The Forester. 



Vol. VII. 



AUGUST, 1901. 



No. 8. 



MINING AND FORESTRY IN COLORADO. 



By H. M. Suter. 



THAT successful mining is in a great 

 measure dependent upon a steady 

 timber supply all persons engaged 

 in that industry will readily admit. Hence 

 the close relation of mining to forestry to 

 an intelligent exploitation and perpetua- 

 tion of forests is at once apparent. 



Mining, under the systems followed in 



1 



this country, whether for gold, silver, cop- 

 per, or coal, requires a great amount of 

 timber. Cheap fuel and mine timbers are 

 most essential in the exploitation of min- 

 eral lands if ore is to be mined profitably. 

 In this connection the following quotation 

 from a paper by Mr. Gifford Pinchot read 

 before the Trans-Mississippi Commercial 

 Congress at Cripple Creek, Colorado, in 

 July, is most appropriate here: "Pros- 

 perous mining is impossible without pros- 

 perous forests. With the rare exception 

 of such surface mines as those of the Mes- 

 saba District, mining requires timber and 

 requires it in enormous quantities. Thous- 

 ands upon thousands of cords are needed 

 yearly in the larger mines to support the 

 galleries and make possible the extraction 

 of ore. For the most part, the grade of 

 timber is not high, nor would it bear long 

 transportation. The interest of the miner 

 therefore is especially bound up with the 

 preservation of the forests near his mine. 

 It is one of the hopeful signs that the more 

 intelligent miners and the managers of the 

 more important mines are becoming rap- 

 idly convinced of the necessity of safe- 

 guarding their supply of timber by the 



protection of forests near home. Mining 

 may thrive temporarily on the destruction 

 of forests, but such thriving can not ! 

 Successful mining therefore is impossible 

 without prosperous forests, and for the 

 most part, such forests must be found in the 

 immediate neighborhood of the mines." 



In discussing the question of the rela- 

 tion of mining and forestry in Colorado. 

 a state that includes conditions typical of 

 almost every mining camp in the West, the 

 Cripple Creek district, regarded as the 

 greatest gold mining camp in America, 

 may be taken as a striking example of the 

 statements contained in the foregoing quo- 

 tation. There mininsr has thrived tem- 

 porarily on the destruction of forests near 

 the mines, but already the demand for 

 timber has become so great and the sup- 

 ply near at hand is so nearly exhausted 

 that the future profitable working of these 

 mines is threatened. 



The Cripple Creek district, discovered 

 in 1S91, has in the ten years of its exist- 

 ence as a mining camp produced $102,- 

 742,710 worth of gold. Beginning with 

 an annual output of $200,000 in 1 S, ,i. 

 there has been a remarkable yearly in- 

 crease until in the year 1900 the production 

 reached $22,500,000, and for the present 

 year it is estimated that the output will 

 reach $30,000,000. Not onl\ has the 

 Cripple Creek district produced a great 

 amount of srold, but it has been done at a 

 good rate of profit, as more than $] 

 OOO in dividends have been paid In the 



