450 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



A 30-]?00'r COAI, SEAM AT HANNA, WYOMING 



A new coal field has recently been discovered in Arizona which probably contains more coal 

 than has been mined to date from all the coal mines in the United States (see page 451) 



proximately 350,000 acres of coal land 

 were valued at $22,000,000,. which is 

 three times the value of the same area 

 at the minimum price. At the present 

 writing. May 24, the coal valuations for 

 May, 1910, have already run $36,000,000. 



The question may be asked whether, 

 with 30,000,000 or 40,000,000 acres of 

 coal land in the West now in private 

 ownership, there will ever be a demand 

 for these government coal lands at $200 

 or $400 or possibly a much higher figure 

 per acre. The answer is that the lands 

 are actually being purchased, and, more- 

 over, these prices are very conservative. 



The big coal companies themselves, 

 such as the Union Pacific and the Rocky 

 Mountain Coal Company, are today leas- 

 ing coal lands from other parties and 

 working them on a lo-cents-a-ton royalty 

 basis, and thus actually paying in royal- 

 ties several times what the government 

 would charge the entryman as a cash 

 price for similar coal lands. 



At the Salt Lake City land office alone, 

 during a single month, $200,000 worth of 

 coal-land sales were made and 50 declar- 

 atory statements filed for purchase of 

 additional coal tracts, aggregating prob- 

 ably another $200,000, or a total for a 

 month's coal business in one land office 

 of $400,000. 



The government coal classification 

 work has not yet been nearly enough 

 completed to allow for even an estimate 

 at what the total valuation figures will 

 be, but a little rough guessing may prove 

 of interest. 



It is estimated by the Survey that there 

 are approximately 50,000,000 acres of 

 public coal lands, located principally in 

 Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, and 

 New Mexico. Of these it is believed that 

 30,000,000 acres are underlain with what 

 may be termed fine coal. 



Assume that the average valuation 

 which will be placed on these lands is 

 $50 an acre, which according to the rec- 



