IRON  ORES  TN  SOUTHERN  UTAH." 
By  C.  K.  Li 
Iron-ore  deposits  of  considerable  promise  have  long  been  known  in 
the  Iron  Mountain  district  of  Iron  and  Washing-ton  counties,  Utah. 
They  were  described  by  E.  E.  Howell  in  1875  in  Volume  HI  of  the 
Final  Reports  of  the  Wheeler  Survey,  which  volume  contains  also  two 
analyses  b}T  C.  E.  Dutton.  In  1880  in  the  Tenth  Census  report  they 
were  described  and  mapped  by  Putnam,  who  referred  to  them  as 
"probably  the  largest  masses  of  iron  ore  in  the  whole  West."  In  1880 
also  Prof.  J.  S.  Newberry  described  these  ores  in  the  Columbia  School 
of  Mines  Quarterly  as  "constituting  perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
deposit  of  iron  ore  yet  discovered  on  this  continent."  Since  that  time 
occasional  references  to  southern  Utah  iron  ores  have  appeared.  But 
because  of  the  remoteness  of  the  deposits  from  railways,  and  from 
principal  coking,  manufacturing,  and  consuming  centers,  little  general 
attention  was  given  them  until  the  latter  part  of  the  last  decade, 
when  developments  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry  made  it  necessary  to 
look  outside  of  the  well-known  iron-producing  districts  for  further 
supplies. 
The  enormous  consumption  of  iron  ores  in  recent  years  and  the 
necessity,  enforced  by  new  conditions,  for  steel  companies  to  provide 
their  own  reserves  of  iron  ore,  lest  they  be  at  the  mercy  of  competitors 
controlling  raw  materials,  have  emphasized  the  fact  that  the  known 
supply  of  high-grade  iron  ore  in  the  United  States  is  not  unlimited; 
that,  in  fact,  the  known  supply  guarantees  but  a  short  life  to  the 
industries  based  on  the  production  of  high-grade  iron  ore.  The  Lake 
Superior  region  is  at  present  producing  three-fourths  of  the  iron  ore 
used  in  the  United  States,  and  has  also  much  the  largest  reserves  of 
high-grade  ores  known,  but  even  these  reserves  are  likely  to  be 
exhausted  in  fifty  years  or  less.  The  low-grade  ores  of  the  Lake 
Superior  region  and  other  parts  of  the  United  States  will  necessarily 
be  available  much  longer,  since  the  production  in  the  United  States  is 
«The  writer  thanks  Mr.  Fred  Lerch,  of  Biwabik,  Minn.,  and  Colonel  Milner,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  for 
analyses  of  the  iron  ores,  for  maps  showing  mining  locations,  and  for  facilities  in  seeing  the  district 
to  good  advantage. 
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