118 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



Belden. 



Elevation 8,304 feet 

 Population 211.* 

 Denver 206 miles. 



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 

 state. At Belden the quartzite is about 100 feet 

 aboA^e the railroad and has a thickness of 250 to 

 300 feet. It is overlain by the Leadville limestone, 

 which shows at the top of the canyon wall. 

 Eagle River canyon is so 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 Pis. L, 5, and LV, 5.) 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. 10, p. 4, 1915, gives the following 

 section of tlie rocks in the Eagle River canyon : 



Section of rocks exposed i7i Eagle River canyon, Colo. 



Age. 



Carboniferous: 

 Pennsylvanian 



Mississippian.. 

 Cambrian 



Character. 



Sandstone 



Sandstone 



Shale 



Porphyry (intrusive) 



Limestone, gray and white . 



Quartzite 



Granite 



Fonnation. 



Maroon formation. 

 Weber sandstone. . 

 Weber shale 



Thick- 

 ness. 



Leadville limestone . 

 Sawatch quartzite. . . 



Feet. 

 1,900 

 3,950 

 50 

 100 

 150 

 270 



Regarding the ores and the mines 

 Mr. Means says : 



" The ore deposits of the district 

 are confined to a relatively small 

 area, the largest part of which lies 

 in the canyon of Eagle River between 

 Redcliff and Oilman, a distance of 

 about 3* miles. The deposits may be 

 divided as follows: 



"(1) Fissure veins in the granite, 

 carrying principally gold and silver 

 with some copper, lead, and zinc. 



"(2) Replacements in the quartzite, 

 consisting of bodies of zinc blende and 

 galena, also narrow veins carrying 

 gold and silver. 



"(3) Replacements in the limestone, 

 comprising large bodies of zinc blende 

 and considerable deposits of chalcopy- 

 rite and pyrite." 



According to Henderson the value 

 of all the metals produced, in Eagle 

 County from 18S0 to the end of 1920 

 is .$23,834,838. The ores mined here 

 are the same as those produced in 

 the Leadville district, and the field 

 has had a somewhat similar experi- 

 ence, on a much smaller scale. The 

 camp started as a silver4ead camp, 

 but a little gold also has been mined. 

 The mines produced about .$1,. 500,000 

 a year in 1883 to 1886. In 1896 copper 

 began to be mined, and in 1905 the 

 zinc mined became of sufficient value 

 to be noted in the reports of produc- 

 tion. In this camp, as at Leadville, 

 zinc sprang into prominence in 1914, 

 and in 1915 it led all other metals in 

 the value of its output, which amounted 

 to $1,381,577. 



