MINES AND MINING 



trict in the state of Washington. From Grand Forks, 

 also, one may travel north and west to Vancouver 

 and Victoria, from which latter place the Nanaimo 

 coalfields are easily accessible. At present these 

 fields are the most important sources of coal for the 

 coast cities. 



Turning south from Grand Forks to Spokane, 

 Washington, or reaching the same city over the 

 Great Northern or Northern Pacific, me traveler 

 finds himself within an easy side journey distance 

 of the Goeur d'Alene mining district in Idaho. This 

 may also be reached direct from the East by taking 

 the St. Regis Pass route of the Northern Pacific. 

 However it may be approached, it will be found a 

 district of much technical interest, aside from hav- 

 ing the second largest output of lead in the United 

 States. The lead, with silver and in places zinc, 

 occurs in a pre-Cambrian quartzite and is prepared 

 for smelting elsewhere in immense concentrating 

 mills belonging to the Federal, Bunker Hill & Sulli- 

 van, and other famous companies. 



From Spokane the route may lie direct west to 

 Puget Sound, where coal mining may be seen in the 

 vicinity of Tacoma, or southwest to Portland where 

 the interests are agricultural, commercial, and lum- 

 bering, rather than mining. Indeed in Oregon min- 

 ing is as yet but little developed though a traveler 

 by way of the Oregon Short Line has opportunity 

 by stopping over at Baker City to make a side trip 

 to Sumpter, where gold-silver ores are mined. South 

 from Portland on the main route to San Francisco 

 there is little of especial mining interest to see until 

 Shasta County, California, is reached, though near 

 Grants Pass, Oregon, and in Siskiyou County, Cali- 

 fornia, both placer and lode mining may be seen if 

 one has time to pause. 



Shasta County is California's most important 

 copper mining district. It has produced about 

 450,000,000 pounds of copper and ranks tenth in the 

 United States. According to L. C. Graton the ore 

 bodies are in intrusive alaskite porphyries of Meso- 

 zoic age. The ore minerals replace this along shear- 

 ing zones. The ore is mainly pyrite with chalco- 

 pyrite admixed and, in the eastern mines, the Bully 

 Hill and Afterthought, important amounts of zinc- 

 blende. Mining in the district has been depressed 

 owing to trouble over smelter fume. The Bully Hill 

 smelter, at Winthrop on a branch line from Pit, is 

 closed; as is also the Balaklala at Coram. The Mam- 

 moth smelter, using a bag-house, may be seen to the 

 west near Kennett, as may also the idle works at 

 Coram. At Keswick another branch road leads off 



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