CHAPTER II. 
GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, AND GENERAL GEOLOGY. 
GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY. 
The Iron Springs district lies between longitudes 113° 10' and 
113° 26' 30" and latitudes 37° 35' and 37° 47' 30", in Iron County, 
southern Utah, about 250 miles south of Salt Lake City and 550 
miles from the harbor of San Pedro, Cal., on the Pacific Ocean. The 
San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad runs within 22 miles 
of the district on the west, Lund being the nearest station. The 
district can also be reached by way of a spur of the Denver and Rio 
Grande Railroad running down to Marysvale, 80 miles northeast 
of the district, thence on by stage. 
The area (see fig. 1) lies near the eastern margin of the Basin 
Range province and includes several basin ranges and hills, prin- 
cipal among which are the Harmony Mountains, Iron Mountain, 
Antelope Range, Granite Mountain, The Three Peaks, and Swett 
Hills (PI. I, pocket). To the south are the Pine Valley Mountains. 
Immediately west, north, and east of the district lies the desert, 
beyond which on the west and north are other basin ranges, and 
on the east, 12 miles away, is the Hurricane fault scarp of the High 
Plateaus. On the southwest the district is continuous with a series 
of ranges and hills extending west of the Pine Valley Mountains 
well into Nevada. 
The elevation ranges from 5,300 to 8,000 feet. 
The drainage is through small creeks leaving the mountains and 
hills and soon losing themselves in the desert. 
The tops of the Harmony Mountains retain snow until the middle 
of summer, and consequently have an abundance of vegetation, 
such as yellow pine, fir, cottonwood, quaking aspen, and mountain 
mahogany. The tops and slopes of the other mountains are dry 
and are covered with a growth of scrub cedar and pifion. Shrubs, 
sagebrush, and several species of cacti are also abundant, but grasses 
are lacking. The surrounding desert presents the variety of sage- 
brush, rabbit brush, greasewood, and shad scale characteristic of the 
desert elsewhere in the Great Basin. 
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