COL OR A DO— A GLAA CE AT ITS MINING AND O THER A TTRA CTIONS. 359 



appearance. In a word, there is to be found here all the freshness and room for 

 enterprise of a new country, and all the intelligence, thrift, and social order com- 

 mon to the Western States. 



Seattle, W. T., October, 1884. 



COLORADO— A GLANCE AT ITS MINING AND OTHER 

 ATTRACTIONS. 



A. J. WHITE. 



Ten millions have been paid annually for mining labor in Colorado for the 

 past five years. The mining machinery employed during that time — not includ- 

 ing the smelting and milling machinery — would not exceed six million dollars in 

 value. The bullion product during that period has been about $22,000,000 an- 

 nually or $110,000,000 in the aggregate. Ten million dollars are annually taken 

 from the State and paid to eastern mine owners in dividends, enough in fact to 

 pay for all the labor of mining and prospecting. But with all this splendid show- 

 ing there is a possibility that Colorado and its rich mining industries are not v/ell 

 understood. 



An army of disappointed adventurers have left the State since the Leadville 

 excitement of 1879-80, carrying words of condemnation upon their lips. They 

 had not succeeded, and mining was, of course, a humbug. Undoubtedly their 

 influence has had something to do with the present quiet business in the State, 

 yet with all this, last year the mines produced $26,376,562 and exceeded any 

 previous year. This was a surprise to many, for the population had decreased 

 and everything moved on quietly. It is now a well estabUshed fact that gold 

 and silver mining does not require a large population to carry on its business. 

 Two Lowell cotton factories employ as many operatives as there are miners em- 

 ployed in the Leadville mines, and yet who would think of building a city to be 

 supported by their labor. 



In the great work of transforming a rugged and almost impassable country 

 from an unproductive condition, to be one of the greatest producers of gold and 

 silver in the world, has required a heroism and sacrifice unknown to agricultural 

 States. In 1870 the map of Colorado was a meaningless scrawl. Then the pop- 

 ulation was less than 40,000; now it is 302,300. Then it produced nothing, 

 comparatively, in gold and silver; now it furnishes one-fourth of the bullion pro- 

 duced in the United States and Territories. It had a meager cattle interest at 

 that time, now its grass-feeding animals are valued at over $50,000,000. Only a 

 few scattering ranches were to be found in Colorado in 1870, now 1,500,000 acres 

 are under ditch, and the profits from farming are proportionately greater than in 

 almost any other State. It furnishes coal and coke for New Mexico, Arizona, 

 Utah, portions of California and some of the Territories, and last year it pro- 

 duced 1,220,638 tons It produced last year 47,106 tons of iron ore, a large 



