118 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 
may be able to see some of the ore being lowered to a mill in the 
bottom of the canyon.*® The ore is crushed in this mill and partly 
separated from the rock with which it is associated and is then 
shipped to some smelter for reduction to the metallic 
Belden. 
Blevation 8,304 feet. above the railroad and has a thickness of 250 to 
Peet iis, 300 feet. It is overlain by the Leadville limestone, 
which shows at the top of the canyon wall. 
Eagle River canyon isso narrow that in building the second track the 
Denver & Rio Grande was forced to use both sides of the river and 
even there had to tunnel through many of the projecting points of 
rock. (See Pls. L,B,and LV, B.) The westbound track follows the 
east side of the canyon and the eastbound track the opposite side. 
For a short distance below Belden the canyon continues narrow and 
rugged, but its course is more and more toward the east, and the 
*A. H. Means in Economic Geology, vol. ad p. 4, 1915, gives the following 
section of the rocks in the Eagle River canyon 
Section of rocks exposed in Eagle River canyon, Colo. 
— 
- Thick- 
Age. Character. Formation. pee 
© us: Feet. 
Pennsylvanian...........| Sandstone. Maroon formation...........-- 1,900 
Sandstone Weber sandstone.............. 3,950 
I dan Weis oo ay ok t-- <> Weber shale | 50 
Le a Bs eee ee eee | 100 
Mississippian ........-.-.. omelet gray and white... .| Leadvillelimestone........... 150 
Cambrian Qua awatch quartzite............. 270 
state. At Belden the quartzite is about 100 feet - 
song t ae ores and the mines 
Mr. Mean 
Redcliff and Gilman, a distance ue 
miles. The deposits may be 
divided as follows: 
“(1) Fissure veins in the granit 
carrying principally gold and et 
with some copper, lea Zin 
“(2 
) Replacements in the quartzite, 
consisting of bodies of zinc blende and 
galena, apes narrow veins carrying 
gold and sil 
“43 } slot Biot in the limestone, 
comprising large bodies of zine blende 
and considerable deposits of chalcopy- 
rite and pyrite.” 
According to Henderson the value 
of all the metals produced in Eagle 
County from 1880 to the end of 1920 
is — say ores ibe here 
are the same those produced in 
fat Leave sti and the field 
E 
sil fives toad: camp, 
nes a little gold also has been mined. 
The mines produced about $1,500,000 
a year in 1883 to 1886. In rey copper 
began to be mined, and i 
zine mined became of sainctaie valde 
s 
zinc sprang into prominence in 1914, 
and in 1915 it led all other metals in 
to §. tT. 
the value of its output, which amounted oat 
a 7 > 
ween ee 
, 
