History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

740 AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.
At Emigration cafion carbonate of soda is found on
the surface, and was used by the first settlers for
making bread. In the iron-beds red and yellow ochre
are abundant. Under the shale-beds, which cover a
surface of 1,000 square miles, occurs what is termed
mineral wax, some of it being rich in gases and paraf-
fine. 57 At Promontory Range, so called because it
projects into Great Salt Lake, and in Sanpete county,
are vast beds of alum shale, alum in combination with
other minerals being found in all parts of Utah,
though as yet without value.
Building stone is exceedingly plentiful throughout
the territory, and in great variety. At Little Cottonwood
there is granite; at the Red Buttes near Salt
Lake City there is red sandstone; in Sanpete county
is white sandstone; and at Logan, limestone, easily
quarried and strongly impregnated with iron. Marbles,
black, white, gray, cream-colored, variegated,
and some of them capable of receiving a fine polish,
are found among other points on the islands of Great
Salt Lake, near Provo, at Logan, Tooele, Frisco,
Alpine City, and Dry canon, the Logan marbles being
in most demand. On Antelope Island, also in
Great Salt Lake, there is a large quarry of green and
purple slate, which for some purposes is preferred to
eastern slate. Clays of various descriptions, as brick
clays, potter's clays, and porcelain clays, are found in
Beaver, Davis, and Sevier counties, west of Utah
Lake, and at several of the mines.
Mining of most descriptions, and especially of gold
and silver, was discouraged, as we have seen, by
the dignitaries of the church, partly with a view to
prevent the rush of gentiles which would surely follow
the discovery of gold, and also because the very
existence of the Mormons as a community depended
on their unremitting exertions in producing the neces-
67 Hottuster's lies, and Attract, of Utah, 52; S. L. G. Tribune, May 27, 1879;
S. F. Post, March 18, 1879; Silver Reef Miner, Jan. 10, 1SS0.