It lies near the
intersection of the valleys of the South Fork and Middle Fork branches
of Snoqualmie River, is about six miles long and three miles wide, is
flat, dry, salubrious, and well supplied with water. It has a natural
outlet to the South, as well as to the east and west, is convenient to
the iron ore and limestone of both the Middle and South Fork, and not
far distant from the ores of Cle-ellum. It is less than ten miles from
Snoqualmie coking coal, and fifteen miles from the Green River coals.
And, what I think is a still better resource for fuel, it is in the
midst of the great Snoqualmie forests, where saw-mills will soon be
felling the timber, and providing an endless supply of slabs and refuse
tree-tops, from which charcoal could be manufactured at very small
expense.
It is well known that charcoal is the best of all fuels for making iron,
because of its freedom from damaging impurities. Its expensiveness
generally prevents its being much used now, but here the cost need not
exceed five cents per bushel, and 100 to 120 bushels would suffice for a
ton of iron. The only question concerning the charcoal made from fir
timber is as to its ability to bear the burden in a tall stack. It is
becoming common now to utilize the by-products of wood, formed during
its conversion into charcoal, by a process which makes the charcoal
stronger. But all difficulty on this point can be relieved by conforming
the size of the furnace-stack to the strength of the charcoal. This is
the only fuel which has ever been used on the Pacific coast for the
smelting of iron ores. These enterprises have not been particularly
successful thus far, rather because of the inferior quality of the ore,
than from any defect in the fuel. The bog ore and the limonites which
were used at Irondale, near the Canada line, and at Oswego on the
Willamette, were generally low in iron and high in phosphorus, and the
bog ores were soon exhausted.
[Sidenote: Quantity of charcoal to the ton of iron.]
At Irondale, near Port Townsend, recourse has been had to a refractory
ore obtained on Texada Island, in Victoria Sound, on which a duty of
seventy-five cents a ton has to be paid, and which requires a large
amount of fuel for smelting it, perhaps as much as 150 bushels of
charcoal. But Mr. H. T. Blanchard, who is interested in the Irondale
Works, says in a late letter (November 29, 1887):
"It is perfectly safe to rate charcoal at six cents per bushel, and
the quantity necessary to make a ton of pig-metal not to exceed 120
bushels, with a good chance of getting it down to ninety bushels per
ton with fair ores."
[Sidenote: Bessemer ores commonly distant from fuel.]
The iron ores of the Cascade Mountains will be taken to some extent to
mix with the inferior ores near the coast, but they will be chiefly
worked into Bessemer-pig and steel rails. Steel-making ores are not
common anywhere, and are widely separated from fuel, which makes them
very costly in the States east of the Rocky Mountains. This well-known
fact is alluded to by Mr. Swank, in his report on the Iron Trade of
1886, in the following words:
"It is also a fact worthy of notice, for which geologists may find a
reason, that nowhere in this country are our best steel-making ores
found in proximity to mineral fuel, either anthracite or bituminous,
while in some parts of the Lake Superior region, even timber
suitable for the manufacture of charcoal is almost wholly wanting."
[Sidenote: High cost of Lake Superior ores.]
The most important deposits of steel ores in the United States are on
Lake Superior and in Missouri; but these ores are smelted chiefly by the
Connellsville coke of Pennsylvania, which is 700 to 800 miles distant.
The Cranberry ores of North Carolina are some hundreds of miles from
fuel. A late number of the _Iron Trade Review_ quotes the prices of ore
at Cleveland, Ohio, the principal receiving point of Lake Superior
ores, as follows:
Specular and Magnetic Bessemer, per ton $7.00 to $7.50
Bessemer Hematites " 5.75 to 6.70
[Sidenote: Cost of producing ore in Pennsylvania.]
The same authority gives the cost of the ore and coke necessary for the
production of a ton of iron in Mahoning Valley district, at $9.90 for
the ore and $4.50 for the coke = $14.40. To this must be added about
$4.25 for flux, labor, management, interest and repairs, making a total
of $18.65 as the cost of producing one ton of pig-metal.
[Sidenote: Cost of Bessemer-pig in Snoqualmie Valley.]
Thus the superior advantages of the Snoqualmie Valley are readily seen.
Here are steel ores, two kinds of fuel, and the limestone in close
proximity. Putting the fuel at more than I think it would cost; putting
the cost of mining the ore at the maximum cost at Cranberry, N. C., and
freight at double price, and we have as the cost of a ton of
Bessemer-pig, as follows:
Ore $3 00
Fuel 6 00
Flux 50
Labor and management 2 00
Interest and repairs 1 50
------
$13 00
[Sidenote: Large market for steel rails.]
This is lower than the present cost of producing Bessemer-pig anywhere
in the United States, according to the best of my information; and at
the same time the market is better. The demand for steel rails in the
Rocky Mountain country and in the Pacific States is, and will be, large
and permanent, while the demand in China and other foreign countries
will constantly increase. And so will it be with machinery and tools of
all kinds, agricultural, mining and manufacturing. This demand will be
both domestic and foreign, and constantly enlarging. And it may be
safely asserted that no railroad exists, or can be built anywhere in the
Pacific States, which will compare with the Seattle, Lake Shore and
Eastern Railway in its control of the iron business.