772 



UTAH. 



Irrigation. A company are at work on a 

 canal and reservoir, to utilize the waters of 

 Beaver River, for irrigating farm lands. Four 

 miles of the canal were reported completed in 

 the summer, and work on the reservoir was 

 about to begin ; this is to have a capacity of 

 659,642,000 cubic feet. Beaver River, which rises 

 in the Beaver Mountains, had a flow from the 

 latter part of April to the first of July, of 922,- 

 000,000 cubic feet. The scheme, when perfected, 

 will irrigate 30,000 acres of land, lying in Beaver 

 and Millard counties. 



The projectors of the plan will give the farmer 

 a perpetual water right for the consideration of 

 $10 an acre ; or will take their pay in land, 

 requiring a one-half interest in all lands irri- 

 gated. The section of country embraced in this 

 irrigation scheme is now intersected by the 

 Union Pacific Railroad, and quite generally under 

 cultivation. 



Beet Sugar. The crop of beets this year was 

 the largest ever grown in the Territory. The 

 product of the Lehi Sugar Works in October 

 amounted to 783,400 pounds. The Government 

 pays a bounty of 2 cents a pound, and the Ter- 

 ritory 1 cent. In September the run was not so 

 large, the bounty amounting to only $3,954. 

 The first granulated sugar made in the Terri- 

 tory was turned out this year. The sugar com- 

 pany had 500 acres in beets this season, while 

 last season there were but 200 acres. Next year 

 the company will put 1,000 acres in beets, and 

 will gradually increase their acreage until their 

 yearly minimum acreage is 2,000 acres. This 

 year's beet crop for use at the sugar works was 

 grown under the supervision of the sugar works 

 company. 



Minerals. The year's production is given as 

 below in Wells, Fargo & Co. 's annual statement: 



Copper 1,822,616 pounds, at 5 cents 



per pound $91,130 80 



Unrefined lead 91,117.107 pounds, at 



$55 per ton 2,505,720 42 



Fine silver 8,969,656 ounces, at 86J 



cents per ounce 7,792,388 65 



Fine gold 38,182 ounces, at $20 per 



ounce 763,640 00 



Total export value $1171527*79 87 



Computing the gold and silver at their mint 

 valuation, and other metals at their value at the 

 seaboard, would increase the value of the prod- 

 uct to $16,276,818. 



Gold-fields. The gold-field recently discov- 

 ered is thus described by Cass Hite, explorer and 

 prospector : 



At a point on San Juan river about forty miles 

 from its confluence with Colorado river, enters from 

 the Navajo country on the south (heading for the 

 Sierra Calabasn) the Moonlight canyon. Nearly 

 opposite, coming from the north, enters the clay 

 wash, heading in the Elk mesa. That point, the 

 mouth of Moonlight canyon, is, from the latest re- 

 ports, the heart of the "gold-field. From there to 

 Dandy Crossingon the Colorado, as the raven makes 

 it, is about forty miles, but up White canyon to its 

 head and clown the clay wash is about sixty miles. 

 From Bluff City by the San Juan river is about 

 seventy miles, and by the detour made from the 

 Ruicon on the Bluff road around the base of the 

 Elk mountains and down the clay wash, it is 100 

 miles. With the Arizona and Utah line fora center 

 from north to south, and the mouth of the Moon- 



light canyon from east to west, there is an area of 

 200 miles square that covers that entire country in 

 question. It is the bottom of an old Silurian sea. 

 The only eruptive spots in it are the Henry moun- 

 tains, the Navajo mountains fifty miles south at the 

 junction of the San Juan and Colorado, the Chuck- 

 a-luck mountains on the Navajo reservation, the 

 Blue and Elk mountains on the north. The rest of 

 the entire area is sedimentary. All the mountains 

 named are island mountains and were formed by 

 laccolites, the igneous rocks being invariably 

 trachyte. 



At the lower end of this canyon is the mouth of 

 Moonlight. At this point for five to eight miles are 

 large deposits of gravel bars. From thence on the 

 river enters the great San Juan canyon, which is 

 about thirty miles from its mouth. Mighty sluice- 

 boxes cover this entire area. On almost a water 

 level lie the sedimentary strata, and in them a 

 stratum of quartz pebbles and sand many feet in 

 thickness up to 500. This stratum in many places 

 carries gold and is sometimes rich. 



Other reports and estimates are not so favor- 

 able. At the close of the year there were about 

 5,000 men in the new fields. 



Carbonate Mines. Rich carbonate strikes 

 have been made at Eureka, in the Tintic district, 

 90 miles south of Salt Lake. The discovery is of 

 such magnitude, the bodies of ore so extensive 

 and rich, as to lead many to predict that a new 

 district has been opened in Utah which is equal 

 to Creede, and may even rival Leadville. The 

 formation in which the ore is found is a dolo- 

 mitic limestone. This is traversed for a consid- 

 erable distance by dikes of porphyry, and there 

 are mountains of the last-named rock which 

 have been thrown up through the lime. 



Onyx. A valuable deposit of onyx has been 

 found on the west shore of Utah Lake, and a 

 company is being formed to develop and operate 

 the property. It is described by a mining engi- 

 neer as " one of the most valuable deposits in the 

 world, being finely stratified and lying in such a 

 manner that blocks of any size can be taken out. 

 Many pillars now in view will cut ten and twelve 

 feet in length and almost any width, while the 

 thickness will be fourteen to eighteen inches. 

 The whole structure is incased in a black lime 

 and is perhaps the only regular deposit in exist- 

 ence. All the onyx of the old world and the 

 Eastern States lies principally in bowlders, 

 and comparatively few are of any value what- 

 ever." The onyx shows a great variety of color. 



Natural Gas and Oil. A flow of natural gas 

 was struck in January, six miles north of Salt 

 Lake City, at a depth of 200 feet. Other wells 

 have been driven in the vicinity, with good 

 results, the fourth one having been driven to a 

 depth of 700 feet, and a well opened which gives 

 160 pounds pressure, and is estimated to yield 

 from 12,000,000 to 20,000,000 feet of gas a day. 

 A well within the city limits yielded gas when 

 driven to a depth of 950 feet, and later oil was 

 reported to have been struck at a depth of 1,000 

 feet. 



Gas was found at Ogden in March, at a depth 

 of 200 feet. In boring, the drill passed through 

 shale which is impregnated with oil. The region 

 of country east of Great Salt and Utah lakes has 

 for many years been regarded as rich oil and 

 gas fields. 



Salt. The product of salt from the lake is 

 about 300,000 tons a year.. The salt beds or 



