PHOSPHATES  AND  PHOSPHORUS 
HOSPHATE    DEPOSITS    IN   WESTERN    UNITED 
STATES. 
By  F.  B.  Weeks  and  W.  F.  Ferrier. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The  present  paper  has  been  prepared  as  the  result  of  ten  days'  field 
work  by  Mr.  Weeks  in  October,  1906,  and  of  previous  reconnaissance 
surveys  by  Mr.  Ferrier  made  to  determine  the  distribution  of  the 
phosphate  series,  and  of  observations  made  by  him  in  establishing 
and  developing  the  mining  operations  at  Montpelier,  Idaho. 
It  has  been  thought  advisable  to  bring  together  in  this  paper  such 
general  information  relating  to  the  phosphate  deposits  in  the  West  as 
is  now  available,  describing  in  some  detail  the  localities  where  these 
deposits  have  been  most  extensively  opened  up  and  mined  and  which 
may  serve  as  a  general  type,  leaving  for  another  occasion  the  more 
minute  description  of  their  various  local  characteristics  and  points  of 
difference  in  geologic  structure. 
The  discovery  of  these  beds  has  opened  up  a  new  industry  in  the 
West,  the  future  of  which  is  largely  dependent  on  the  granting  of 
such  rates  by  the  railroads  as  will  enable  the  manufactured  product 
or  raw  material  to  be  sold  at  a  profit  in  Australia,  Honolulu,  Japan, 
and  the  Middle  States,  the  home  market  on  the  Pacific  coast  being  at 
present  a  somewhat  limited  one. 
GENERAL  DESCRIPTION. 
Within  the  last  few  years  it  has  been  found  that  the  upper  Car- 
boniferous rocks  of  the  central  Cordilleran  region  include  a  series  of 
oolitic  beds  containing  a  variable  percentage  of  P205.  These  beds 
are  known  to  occur  over  a  considerable  area  in  southeastern  Idaho, 
southwestern  Wyoming,  and  northeastern  Utah.  Prospecting  has 
been  carried  on  at  a  number  of  widely  separated  localities.  The 
strike  of  the  beds  follows  the  general  northwest-southeast  trend  of  the 
ranges  along  which  they  outcrop. 
449 
