It is thought that the Snake river deposits also contain some alloy of platinum or iridium.
But gold is not the only valuable mineral deposit in Bannock county. Situated at the mouth of Sulphur canyon, five miles east of the town of Soda Springs, is a group of soda springs with associated deposits of native sulphur. These mines were worked in the late nineties and in the years 1901 and 1902 a considerable amount of sulphur was taken from them, but the enterprise was finally abandoned. The United States Geological Survey, in Bulletin 470, gives the following summary of these deposits:
“The failure of an apparently well backed attempt to develop these deposits will render improbable any further attempts in the immediate future. It is extremely doubtful if the deposits can be profitably worked * * in competition with the relatively high-grade deposits of Wyoming and Utah.”
The same bureau, in Part I of its publications for 1909, speaks more hopefully of the salt deposits in Bannock county. In an article on this subject, Carpel L. Breger says:
“Valuable areas of salt-bearing land lie along the Wyoming-Idaho border in Bannock county, Idaho. In the old days, before the advent of railroads in the west, relatively large amounts of salt were boiled from the brine springs in this region and were hauled by ox team to supply Idaho and Montana mining camps. The emigrants to the northwest along the Lander route also drew upon this region for their salt. Indeed, some forty years ago, in the reports of the Hayden survey, this area was briefly described as containing the finest salt works west of the Mississippi. In those days as much as 200,000 pounds of salt was boiled per month, selling in the late sixties at $1.25 a hundred pounds at the springs.”
Col. Lander, mentioned above, after whom a street in Pocatello has been named, led a government expedition through these parts in 1863, and F. V. Hayden, whose name has been given to Hayden street, Pocatello, conducted a United States geological and geographic survey in this country in 1872.
“Since then, however, the area has decreased in importance. The railroads have passed it by; other salt works—those of the Great Salt Lake region—have taken its markets on account of easier railroad connection.
“Interest in these salt deposits has recently been revived, owing to the discovery of rock salt beneath some brine springs. James Splawn and H. Hokanson, in deepening these springs in 1902, encountered a formation of rock salt six feet below the surface and this has been penetrated for a thickness of twenty-six feet without reaching the bottom. The exceptional purity of the salt, its cheapness of production, and the probability of railroad connections in the near future, lend interest to the deposits of the entire district.
“As to quality, salt can be easily obtained here which is above the average in chemical purity. This salt could be produced most cheaply and with the maximum of cleanliness by a process of solar evaporation.
“At present the market for the salt of the area described is limited to the immediate vicinity. It could, however, command the markets of eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and much of Montana.