THE  CACTUS  COPPER  MINE,  UTAH. 
By  S.  F.  Emmons. 
An  important  new  enterprise  in  the  mining  industry  of  Utah  is  th< 
Cactus  mine,  which  belongs  to  the  Newhouse  Mines  and  Smelter  Com- 
pany. This  property  was  visited  by  the  writer  in  August,  1904. 
the  course  of  a  visit  to  the  Frisco  district  of  southwestern  Utah,  wit! 
the  purpose  of  determining  the  area  to  be  covered  by  the  topograp] 
ieal  map  which  shall  serve  as  the  basis  for  a  study  of  the  economi 
geology  of  that  region.  Two  days  were  devoted  to  a  reconnaissanc 
examination  of  the  Cactus  mine  and  its  immediate  surroundings,  an] 
from  the  notes  taken  at  that  time  the  following  brief  description  has 
been  prepared  in  advance  of  the  results  of  a  detailed  study  of  the 
entire  district,  which  will  be  made  as  soon  as  practicable. 
Location. — The  Cactus  mine  is  situated  in  Beaver  County,  Utal 
on  the  western  slope  of  the  San  Francisco  Mountains,  about  -H  mile 
northwest  of  the  town  of  Frisco,  which  lies  at  the  eastern  base  of  tl 
same  range  and  a  short  distance  north  of  the  old  and  well-kno1 
Horn  Silver  mine." 
The  San  Francisco  Mountains  form  a  north-south  ridge  of  tl 
Basin  range  type,  which  constitutes  the  eastern  rim  of  one  of  tl 
southern  arms  of  ancient  Lake  Bonneville,  called  by  Gilbert  h  Prem 
Valley  but  now  more  frequently  known  as  AVawah  Valley.  Tl 
region  is  characterized  by  extreme  aridity,  the  only  water  beiij 
found  in  isolated  and  widely  scattered  springs,  which  furnish  only 
an  extremely  limited  supply  of  this  most  important  element.  It 
possesses  the  weird  beauty  of  outline  and  coloring  peculiar  to  the 
desert,  and,  owing  to  the  clearness  of  the  dry  atmosphere,  the  view 
from  any  elevated  point  ranges  oxer  a  hundred  miles  or  more  of 
alternating  broad  desert  valleys  and  sharply  sculptured  mountain 
ridges.  One  of  the  mosl  striking  features  of  the  landscape,  seen  from 
any  high  point  in  the  San  Francisco  Mountains,  is  their  greatly 
longer  slope  toward  the  west  and  their  relatively  short  and  abrupt 
"A    brief   description    by    the    writer    of   the   geological    structure    of    this    mine    will    be 
found  in  Trans.  Am.  [nst.  Min.  Km:.,  vol.  36,  p.  675. 
'Lake  Bonneville:    Mon.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  vol.  1.  1890. 
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