Gold and Other Minerals in lozca. — Calvin. ^<\\ 
CONCERNING THE OCCURRENCE OF GOLD AND 
SOME OTHER MINERAL PRODUCTS IN IOWA. 
By Samuel Calvin, Iowa City, Iowa. 
It is a source of constant wonder and surjirise tliat. not- 
withstanding- all that has been said and written, there are yet 
persons of influence, intelligent beyond the average in all other 
respects, who entertain the crudest conceivable notions con- 
cerning the facts of geology and the distribution of mineral 
resources. The highest natural gifts and the broadest schol- 
arly training and business experience seem to be altogether 
ineffectual, in the absence of some training in the principles 
.of g-eology, to protect men from the most amazing- fallacies 
as to what may or may not be found l)el(^w the surface of the 
ground. Samples of yellow mica from decayed Kansan bowl- 
ders, or iron pyrites from shales or limestones, arc received al- 
most weekly from persons who imagine they have discovered 
gold in Iowa. Small flakes of brass worn from the working 
parts of pumps or other farm machinery, are among the causes 
which have led to repeated reports of discoveries of gold in a 
region where not a single condition favorable to the presence 
of the precious metal exists. Probably the most wild and un- 
justifiable of all the crude beliefs respecting geological re- 
sources is that which holds to the conviction that by going 
deep enough the drill is sure to find something of value, no 
matter at what point the work of boring is commenced. There 
are numerous wise persons in every community, estimable, in- 
fiuential and in the highest degree public spirited, who are con- 
vinced that the question, for example, of finding coal in their 
special locality is simply a matter of the depth to which the ex- 
plorations are carried. Rock oil and natural gas arc recog- 
nized as desirable jM-oducts in every progressive community, 
and everv such community contains persons, in other respecis 
intelligent, who are ready to stake their own fcjrtune and that 
of their nearest friends on th.e belief that oil and gas are every- 
where underneath the surface, and that their sources can be 
tapped with the drill, provided only there is sufficient capital to 
keep up the process of drilling long enough. 
•Advance sheets from the Reports of the Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. XI, 
pp. 17-27. 
