THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



and the districts in Lincoln and Esmeralda counties 

 all great producers in the past are yet rich in silver ore 

 averaging $8 to $20 per ton. Not only are the old camps 

 far from " exhausted/' but the undeveloped resources in 

 this direction are far from explored. It is not denied 

 by any one that admittedly great silver camps in Utah, 

 in Colorado, in Idaho, and in Montana, have been com- 

 pelled to cease operation partially or completely as a 

 result of the depression of prices. The same is true of 

 Nevada, but she also labors under peculiar disadvantages 

 in the lack of transportation facilities. In the extreme 

 southern counties mines have to ship ore to the reduc- 

 tion works at Salt Lake City at a cost of $15 per ton. 

 There are other localities where the transportation 

 charge ranges from $20 to $100 per ton, and where great 

 ore bodies carrying $30 to $60 per ton in precious 

 metals lie unworked in consequence. The prostration 

 of the silver industry in Nevada is due to a number of 

 causes, but the fact that the " silver mines which made 

 her all she was have been exhausted " is not one of them, 

 since it exists only in the imagination of those who know 

 not whereof they speak. 



The statement that Nevada "has no other mineral 

 wealth " is equally wide of the truth. The actual extent 

 and value of such resources in any country cannot bo 

 known in advance of thorough development, but the 

 amazing variety of Nevada's natural endowments is a 

 fact which no well-informed person ventures to dispute. 

 Calling the roll of the fourteen counties, we may see 

 that nearly all answer to the truth of this claim. 



Eiko, in the extreme northeastern corner of the State, 

 where the railroad traveller enters from Utah, yielded 



196 



