Part 9

Roof, fine-grained Sandstone, under which is seven inches Black Slate. FT. INS. Coal 0 6 Slate 2 0 Coal 0 7 Slate 0 4 Coal 0 5 Slate 0 5 Argillaceous and Ferruginous Rock 1 7 Coal 0 1-1/2 Bone 0 5 Coal (main bench) of good quality 7 0 Nigger-head 0 2 Coal 1 0 Slate 0 1-1/2 Coal, good 0 6 Slate and Clay 0 7 Lignite (brown coal) 2 1 Bituminous Slate 1 8 Coal 0 1/2 Nigger-head 0 4-1/2 Clay and Bony Slate 0 7 Coal 0 1 Nigger-head 0 1-1/2 Coal 0 1/16 Bituminous Slate 1 2 Coal 0 1 Slate 0 7 Coal 0 7 Slate and Sandstone bottom. --------------- Total 23 ft. 1-9/16 in.

[Sidenote: Another good bed.]

Seam No. 1 is only partially exposed, the workings having caved in; but enough of the seam was visible to show that it was a bright, soft, friable, bituminous coal, of good quality, containing some slate and nigger-head. Its fracture would be called _dicey_ by some geologists, because it breaks readily into small cubes, even smaller than dice. The seam is probably about five feet in thickness.

[Sidenote: Geological relations.]

This group probably corresponds geologically with the Kirke Mines, on Green River; but, judging by the eye, it is a more bituminous coal and better suited to coking. The large bed here may correspond with one of the large beds at the Kirke Mines.

I fear that faults are numerous in the coal rocks of this group, which, of course, would add to the expense of mining. But if, as expected, it furnishes a good smelting coke, the field will be extremely valuable from its contiguity to the magnetic ores of the Cascade Mountains and the scarcity of coking coals.

This property was for sale when I visited it, and would have been sold but for a claim of ownership set up by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which, however, in the opinion of good lawyers, had no foundation.

[Sidenote: This the bottom group.]

This is the bottom group of the Washington Territory coal field. It will be seen that, taking the Gilman group, the Raging River group, and the Snoqualmie group on one line, and the Cedar River, Carbon River, and Green River group on another line, it may be fairly claimed that there are at least fifteen working seams of three feet and upward in the Washington Territory coal field.

_e. The Yakima and Wenatchie Group._ This field lies on the east flank of the Cascade Mountains, on the waters of the Yakima and its tributaries, Cle-ellum and Teanaway. It is believed to extend also into the Wenatchie Valley, although the area here is probably disconnected from the Yakima area. I purposely refrained from visiting this region, and for my statements I am indebted chiefly to Bailey Willis, F. H. Whitworth, Charles Burch, and Mr. Jamieson of the Kirke Mines.

[Sidenote: Yakima or Roslyn coal field.]

The Yakima area lies north of the Yakima River, near to the Northern Pacific Railroad, and to the projected line of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, and extends about sixty miles east and west, and six miles north and south. Its dip is gentle, say twelve to twenty degrees. It holds three coal seams of 2 feet 6 inches, and 5 feet and 5 feet respectively. There is not much evidence of fracture in any part of the field. The total thickness of the coal-bearing rocks is estimated by Bailey Willis to be 1,000 feet. This is evidently the lower part of the coal series, the upper part having been carried away. The best seam is mined at Roslyn, four miles north of the Northern Pacific Railroad, in the interest of that railroad.

The seam here furnishes upward of four feet of good coal. The coal is bituminous, dull black, firm, and free burning. Mr. Jamieson thinks it will not make good coke. Others, however, think that it will, and these are supported partially by the laboratory test in Washington City, D. C. (See Table of Coal Analyses, page 107.) It is called in the table Roslyn coal.

This coal is used chiefly in the locomotives; but the popular demand for it is very great in the plateau country of East Washington.

[Sidenote: Coal on the Wenatchie.]

I have no knowledge of the coal on Wenatchie River except what I obtained from Mr. Burch, who says that there are two seams of coal exposed in that valley, one of eight feet and one of three feet. The coal-bearing rocks extend for thirty-five miles up the river, and have a width of ten miles.

[Sidenote: Coal under the Great Bend country.]

The coal is reported by Mr. Burch to appear east of the Columbia River, opposite to the fields just described, and to disappear under the basalt. If so, here is a resource for the future. Concerning the importance of this coal field to the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, I will speak in another connection.

[Sidenote: The first mining on Bellingham Bay.]

_f. Bellingham Bay, Skagit River, and other Coal Fields._ The first shipping of coal from Washington Territory was done from the Seahome Mines, on Bellingham Bay, Puget Sound, about twenty-five miles south of the Canada line. The mines were very badly managed; they took fire on several occasions. The coal was of the lignitic grade, but not of the best quality, and when other mines of better coal were opened the Bellingham Bay mines were closed. It is reported that coking coal has been found some distance back from the bay.

[Sidenote: Coal on Skagit River.]

Coal has also been found on Skagit River, which, I suspect, from a sample which I saw and from what I heard (some of it), is good, and possibly might coke well. One of the coal properties is held by A. Ford and others. The following description is furnished by Mr. Norman B. Kelly.

It is found about three miles north of the Skagit River, and about five miles from Sedro. The country is hilly. There are at least six or eight coal seams, perhaps more. Those examined run from eighteen inches to thirty inches, and are thought to be clean coal. The seams lie between sandrocks. The outcrops begin near the level of the valley, and continue in a series to an altitude of 550 feet above the valley. The highest outcrops are those of the lowest seams geologically. The strike is north sixty degrees west. At the foot of the hill, the seams dip forty-five degrees to the southwest, but the angle becomes steeper on the mountain side, until finally they are vertical. All the outcrops are within 1,500 feet horizontal distance. Blacksmiths use the coal and pronounce it equal to Cumberland. It cokes readily in the open fire; burns with a bright, hot, but small flame, and seems to leave but little ash.

Of course, the thinness of these seams is an objection. There is coal, also, upon the south side of the river; but there has been but little development in this field. An analysis of this coal is given in the table preceding, but I cannot say from what seam the sample was derived.

The following analysis of coal of the Crystal Mine, near Sterling, is said to have been made by Mr. Wm. G. Tenne, assayer, of Portland, Oregon:

Coke 71.31 Combustible gases 23.17 Ash 5.31 Moisture .21

A very fine showing.

[Sidenote: Coal south of Puget Sound.]

It has long been known that there are considerable areas of coal south and southwest of Puget Sound. But they have not been very highly esteemed, the coals being lignite of not the best quality. There are at least two seams of seven to twelve feet thickness, and they lie at an angle of five degrees, with good roof and floor. Some effort is now making on Skookumchuck and Chehalis rivers to develop these seams.

[Sidenote: Total shipments of coal from Washington Territory.]

Governor Semple, in his report for 1887, gives as the total shipment for the year ending June 30, 1887, the amount 525,705 tons. And he gives as the total output of coal from all the Washington Territory mines from the beginning of shipments to June 30, 1887:

MINES. TONS. Newcastle 1,308,178 Franklin 46,272 Black Diamond 148,418 Renton 35,015 Talbot 10,000 Cedar River 64,816 Carbonado 402,207 South Prairie 139,792 Wilkeson 10,372 Bucoda 4,550 Roslyn 40,987 Bellingham Bay (estimated) 250,000 Clallam Bay 500 ---------- Total 2,461,108

I have now given a sketch of all the coal mines and coal areas of Washington Territory, and will conclude with a few words on the coal of Vancouver's Island.

[Sidenote: Coal on Vancouver's Island.]

_g._ _Coal Seams in British Columbia._ The productive coal field is on Vancouver's Island, on the east side of the Gulf of Georgia. There are three mines in operation as given below:

ANNUAL OUTPUT.

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.

ANALYSES OF SNOQUALMIE IRON ORES.

+---------------+----------+----------+----------+----------- Kind. | Locality. | Silica. | Metallic | Sulphur. |Phosphorus. | | | Iron. | | ----------+---------------+----------+----------+----------+----------- | {Summit.| 1.30 | 71.17 | .00-1/2 | .04 | Mt. { " | 2.73 | 68.56 | .02 | .03-1/2}[1] Magnetite.| Logan { " | 2.23 | 69.40 | .00-3/4 | .03-1/2} | { " | 1.87 | 70.18 | .01-1/4 | .03 } [2] | { " | 1.67 | 67.00 | 0.05 | 0.02 } | +----------+----------+----------+----------- | Average | 1.96 | 69.26-1/5| .01-9/16| .03-1/5 Bog | | | | | Ironstone.| { | 9.37 | 45.50 | Traces | 0.08 } | Middle{ | 6.03 | 64.50 | 0.05 | ---- } [2] Micaceous.| Fork { |22.32 | 59.50 | 0.05 | Trace } |(Guye).{ | 3.33 | 67.80 | 0.03 | Trace } Hematite. | { |11.77 | 60.90 | 0.02 | Trace } | | | | | | { No. 1 | 2.72 | 69.39 | 0.042 | 0.035 | Denny { No. 2 | 1.30 | 71.17 | 0.005 | 0.039 [3] Magnetite.| Mt. { No. 3 | 2.73 | 68.56 | 0.019 | 0.035 | { No. 4 | 4.02 | 67.17 | 0.041 | 0.031 | { No. 5 | 2.23 | 69.40 | 0.008 | 0.035 | { No. 6 | 1.87 | 70.18 | 0.013 | 0.031 | +----------+----------+----------+----------- | Average | 2.47-5/8 | 69.31-1/6| 0.021-1/3| 0.034-1/3 ----------+---------------+----------+----------+----------+----------- Authorities: 1. Dewey (chemist). 2. Reported by Kirke. 3. Reported by Chas. K. Jenner, from a Philadephia chemist.

[Sidenote: Proved by analysis to be unsurpassed, if equaled.]

By way of comparison, I next introduce a table of analyses, which begins with what Mr. Phineas Barnes, in his report on the steel industry of the United States (1885), gives as a typical steel ore from the best American mines. The second analysis gives the average of fourteen analyses of the best Lake Superior steel ores. The third is a typical steel ore from the Iron Mountain of Missouri. The fourth is the average of all the analyses of the magnetic ores of the Snoqualmie Valley, which name I give to them to distinguish them from similar ores on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, of which I have no analyses:

COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF STEEL ORES.