Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/134

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124
Henry E. Reed.

Gold. Silver. Total value.
California $15,816,200 $ 583,668 $ 16,399,868
Colorado 28,829,400 12,700,018 41,529,418
Idaho 1,724,700 3,986,042 5,710,742
Montana 4,698,000 8,801,148 13,499,148
Nevada 2,006,200 842,394 2,848,594
Oregon 1,694,700 71,548 1,766,248
South Dakota 6,177,600 332,444 6,510,044
Utah 3,972,200 5,745,912 9,718,112
Alaska 8,171,000 45,446 8,216,446
Arizona 4,193,400 1,857,210 6,050,610
Texas, etc. 1,587,100 704,568 2,291,668
Total $78,870,500 $35,670,398 $114,540,898

Other mineral productions are 30,000,000 tons of coal; 200,000 short tons of lead; 413,000,000 pounds of copper; 3,600,000 barrels of petroleum, and 30,000 flasks of quicksilver. The copper mines of Montana and Arizona have lessened the importance of the Lake Superior region as a source of supply, cutting its percentage of the total American output from 62.9 in 1862, to 25.9 in 1899.

One of the greatest gold mining regions of the world is located in eastern Oregon, covering a gross area of between 3,000 and 4,000 square miles. Prof. J. Waldemar Lindgren, of the United States Geological Survey, believes that the strong, well-defined veins upon which most of the important mines of this region are located will continue to the greatest depths yet attained in mining.

LUMBER INDUSTRY.

According to the census reports for 1900, lumber is excelled in value among American productions only by iron and steel, textiles and slaughtering and meat packing. The West, having 607,500 square miles, or 55.4 per cent of the total wooded area of the country, exclusive of Alaska, will surely be paramount in this important industry. Indeed, we, this early, find the Director of the Census making this important admission in one (203) of his bulletins: