134 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



GOLD IN KANSAS. 



By J. T. LovEWELL, Topeka, Kan. 

 Read before the Academy, at Topeka, January 1, 1903. 



T AST year, at lola, I had the honor to read before this Academy 

 -*-^ some thoughts and records of investigations on the subject 

 "Gold in Kansas Shales." To-day I come before you with a more 

 general proposition, "Gold in Kansas." In the discussion of last 

 year's paper, it was urged that the Kansas Academy of Science could 

 not atford to accept the conclusion that gold existed in the shale- 

 beds along the Smoky river, but, as a concession, a committee was ap- 

 pointed to pursue the investigation. This committee has failed to 

 report, and the present paper will only give some of the facts that 

 have come to my observation during the past year. Many fire and 

 other assays of the shale have been made in my laboratory during this 

 period, but nothing from them specially important can be added to 

 the record already given. The shale from one locality at least, "Sec- 

 tion 15," seldom fails to give values in gold. These are generally 

 small, but we find some returns as high as ten dollars, and the av- 

 erage is about $2.50 per ton. 



In last year's paper I was permitted to quote from Doctor Fahrig's 

 report of his first series of experiments on Kansas shales. Encour- 

 aged by that report, means were provided for repeating these experi- 

 ments on a larger scale. A test mill was erected here in Topeka, and 

 a committee sent to ship from the shale-beds to Topeka a car-load of 

 shale. From this material, Doctor Fahrig made, last April, fourteen 

 mill-runs of about 1000 pounds each, and in due time submitted the 

 results in an exhibit which I am happy to be able to place before you. 

 It shows the gold and silver actually obtained from each run, and gives 

 their values and the value per ton of the shale as thus shown. 



The table printed at top of next page shows these facts so concisely 

 that I cannot do better than to reproduce it. 



Doctor Fahrig has been engaged to resume this work on a much 

 larger scale and with more publicity. Last year it was deemed best 

 to keep the mill closely guarded from public inspection, and no one 

 was allowed on the premises except Doctor Fahrig with two assistants, 

 and a small committee to supervise the work. In the coming series 

 of experiments, the work at the mill can be seen by any one who has 

 a legitimate interest in it, and the shale tested will be from several 

 localities, since it is not settled yet whether the values lie in streaks 

 or are uniformly distributed. The experiments will go far to settle 



