GOLD AND OTHER RESOURCES OF 

 THE FAR WEST. 



BY J. A. LATCHA. 



[J. A. Latoha, onpinoor; ontorod railroad sorvicc July, 1S65, with Philadolphia and 

 Reading railroad; later with Union Paeific, Peniis3ivania and Vandalia lines; vieo 

 president and manager Morgan Improvement Co., building the Oilman, Clinton and 

 Kpringfield railroad, in interest of Penna. R. R. from Ls71 to 1876; inspecting engineer 

 of Pennsylvania Co.; manager of construction of tlu^ Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake 

 Michigan railrt)ad; president Toledo, Tiflhi and Eastern railroad; president of the 

 Toledo and State Lin(> railroad, and president of the Union Bridge company; Octo- 

 ber, 1878 to 1882, president and chief engineer of the Toledo and iMiUvaukee railway; 

 from November, 1880, to January 1, 1885, chief engineer New York, Chicago and 

 St. Louis railway; president Michigan and Ohio railroad, and from November, 1884, 

 to 1887, receiver of the same road; also, from .\ugust, 1886, president Toledo, Mar- 

 shall and Northern railroad; from November, 1886, to 1888, chief engineer and super- 

 intendent of construction of the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic railway, built 

 through the iron and copper range.] 



The Klondyke gold craze strongly reminds us of the 

 tendency of man to rush upon evils that he knows not of, 

 in the consuming desire to secure that which from time im- 

 memorial has symbolized prosperity and power. Tragic 

 as was the history of the early days of California and Colorado, 

 the tales of the wild and reckless rush to the bleak and frozen 

 northwest after the world's desire will for many years stir the 

 hearts of Americans. 



The fascination of the unknowTi largely impels men to 

 rush to the desert and to the ice locked gorges of the arctic 

 north after gold, while manifesting little or no interest in 

 the treasures at their feet. Americans, in a general way, 

 know that rich deposits of the most precious of all metals 

 are scattered in profusion wdthin the limits of our states; 

 but few have any distinct knowledge as to where those deposits 

 are, nor of their value to us as a nation. A description of 

 these fields of wealth will here be attempted; but, necessarily, 

 it cannot be exhaustive within the limits of a short article. 



For a century gold has been found and mined at a moder- 

 ate profit in the primary geological formations of the Ap- 

 palachian mountains in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, 

 and Alabama. Many of the mines of Georgia are especially 

 profitable. But the rich gold finds in the far western states, 



215 



