NICKEL,  URANIUM,  ETC 
CARNOTITE  IN   KIO   BLANCO  COUNTY,  COLO. 
Bv  Hoyt  S.  Gale. 
INTRODUCTION. 
In  September.  1 006,  while  t  he  writer  was  engaged  in  a  survey  of  coaj 
fields  in  the  upper  valleys  of  White  and  Yam  pa  rivers  in  northwester 
Colorado,  his  attention  was  called  to  the  reported  occurrence  of  an  od 
of  uranium  that  was  then  and  is  now  attracting  considerable  interea 
Prom  various  parts  of  the  State.  The  prospects  lie  just  east  of  t he 
border  of  the  Danforth  Hills  coal  held  and  the  material  occurs  in  rocks 
the  study  of  whose  stratigraphy  lias  formed  an  important  part  of  the 
writer's  field  work  for  the  last  two  seasons.  In  the  spring  of  1906  a 
party,  including  Mr.  E.  L.  White.  State  commissioner  of  mines,  and! 
Prof.  Herman  Fleck  andW.  (1.  Haldane  of  the  school  of  mines  at 
Golden,  Colo.,  visited  these  prospects,  and  their  report  is  expected 
at  an  early  date. 
LOCATION. 
The  prospects  lie  near  the  valley  of  Coal  ('reek,  about  14  miles  by 
wagon  road  nort  heast  of  Meeker,  t  he  countyseat  of  Rio  Blanco  county. 
Meeker  is  usually  reached  by  stage  from  Rifle,  a  station  45  miles  dis- 
tant on  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Railroad,  the  trip  occupying  a 
day.  The  claims  now  located  (eight  or  ten  in  number)  are  situated 
}'\  miles  east  to  southeast  of  the  locality  known  as  "The  Transfer,* 
on  Coal  Creek,  where  lumber  hauled  from  the  mills  on  Sleepy  Catj 
Mountain  is  transferred  to  the  larger  wagon  loads  to  be  taken  into 
Meeker. 
CARNOTITE. 
The  name  carnotite  was  given  in  1899  by  E.  Cumenge  and  0. 
Friedel  to  a  canary-yellow  ocherous  pigment  that  was  found  impregl 
nating  a  siliceous  sandstone  in  Montrose  County,  Colo/'  Carnotite 
has  also  been  discovered  in  San  Miguel  and  Mesa  counties  in  Colorado 
and  in  adjacent  counties  of  Utah. 
a  Merrill,  G.  P.,  The  Nonmetallie  Minerals,  1904,  p.  322. 
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