2 UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI STUDIES 



given by Ptofessor R. D. Salisbury, University of Chicago, and 

 Professor E. B. Branson and Mr. D. K. Greger of the University 

 of Missouri. Acknowledgment is also due to the writer's wife 

 for making the necessary chemical analyses. 



History of the industry,— The writer has been unable to fix 

 exactly the date when barite was first mined in Missouri, but it 

 seems to have been about 1860. In the Washington County dis- 

 trict barite, or "tiff" or "heavy spar," had long been known be- 

 cause of its association with the galena. Schoolcraft, in his re- 

 port on the lead mines of Missouri published in 1819 (page 190), 

 comments on the abundance of barite in the lead mines of the 

 district. He says : 



"Sulphate of Barytes (Heavy Spar)— Mine a Burton 

 (Potosi), Old Mines, Mine Shibboleth, and numerous other 

 mines in Washington County, Missouri are characterized by sul- 

 fate of barytes. In those mines it forms the matrix of the lead 

 ore ; though it is sometimes found unaccompanied by ores of any 

 kind, and the quantity which is found at Potosi alone is suffi- 

 cient, according to our present ideas of its uses, for the supply 

 of the whole world. It is generally found in compact or tabu- 

 lar masses, very white, heavy, and glistening. Sometimes it is 

 crested, columnar, prismatic, or lamellar ; and frequently the sur- 

 face of the crystals are yellow, from an ochery oxide of iron. 

 All the barytes I have observed in Missouri are perfectly 

 opaque." 



Schoolcraft suggests on page 101 that the barite might be 

 used as a flux. Litton^ in his report on the lead mines of south- 

 eastern Missouri mentions the minerals of the following metals 

 as being the only ones that were important : Pb, Fe, Cu, Ni, Co, 

 Zn, and Mn. Apparently the mining of barite had not yet begun 

 at that time. 



Broadhead^ in a report on Miller County mentions the find- 

 ing of barite crystals, and also comments on the use of barite as 

 a pigment, but does not indicate that he was aw^are of its being 

 mined for that purpose in Missouri. In a later report^ Broad- 

 head mentions in considerable detail the use of barite in paints, 

 but fails to state definitely that it was being mined in Missouri, 



'Litton, A. Dr., Mo. Geol. Surv., p. 12. 1855. 



^Broadhead, G. C, Repts. of Geol. Surv. of Mo., p. 133. 1855-1871. 



•Broadhead, G. C, Geol. Rept. of Mo., pp. 15, 50. 1872-1874. 



