The Colorado Stone and Building Industry in 1882
Excerpts from
Mineral Resources of the United States, 1882
J. S. Powell, Director, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1883.
Excerpts from the chapters on 1) "Structural Materials," and 2) "The Useful Minerals of the United States:
"The division of the Tenth Census charged with the collection of statistics of building stone obtained returns from 1,525 quarries in the United States, having an invested capital of $25,414,497, and producing during the year ending May 31, 1880, 115,380,133 cubic feet of stone, valued at $18,365,055. In value of total product, the leading States rank as follows: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Maine, and Connecticut; each of these States producing upwards of $1,000,000 worth of stone. Vermont, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, New York, and Missouri, in the order named, produce the most marble and limestone; Ohio, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, the greater part of the sandstone; Massachusetts and Maine quarry the most granite and other siliceous crystalline rocks; while Pennsylvania leads in product of slate."
Building Stone in the Rocky Mountain Division.
Building stones of almost every description are found abundantly and of the greatest value throughout the Rocky mountains, running through all the varieties of granites, sandstones, marbles, and volcanic rocks.
In Montana and Wyoming but little has been quarried, but the Colorado quarries have been opened to a considerable extent, and thousands of tons have been used in the construction of public and private buildings.
Of the quarries of Jefferson county, Colorado, Capt. Edw. L. Berthoud, of Golden, says: "The 'Hogback,' an inclined, wedge-shaped outlier of the Rocky mountains, which is continuous from the Spanish peaks into Wyoming Territory, and composed of cretaceous and Jura Trias formations, is an inexhaustible source of fine building stone, with two separate parts formed wholly of limestone. From this natural quarry an infinite variety of color, hardness, and quality is obtainable. We have from it, first, gypsum, white, or banded, or clouded; second, dark red sandstone; third, superb salmon-colored sandstone, a specialty of the famed Morrison quarries; fourth, yellow sandstone, hard and fine; fifth, white and cream-colored, easy to manufacture, either by cutting, sawing, or polishing-hardening by exposure; sixth, green and brown sandstones, soft when quarried, easily worked and polished, but hardening when thoroughly dried and exposed; none of these several qualities split on exposure to frost; seventh, red-banded calcareous sandstone, of red, yellow, and white alternate bands, very ornamental for polished work, such as table tops, mantel-pieces, etc. Westward from the Hogback a vast variety of granites, mica slates, mica schists, hornblende rock, felspathic rock, syenite, and porphyry abound everywhere, and have been largely used for foundations, bridge structures, etc. Some of the granite dikes will afford red crystalline rock, which is susceptible of a high polish and would be fine material for ornamental work. Grahphitic granite occurs near Bergen's ranch and in Clear Creek cañon; it is of light straw or cream color and takes a fine, durable polish."
One quarry at Morrison produces a superb red freestone which has been used in the following buildings in Denver: the Union Depot; Tabor Opera House, First National Bank, Colorado National Bank, Daniels & Fisher's block, and in many others. The quarries at Morrison also produce green, brown, and white freestone; and dark gray, light gray, brown, red, pink, and greenish granites of excellent quality.
The marbles of Colorado are of several varieties and of excellent quality. A beautiful variety of breccia occurs in Boulder county, white marble in Chaffee county, apple-green and clouded marbles in Park county, and various kinds at the head of Rock creek, Gunnison County.
A favorite building stone, used to a large extent in Denver, is the fine pink lava from Castle Rock, Douglas county, and large quantities of this stone are shipped annually over the Denver and Rio Grande railroad.
Lime.
Domestic production.-Lime for mortar and other building purposes is burnt to a greater or less extent in every State in the Union. It is difficult, or almost impossible, to obtain accurate statistics of production, inasmuch as the manufacture is in a great number of small hands, and only a small proportion of the product passes through the main channels of transportation. The production is estimated to be between 30,000,000 and 32,000,000 barrels, of 200 pounds each, worth 65 to 75 cents per barrel, spot value. This gives a total valuation to the production of $21,700,000-assuming the means of the above figures. The lime product presupposes the quarrying of about 6,000,000 tons of limestone. Of this total product of lime it is estimated by several authorities that 1,500,000 barrels come from Rockland, Maine, and from 800,000 to 1,000,000 barrels from New York State.
Lime in the Rocky Mountain division.-Limestone occurs everywhere throughout the Rocky Mountain region in great quantity and purity. In every town where the local demand warrants it, limekilns are erected and excellent lime produced upon the spot. No record can be obtained of the production, because of the numerous small producers.
The kilns at Morrison, Colorado, produce great quantities of lime of the best quality, which is used in Denver and in the mountain towns. In 1882 Morrison shipped 274,000 bushels of lime to various points in Colorado, and of gray or cement lime 6,500 perches. The entire Rocky Mountain country is supplied with lime of domestic manufacture exclusively.
COLORADO
Reported by Whitman Cross.
Ores, minerals, and mineral substances of industrial importance, which are at present mined.
Bluestone: Clear Creek county, and adjacent parts of Summit county. In considerable quantities in veins, with tetrahedrite, galena, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, barite, etc., Prospective.
Marble: Jefferson county, near Morrison. A brownish, mottled rock; Specimens polished at Exposition of 1882; not in use yet. Chaffee county; large beds of white and variegated marble said to have been recently discovered.
Serpentine: Park county; Buckskin gulch. A mottled rock, largely calcite, but deeply colored by true serpentine; prospective use as ornamental stone.
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