History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

MINING. 741
saries of life. The first systematic efforts at prospect-
ing, made by permission of* General Connor, when in
command at Camp Douglas, were ridiculed in the
tabernacle; 58 and later, when mining projects were
brought forward by gentiles, they were steadily discountenanced.
In 1863 Captain A. Heitz and a
party from Camp Douglas discovered argentiferous
galena and copper in Bingham canon, on the east
slope of the Oquirrh Range, near the Jordan, and
about thirty miles south of Salt Lake City. A mine
was located in September of that year by a man
named Ogilbie, and in December following, a mining
district was established, named the West Mountain,
and including the portion of the range between Black
Bock, at the southern end of Great Salt Lake, and
the fortieth parallel. In 1871 this district contained
thirty-five mines. 59
The first shipment of ore from Utah was a car-load
of copper ore from Bingham canon, hauled to Uintah
on the Union Pacific, and forwarded by the Walker
Brothers to Baltimore in June 1868. In 1864 free
gold was discovered in this district by a party of
Californians returning from Montana to pass the
winter in Salt Lake City. Between 1865 and 1872
the production of gold was estimated at $1,000,000,
and up to 1882 the total product was 500,000 tons of
ore and 100,000 of bullion, from which was extracted
$1,500,000 in gold, $8,800,000 in silver, and $5,000-
000 in lead. The surface was a broken quartzite formation,
the mineral belt broad and containing many
fissure veins believed to be permanent, the ore being
partly galena, largely silicious, and decomposed on or
near the surface. 60
58 Harrison's Crit. Notes on Utah, MS., 48. In 1857, and perhaps at an
earlier date, it was known that there were silver mines near G. S. Lake. See
Surgeon-Gen. Circ. 8, 1875, 338-9; Sac. Union, Nov. 30, 1858.
*3 A list of them with particulars will be found in Murphy's Min. Res. of
Utah, facing p. 14.
4:0 For further information as to this district, see Id., 2; Holhster s Res.
and Attract, of Utah, 28-30; S. L. C. Tribune, July 13, Aug. 3, 13, 1879,
Jan. 3, 1880; S. L. C. Herald, July IS, 1879; Mining and Scientific Press,
July 17, 1S75.