A Report on Washington Territory

by William Henry Ruffner

This bed of ore is known as The Summit, or Guye Mine. Its elevation is 1,250 feet above the grade of the Lake Shore Railroad, and about 1,000 feet above the small stream at the foot of the mountain. There would be no difficulty in building an inclined plane from the ore bank to the small valley below. The snow in winter might interfere with mining.

Ascending the mountain above the main exposure, I found what seemed to be another level of iron ore 100 feet higher; but possibly it may be the same bed displaced. Still higher appeared to be a third level of ore, and higher still, I observed a little float ore at a point nearly 2,000 feet above the grade of the railroad, on what may be called the summit of Mount Logan, at a point which my barometer made 4,700 feet above Puget Sound.

Denny Mine.The Denny Mine is on a different mountain, somewhat farther to the west, but about the same distance from the railroad. It is reached also by a narrow valley from which a steep ascent of nearly 1,100 feet is made to the main exposure, which shows an edge of pure fine-grained magnetite, about twenty feet thick, with limestone above, and also beneath, apparently. Fragments of epidote, porphyry and flinty quartzite lay around. The limestone did not show so large here as on Mount Logan. The ore dips steeply toward the south, and seemed to encrust the mountain for a distance of, perhaps, 225 feet, but with a somewhat broken surface. It then passed with its limestone under quartzite cliffs which crest the mountain. The bed might have been followed around the mountain, where it is said to show at a number of places. It seemed to pass into a matrix of chert.

Chair Peak, or Kelly Mine.I did not visit the Chair Peak, or Kelly Mine, which is some miles distant; but I conversed with probably every man who ever saw it, some half a dozen, including Mr. Whitworth, who made a survey of the property. It is reported as probably the largest and purest of all the deposits of magnetic ore, and lies at about the same height on the mountains. This ore would come out by way of the Middle Fork of Snoqualmie.

Middle Fork Mines.I did not visit Guye's other mine, which lies high, perhaps 3,000 feet above Middle Fork. Mr. Guye represents it as similar in character to the bed elsewhere, with the addition of some brown and red ore. The other deposits mentioned I received no description of.

All easily reached from Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway.None of these mines have been developed beyond the uncovering of a face. As yet there is no furnace for smelting them, and no means provided for bringing them off the mountains. There is no difficulty about reaching them with spur railroads and inclined planes. It has occurred to me as possible that a narrow gauge railroad might reach all of these mines, without heavy grades, by starting at the highest point of the Lake Shore road and following the divides from mountain to mountain. This, however, can only be determined by a special reconnaissance.

There are large deposits of iron ore also on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, not Cle-ellum ore beds.far from the crest line, on the waters of the Cle-ellum River. Three distinct beds are reported. They are all in the valley of the Cle-ellum River. The upper bed is situated about eight miles above Cle-ellum Lake, on the main and east fork of the Cle-ellum River. This bed has been described to me by Mr. Whitworth and Mr. Burch. The distance from the Northern Pacific Railroad is twenty-five miles, following the Cle-ellum valley. It is within sixteen miles of the most distant location made of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway; and by another route which has been spoken of, this railroad would pass close to the ore bed. Mr. Whitworth says concerning it: "The ledge is well defined, and is traced and located about two miles, its course being nearly north and south. It is apparently from forty to sixty feet in width, and pitches at about an angle of 20° to the west. The casing rock is porphyry. The deposit is evidently extensive. The ore appears rich, is magnetic, and is reported to assay from 56½ to 66 per cent. I obtained samples of the rock, from which satisfactory tests can be, no doubt, obtained."

The elevation of the iron ore outcrop is estimated at 3,000 feet, which would place it nearly on a level with the summit of Snoqualmie Pass; but it is only about 200 feet above the local water-level.

Mr. Burch says concerning this ore bed, which has now been bought by Mr. Kirke for the Moss Bay Company, that the strike of the bed is northeast, whilst the outcrop runs northwest. The ore is in five or more separate beds, each bed being on an average forty to fifty feet thick, and the beds separated by rock. The ore can be followed but a short distance along the strike.

Burch's ore bed.Burch's iron ore bed approaches the Cle-ellum River about four miles below the Kirke bed, and extends in a northeast direction to the headwaters of Boulder Creek, a distance of five miles. The outcrop crosses three high ridges. The dip is south, at an angle of 45°. The width is at least twenty feet. A ferruginous limestone lies against the ore on the south side. The limestone is 300 or 400 feet thick. It seems to overlie the iron bed. Its outside or top layers are pure blue limestone.