The iron ores of the Cascade Mountains will be taken to some extent to mix with the inferior ores near the coast, but they will be chiefly worked into Bessemer-pig and steel rails.Bessemer ores commonly distant from fuel. Steel-making ores are not common anywhere, and are widely separated from fuel, which makes them very costly in the States east of the Rocky Mountains. This well-known fact is alluded to by Mr. Swank, in his report on the Iron Trade of 1886, in the following words:
"It is also a fact worthy of notice, for which geologists may find a reason, that nowhere in this country are our best steel-making ores found in proximity to mineral fuel, either anthracite or bituminous, while in some parts of the Lake Superior region, even timber suitable for the manufacture of charcoal is almost wholly wanting."
High cost of Lake Superior ores.The most important deposits of steel ores in the United States are on Lake Superior and in Missouri; but these ores are smelted chiefly by the Connellsville coke of Pennsylvania, which is 700 to 800 miles distant. The Cranberry ores of North Carolina are some hundreds of miles from fuel. A late number of the Iron Trade Review quotes the prices of ore at Cleveland, Ohio, the principal receiving point of Lake Superior ores, as follows:
| Specular and Magnetic Bessemer, | per ton | $7.00 to $7.50 |
| Bessemer Hematites | " | 5.75 to 6.70 |
Cost of producing ore in Pennsylvania.The same authority gives the cost of the ore and coke necessary for the production of a ton of iron in Mahoning Valley district, at $9.90 for the ore and $4.50 for the coke = $14.40. To this must be added about $4.25 for flux, labor, management, interest and repairs, making a total of $18.65 as the cost of producing one ton of pig-metal.
Cost of Bessemer-pig in Snoqualmie Valley.Thus the superior advantages of the Snoqualmie Valley are readily seen. Here are steel ores, two kinds of fuel, and the limestone in close proximity. Putting the fuel at more than I think it would cost; putting the cost of mining the ore at the maximum cost at Cranberry, N. C., and freight at double price, and we have as the cost of a ton of Bessemer-pig, as follows:
| Ore | $3 00 |
| Fuel | 6 00 |
| Flux | 50 |
| Labor and management | 2 00 |
| Interest and repairs | 1 50 |
| $13 00 |
This is lower than the present cost of producing Bessemer-pig anywhere in the United States, according to the best of my information; and at the same time the market is better.Large market for steel rails. The demand for steel rails in the Rocky Mountain country and in the Pacific States is, and will be, large and permanent, while the demand in China and other foreign countries will constantly increase. And so will it be with machinery and tools of all kinds, agricultural, mining and manufacturing. This demand will be both domestic and foreign, and constantly enlarging. And it may be safely asserted that no railroad exists, or can be built anywhere in the Pacific States, which will compare with the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway in its control of the iron business.
THE OTHER MINERALS.
Limestone.I have already said so much as to the convenience and excellence of the limestone beds associated with the magnetic ores,Marble, granite, sandstones, slates. that I will only allude to them here as constituting the great resource for furnace-flux, for building-stone, for lime, and for monumental and ornamental marble. This will be an important item for transportation. The granite, also, will be wanted for building, and for paving blocks. There are, no doubt, quartzites, sandstones and slates which will be in request; some for the supply of silica needed for tempering fire-clay (which latter is reported to have been found on Cedar River in large quantity and of good quality); some for road metal; some for paving; some for building.