SCHMIDT IRON MANUFACTURE IN MISSOURI. 263 



Butler, Wayne and Stoddard Counties. The eastern branch of 

 the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad intersects the eastern 

 part of these districts, especially the iron fields in Madison and 

 Bollinger Counties, to join the Mississippi at Belmont. 



Resources and their Development. — The natural resources of 

 the different districts of the Eastern Ore Region are very different. 



1. The district along the Mississippi River, in Ste. Genevieve, 

 Ferry, and Cape Girardeau Counties, has been, as yet but little 

 investigated and opened. Some mining has been done in Perry 

 County, a few miles below and opposite Grand Tower, and some 

 of the limonite ores found were shipped to the latter place to be 

 smelted. But no larger and reliable deposits have been discov- 

 ered in that district, so far as can be judged from present data. 

 It appears that this district is provided with an abundance of 

 fuel, as it contains extensive tracts of fine timber-land, and being 

 also situated in pretty close proximity to the Big Muddy coal 

 fields of Illinois ; but the quantity of iron ores, as known at pres- 

 ent, would not justify the erection of iron-works. The ores 

 may, however, be mined unci shipped on the Mississippi to 

 Grand Tower, South St. Louis, or up the Ohio River. An iron 

 industry might develop itself successfully in this district if it was 

 connected by one or two railroad lines with the Iron Mountain 

 district, which abounds in ores, but lacks fuel. Such a railroad 

 line has been projected, running from Iron Mountain over Farm- 

 ington to St. Mary's on the Mississippi River, but it has not yet 

 been built. It would undoubtedly contribute largely to the de- 

 velopment of both districts. 



2. The Iron Mountain district, in Southern St. Francois and 

 Northern Iron Counties, is probably the richest district in iron 

 ores in the State. The ores are mostly specular, and in part of 

 great purity, and yielding the highest percentages of pig-iron in 

 the furnaces. The mines are developed in a considerable degree. 

 Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob, and Shepherd Mountain especially, 

 have been worked continually for a number of years, and have 

 produced very large quantities of iron ore, which were partly 

 smelted with charcoal in the district, partly exported to South 

 St. Louis and Grand Tower, as well as up the Ohio River into 

 Southern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. This refers 

 principally to the Iron Mountain ore, which on account of its 



