History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

VARIOUS MINERALS.
most of her mining districts, from the Weber to the
Colorado, where, in the sandstone formations, some
very rich ores have been discovered. It is most
abundant in southern Utah, but the only mines developed
in 1883 were in the extreme north-western portion
of the territory, where veins averaging seven or
eight feet in width, enclosed in micacious shale and
intermingled with porphyry, yielded in spots as much
as fifty per cent of metal. 64
Beds of sulphur were found both in northern and
southern Utah, the largest, with an area of about 300
acres and a depth of not less than twenty feet, being
in Millard county. In the hills of Beaver county,
some fourteen miles south of Frisco, there are also
large deposits of singular purity among fissures of
silicious flint; but though much of it would yield fifty
per cent, and some even 98 per cent, of pure brimstone,
it has no commercial value, and is not even utilized
for local consumption. Near Brigham City there are
sulphurets of antimony, averaging at least four feet in
thickness, and yielding from twenty to thirty per
cent of metal. In Piute and Garfield counties are
purer and larger deposits. Gypsum and mica abound
in southern Utah, the latter being found also in Salt
Lake and Davis counties. East of Nephi, in Juab
county, is a vein of gypsum 1,200 feet long and 100
in width. In Washington and Sanpete counties it is
also encountered, both in the crystallized and oxydized
state. Cinnabar, cobalt, and bismuth, the last in paying
quantities, are met with in Beaver county and at
Tintic. 55 Near Salt Lake is a solid mountain of rock
salt. 56 West of the lake are large deposits of saleratus.
54 Among other localities, copper was found in the San Francisco district,
Big Cottonwood, the Snake district, Copper gulch, Red Butte and Bingham
canons, Antelope Island in G. S. Lake, in many parts of Beaver co., and in
the granite range between Ogden and S. L. City. For account of copper mines
near Milfordand at Grand gulch, see Silver Reef Miner, June 8, Oct. 15, 1881.
Murphy states that in 1872 the only places where it would pay to work were
in the Bingham, Tintic, and Lucin districts, the last being partly in Box
Elder co. and partly in Nevada. Min. Res. of Utah, 8.
55 For further mention of bismuth deposits, see S. F. Bulletin, Apr. 27, 1872.
56 For description, see Niles Reijider, lxxv.
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