Chapter 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.

------------------+--------------+---------+-----------+-----------
|Metallic Iron.| Sulphur.|Phosphorus.| Silica.
------------------+--------------+---------+-----------+-----------
Typical Steel Ore | 59.24-2/3 |.20-2/3 | .03-2/3 | 6.17-2/3
Lake Superior | 68.48 | ---- | .053 | 2.07
Iron Mountain | 65.500 |.016 | .040 | 5.750
Snoqualmie | 68.80-8/13 |.023-4/13| .028-2/3 | 2.61-10/13
------------------+--------------+---------+-----------+-----------

This showing places the Snoqualmie ores in the front rank of American steel ores; indeed, it shows a little higher in metallic iron, and a little lower in phosphorus, than any of the others. These analyses are, of course, made from the ore proper; _i.e._, without any addition of the matrix, or gangue-rock, in which the ores are imbedded. With all magnetites of this type it is only in exceptional spots that much of the ore can be gotten, free from the enclosing rock. Under ordinary circumstances something like 20 per cent. of the ore sent to the furnace will be gangue-rock. There is reason to hope, however, that ere long there will be a practical method for separating the rock from the ore, and at the same time getting rid of most of the sulphur. At Cranberry, N. C., the ore is now roasted and stamped into small bits, and an experiment has been made of passing the ore through a jigger, whereby the hornblendic and other enclosing rocks were separated by the pulsations of the water, as in coal washing.

[Sidenote: Improved processes.]

The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, Pennsylvania, has been separating the ore from the rock with good results. The same has been done at Crown Point, N. Y., Lion Mountain, near Plattsburg, N. Y., Negaunee, Mich., and Beach Glen, N. J.

The process is really one of concentration, in some respects similar to that pursued with the refractory ores of the precious and base metals. The ore is first calcined sufficiently to make it friable. It is then crushed, by a Blake or other rock-breaker, and is finally sluiced, or jigged, or both. The aim is to produce a Bessemer concentrate which would yield 60 per cent. or more metallic iron, and at the same time get rid of whatever phosphorus might be in the gangue-rock. In the best experiments the object was more than accomplished. The concentrate contained 63 per cent. of metallic iron, the middlings 55 per cent., and the tailings 16 per cent. This experiment was made with a refractory Adirondack magnetite, which was so intermixed with hornblende, quartz, mica, etc., that the ore might be described as a hornblendic gneiss, carrying a large proportion of magnetite. No doubt experience will teach some way of saving the ore that is now wasted in the tailings.

Thus we may hope to see removed in a short time the only practical difficulty in working the crystalline magnetites, such as those of Snoqualmie, and many others.

[Sidenote: Granite.]