CHAPTER YIII. 



COLORADO. 



General features — Agriculture — Mineral wealth — Coal and iron — Pre- 

 cious METALS — Bullion product. 



Colorado possesses a mineral wealth of varied character. Chiefly pro- 

 ductive, thus far, of gold and silver, it has, in association with these metals, 

 some valuable sources of lead and copper. Its coal beds are unquestionably 

 of great extent, and, although as yet but slightly developed, they bid fair to 

 become the basis of a most important branch of mining industry. Its de- 

 posits of iron ore are wide spread, and are said by intelligent observers to 

 have great worth; while salt, gypsum, fireclay, and other mineral products of 

 commercial value, occur and are already being utihzed in several localities, 

 forming noteworthy elements in the natural resources of the Territory. 



It will not be attempted, in this or following chapters of the present 

 volume, to describe minutely either the mode of occurrence of all these va- 

 rious mineral deposits or the manner or extent of their development. The 

 writer's observation was confined almost exclusively to the examination of 

 the principal gold-producing district of the Territory, situated in Gilpin 

 County, and of the silver mining region of Clear Creek County, having in 

 view the purpose of combining with the foregoing description of the gold and 

 silver mining industry of Nevada, or of that part of Nevada which lies within 

 the limits of the Survey, some account of the general condition of the same 

 branches of industry in Colorado. Except in this special department of ex- 

 amination, the field operations of the Survey have not, at the present time, 

 been extended eastward beyond Fort Bridger, and the writer, therefore, pur- 

 sued his investigations without the co-operation of any other member of the 

 corps. For this reason the topographical and general geological features of 

 the country received less attention than was given to them in the Nevada 

 mining districts, described in the preceding chapters, arid cannot, therefore, 



