136 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Coalville, east of Salt Lake City, and a 

 field of unknown extent in Iron County, 

 occupying the Colob Plateavi. 



Wyoming has bituminous coals along 

 the line of the Union Pacific Railroad at 

 or near Hanna, Rawlins, Rock Springs, 

 and Kemmerer, and also in small areas 

 about the Black Hills. It is possible that 

 other areas of bituminous coal exist in 

 this state, but they are not well known. 



Montana has considerable bituminous 

 coal in the fields along the Northern Pa- 

 cific Railroad west of Billings, about 

 Great Falls, and in the Crazy Mountains, 

 but by far the largest areas in the state 

 carry coal of an inferior grade. 



Washington has several bituminous 

 coal fields along the western foothills of 

 the Cascade Mountains and at least one 

 local basin at Roslyn, on the eastern side. 



Most of the coals of California are of 

 low grade, but one bed has been devel- 

 oped in Stone Canyon, in the southeast 

 corner of Monterey County, that is good 

 bituminous coal. So far as known, this 

 is the only coal of this class in the state. 



Sub-bituminous Coal. — This class of 

 coal is abundant in the western fields. 

 Most of the coal in the south part of the 

 Durango-Gallup basin is of this class. It 

 is the only coal found in the Denver 

 basin and in North and South Parks of 

 Colorado. The great fields in the north- 

 eastern part of Wyoming, the Bighorn 

 basin, and most of the fields in Uinta 

 County contain sub-bituminous coal. All 

 of eastern Montana is supposed to be 

 underlain by it, as is also the big field in 

 the north-central part of the state around 

 the Bearpaw Mountains. A number of 

 small fields lying west of Butte, Helena, 

 and the main Front Range contain coal 

 of this character, but generally they are 

 of small extent and probably have little 

 commercial value. In Washington this 

 class of coal is abundant, but as a rule 

 it occurs some distance west of the Cas- 

 cade Mountains. 



■ Lignite. — This class of fuel is found 

 only in the fields of southern Alabama, 

 Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas on the 

 Gulf slope and North and South Dakota 



at the north. It is mined commercially 

 only in North Dakota and Texas. 



THE COAI, FIELDS BELONGING TO THE GOV- 

 ERNMENT ARE MOSTLY LIGNITE 



Up to the present time we have used 

 our fuel without a question as to the pos- 

 sibility of its exhaustion, for if such a 

 thought has entered the mind it has been 

 dismissed with the optimistic remark that 

 "the American people are ingenious and 

 inventive, and when the coal becomes ex- 

 hausted some other source of heating 

 power will be discovered." Such assur- 

 ance is delightful, but it will not suffice 

 to keep us warm, nor to turn our mills 

 and keep trains running when our coal 

 supply is gone. 



Of late, however, the more far-seeing 

 people have been thinking deeply on this 

 subject, especially since the recent order 

 of the President withdrawing tempo- 

 rarily from coal entry 64,000,000 acres 

 of coal land, and his recommendation to 

 Congress that the time has arrived to 

 begin the conservation of our mineral 

 fuels, and urging upon that body the 

 passage of laws upon the subject. 



In the older fields of the east, with the 

 exception of Indian Territory, practically 

 all of the coal land has passed to private 

 ownership. Therefore the present order 

 and the interest of the people generally 

 centers about the coal fields of the Rocky 

 Mountain region and the Pacific slope. 

 The former contains an area estimated 

 at 134,800 square miles, and the latter, 

 including Alaska, 10,000 square miles, or 

 a total of 144,800 square miles out of a 

 total for the whole country of 400,500 

 square miles. 



Of this area of 144,800 square miles of 

 coal fields of the western states, it is esti- 

 mated that 50 per cent has passed to pri- 

 vate ownership, leaving about 72,000 

 square miles of coal fields yet belonging 

 to the government. It must be remem- 

 bered, however, that more than half of 

 this area is included in the lignite fields 

 of eastern Montana, North Dakota, and 

 South Dakota, and when this is deducted 

 from the figures given above it leaves an 



