Colorado's future as a great manufacturing State is assured. In her hills, upon her mountain sides, on the plains, and in the valleys, her deposits of raw material abound, both in variety and richness, second to no other State in the Union. In fact she stands alone in this respect. At present these resources are undeveloped; the surface has been merely touched, and yet this superficial view reveals to the observer possibilities beyond conception. As this empire, of which Colorado is the geographical center, becomes settled more thickly, the demand upon these resources will increase, and with this increasing demand manufactures will multiply, and soon every article known to the trade will be furnished direct from her vast deposits. Not only will she supply the wants of her own and contiguous territories, but in time markets remote will come to Colorado for supplies. The abundance of the raw material and the economy in manufacturing will level competition, and the high quality of the product will place her supreme in the world's commercial marts. The results of last year, aggregating $50,000,000 in the reported values of the manufacturing product in eighteen cities, give some conception of Colorado's manufacturing future; and it has only been a very short time since, in the whole breadth of the State, when not a single article was manufactured, and everything used was shipped from eastern cities at enormous prices. Within the past year the following manufactories have been added: A paper-mill, a match factory, a cotton-mill, a woolen-mill, a boot and shoe factory, an overall factory, and a knit-underwear establishment. The manufactured product of 1892 will not fall below $75,000,000.
Colorado continues to be the paradise of the sportsman. Its myriads of streams teem with mountain-trout; the forests are, as ever, the domain of the elk, deer, and other game; and its many lakes, while abounding in fish, are the haunts for the wild feathery tribe, and offer great attraction for both rod and gun. Everywhere on the various lines of the Denver & Rio Grande the tourist and the pleasure-seeker at home may find a field of sport to his liking. Should he choose a day of recreation after small game, he may stop off in the valleys among the farms, and a bag of birds and rabbits will be his trophy. For elk and deer he may follow the valley of the Upper Arkansas, deploying to the near-by hills, or go to the valleys and mountains of Southern Colorado, or follow the line of the Denver & Rio Grande down to Gunnison, or cross the range to Glenwood, and search the wooded hills and the glens and valleys of the Yampa and the Grand; thence southward, via Ouray, he may follow the Dolores from the San Miguel to the San Juan and Muncos, following the footsteps of the Indians, now departed, upon their favorite hunting-grounds. For the angler, as has been stated, fish are abundant in all the streams and lakes reached by the Denver & Rio Grande; but for the best sport and most enjoyable entertainment Wagon Wheel Gap, on the Rio Grande del Norte, in Rio Grande County, is conceded to be the choice of all places. This is both a pleasure and a health resort, affording at the same time rest and recreation for the sick and weary, and rare amusement for the invalid and the tourist alike. At this point the finest of mountain-trout are always abundant, and the angler may enjoy himself with the speckled beauties to his heart's content. The Gunnison River likewise abounds in fine trout, and there are many points of advantage on this as many other streams along the line of the Denver & Rio Grande.
Ores are found under all conceivable conditions in Colorado, and, as a rule, in sufficient quantities to admit of their profitable extraction. In the metamorphosed granite mountains of the main range the typical fissure veins, with well-defined and nearly perpendicular walls, are found often aggregated in great numbers, and universally mineralized to a profitable degree. In the trachytic and porphyric districts rich fissures also prevail, running very high in silver as a rule, while occasionally the precious metals are associated with such quantities of lead or copper ore that the base metals more than pay all cost of mining and treating the ore. In other sections, again, where there have been large overflows of porphyry upon the carboniferous or silurian limestone, great deposits of silver lead ore are found, often covering many acres of ground like vast coal-beds. To this latter class belong the mines of Leadville, which in the past ten years have yielded over $100,000,000. Also the mines about Aspen, Robinson, Red Cliff, Monarch, White Pine, and Rico. Wherever the deposits, however, and whatever the character of the mineral, the result is the same—an increase in the wealth of the State where developed. A number of valuable and important discoveries of gold and silver have been made this year (1892). The enormous deposits of silver at Crede promise to make it a rival of Leadville, while the immense gold-fields at Cripple Creek, near the line of this road, will add millions of dollars to the yellow metal wealth of the country. Rico, in the San Juan country, will produce millions of dollars more this year than ever before in its history. The quantity of the precious metal and the prosperity of the mining sections are only measured by the energy of the communities themselves and the extent of the capital employed. The record of the mining industry last year can be gleaned in the subjoined table:
| 1889. | 1890. | |
| Silver, ounces | 21,119,613 | 25,788,819 |
| Gold, " | 194,908 | 4,016,229 |
| Lead, tons | 3,166,970 | 3,932,814 |
| Copper, pounds | 3,127,739 | 2,422,000 |
The estimate for 1889 does not include the metals contained in the ore shipped out of the State, while that for 1890 does include them.
Colorado has exceeded every other section in the growth of her farming industry. This growth has been phenomenal. In 1880 the State imported 500,000 bushels of wheat, 2,000,000 bushels of corn, 500,000 bushels of potatoes, 1,000,000 bushels of oats, and 100,000 tons of hay. Last year there were produced in the State about 10,000,000 bushels of cereals, and instead of importing, the State exports; and in eastern markets Colorado wheat and oats command a premium. So great has been the development that authorities on agriculture assert that the agricultural output exceeds that of mining, which assertion is contradicted by mining people. But be this as it may, no other section presents a parallel to the rapid advance of agriculture in this State. One-half of the 66,880,000 acres of land in Colorado is estimated as agricultural land, of which 12,000,000 acres can be turned to the plow. There are now 2,000,000 acres under cultivation. The remarkable feature of this progress is the success attained by the "rain belt," which only a few years since was considered irreclaimable land. All over the State farming has been profitable, and by the contiguity of markets prompt returns for the products are the rule. This has induced immigration, and is one of the contributory causes of the influx of settlers into every section where cheap lands may be obtained.
Iron.—The largest deposit of iron in Colorado is in Gunnison County, and when taken in connection with the fact that in this locality cheap fuel abounds, it is a deposit of magnitude unequaled anywhere in this country. By this fortuitous combination of deposits, No. 1 Bessemer pig iron can be produced at Gunnison for a cost not exceeding $12 per ton, or 50 per cent less than the price at Pittsburg. The deposit is near Sargent, on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. With an outcrop that is enormous and high in grade, it extends at intervals for a mile on the mountain side. A number of openings have been made, one of which is a tunnel run across the vein ninety-seven feet and an open cut exposing a face of forty feet all in solid iron. There are about fifty acres in the five iron claims which compose the White Pine deposit. There are iron beds on Gold Hill and Cebolla rivers. At the latter place the iron lies in an immense ledge of unknown depth. Iron abounds in other portions of the State, especially in Chaffee County, where the Colorado Coal & Iron Company of Pueblo have been drawing material for the manufacture of railroad iron, merchant bar, and steel. Iron and steel can be manufactured as cheaply in Colorado as in any other section of the United States, and the advantages that contribute to the State's superiority in this respect are the increasing demands, which can not be affected by the overproduction of the East and South; no rival point west of the Rocky Mountains claiming competitive facilities and an advantageous position as the geographical center of a vast territory; an intelligent class of labor; an abundance of building material and the most extensive fields of coking and fuel coal, and the only anthracite found west of Pennsylvania.
The annual production of 1,000,000 tons of crude pig iron, representing a value of say $14,000,000, the evolution of that 1,000,000 tons of pig iron into its higher products of bar iron, and steel, and sheets, and plates, and machinery, and cars, and locomotives, and pipes, and plows, and other farm implements, and all the long list of appliances and commodities of iron and steel, aggregating in value, at a lower estimation than can be legitimately placed, more than $50,000,000, means more for Colorado than many of her most sanguine advocates have anticipated.