Above: Gold and Silver Bullion at a Denver Smelter

DENVER'S MINERAL EMPIRE

"A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig money. "
---Deut. viii: 9.

     Since 1859 Colorado has produced in gold $175,000,000, the last few years having witnessed a marked annual increase.

     The gold and silver bearing ores of Colorado also carry considerable quantities of copper and lead, and of these two minerals the State has produced since 1859 over $90,000,000 worth.

     Colorado presents, within three days' journey from the Eastern money centres, a gold producing belt over 300 miles long by 100 miles wide, comprising, according to the statistics of the U. S. Mint, more than 20 gold producing counties, every district in which is either on the line of or easily accessible from some railroad from Denver.

     The mountains of Colorado contain gold and silver sufficient to pay off the National Debt of the United States and Great Britain, and posterity will be mining gold and silver in Colorado a century hence.

     Colorado has 18,000 square miles of coal fields, including anthracite, bituminous, and lignite, as yet only partially developed. The annual coal output of the State rose from 69,997 tons in 1873 to 3,516,960 tons, worth $5,500,000, and over 300,000 tons of coke, worth $900,000, in 1897. Over 1,000,000 tons of Colorado coal are shipped annually to Nebraska, Kansas and other States.

Above: Mining Exchange

     During 1897 35,000 tons of manganiferous ores were shipped from Leadville to the Illinois Steel Works, Chicago, a distance 1,100 miles, and contracts have been entered into for 1898 to ship 40,000 tons of such ores to the same works, with probability of considerable shipments to Pittsburg, Pa., in the near future.

     The production of gold, silver, lead and copper in Colorado in 1897 exceeded by several million dollars the product of the same metals in 1892, which was the most prosperous year known until that time. The decrease in the production of silver and lead has been overcome and the gain added by the increase of gold.

     With Colorado taking the lead of all the American States as a gold producer and all the world crying for gold and every nation short of gold, the Colorado gold mining industry will, during the next ten years, double Denver numerically and commercially.

     The following table shows Colorado's increasing gold production:

     The figures prior to 1897 are the official mint returns and those for 1897 are a conservative estimate by the Denver Mint officials.

     The daily output of the Florence field is about 2,000 barrels of crude petroleum. Besides supplying Colorado, this field annually ships to Montana, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico at least $500,000 worth of petroleum.

Above: The Globe Smelting and Refining Works

     The following points emphasize the importance of the gold mines to the prosperity of Colorado and Denver
FIRST :--Gold is in increasing demand. SECOND:--Gold is appreciating in value, as measured in all staple commodities. THIRD:--Gold mining or gold production is free from competition. In every other industry there is a constant effort for supremacy, because there is a limited market, and the more active and strong push their competitors to the wall; with gold mining the demand is unlimited. FOURTH :--Gold is at once marketable and can always be disposed of to the Government. FIFTH:--The price is fixed by law $20.67 per ounce. SIXTH: --No drummer has to be employed; there is no hunting for customers; no waiting for a turn in the market and no competition. The miner who, by his own labor, washes out $50 worth of gold from the gravelly bed of some remote mountain stream, has nothing to fear in the disposal of his product, from any gold mining company with a million dollars of cash capital. SEVENTH:--In consequence of the fall in the price of all commodities and the great improvements and reduced expenses in recent years in the methods of mining and ore treatment, an ounce of gold can be produced in Colorado and the West today with greater profit to the producer than when gold commanded from 60 to 100 per cent. premium. EIGHTH:--Colorado has a belt of 30,000 square miles, stretching from Larimer County in the north to La Plata County in the south, more or less underlaid with gold bearing veins. NINTH:--With the general fall in prices, there is no industry which equals gold mining in inducements for the conservative and profitable investment of capital. TENTH:--Gold mining, on business principles, is by far the most attractive outlet for the vast sums of idle capital now waiting profitable investment, and a large flow of such capital from the outside to Colorado is consequently certain. This incoming tide commenced during 1897, and fortunately, as a rule, so far it is being invested with much more intelligence and care than was formerly the case, with consequent greater probability of satisfactory results.

Above: Roasting Furnace