SCHMIDT — IRON MANUFACTURE IN MISSOURI. 



269 



portion of Maries County. Several of these deposits have been 

 opened by practical work, and show considerable quantities of 

 iron ore. (The location of the various banks is shown on my 

 map of the Lead Region of Central Missouri, published with the 

 Geol. Reports of the State for 1S74.) Good hard timber is plen- 

 tiful over the whole district, and is especially fine and large in the 

 Osage bottoms. Favorable furnace-sites also exist on the Osage, 

 as well as in some well-watered portions of the highlands. 



The remarks just made in regard to timber and furnace-sites 

 may be applied with equal propriety to the Middle Osage district 

 between Tuscumbia and Warsaw, and to the Upper Osage dis- 

 trict above Warsaw. In both these districts numerous larger and 

 smaller deposits, principally of limonite, are scattered over the 

 country within about ten miles on both sides of the Osage River. 

 Camden County contains, besides the limonites, some deposits 

 of specular ore ; and the Upper Osage district contains, besides 

 the limonites, limited beds of red hematite. A few only of these 

 various deposits have been opened by practical work : but a look 

 at the ore-bank map, published with the Missouri Geol. Report 

 for 1872, will show that the number of deposits is so large as to 

 warrant a good supply of ore for at least a few charcoal furnaces. 

 The furnaces should, however, be built on the bank of the river, 

 so that they may draw their supplies from any part of the whole 

 district without great expense, and also that they may have a 

 greater facility for shipping their products. Linn Creek, Warsaw, 

 as well as numerous spots between these two towns on the river, 

 would be well suited for the purpose. One furnace, called the 

 Osage Iron Works, was built in 1S72 on Boulinger Creek, 12 miles 

 north-west of the town of Linn Creek, in Camden County. Al- 

 though unfortunately located at some distance from the river, and 

 in a part of the country where ores are not very abundant, this 

 furnace was in successful operation until the late financial crisis. 



The construction of the railroad above mentioned, from Jeffer- 

 son City to Warsaw, will give this latter place considerable ad- 

 vantages for the manufacture and shipment of pig-iron. 



IV. SOUTHERN ORE REGION. 



Several deposits of limonite ore have been reported by B. F. 

 Shumard in Ozark and Douglas Counties, on the North Fork of 

 White River, and several others are known in Christian and 



