Mines and Minerals
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MINES AND MINERALS OF WASHINGTON. SECOND ANNUAL REPORT GEORGE A. BETHUNE, STATE GEOLOGIST. OLYMPIA, WA8B.: O. C. :WBITE. STATE PJWffK_R. 189'l. This is a Facsimile Reprint of the Second Annual Report of the State G<3ologist for the State of Washington, George A. Bethune, First State Geologist, 1891. We are very proud of being able to reproduce this rare docu.rnent as very few copies are known to exist. This document has been out of print and unavailable for a great many ~ars. The only copy that we have been able to locate is in the Pacific Northwest Collection of the University of Washington Library and we are most grateful to the library personnel for permitting us to copy their document so that this reprint could be made available to the general publico We wish also to give courtesy credit to the Geology and F.arth Resources Division of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for their encouragement and assistanoe in our program of making historical books of this type available a.gain. We sincerely hope that you enjoy reading this book as much as ve have.~ '.t ~ -'{ro~~IN Reprinted and Distributed by: American Trading Company, P.O. Box 1312, Bellevue, 'Washington, 98009 · To H<>n. ELISHA P. FERRY, Govern(lr, and the members of the State Mining Bureau of Washington: GENTLEMEN_.: I have the honor herewith to submit my 11eoond annual report as state geologist of Washington. With respect, GEo. A. BETHUNE, State Geologist. TACOMA, WASH., January, 1892. PREFATORY. In a prefatory way, it is my desire t-0 address to you a short state ment of facts, and also to digress here, from the subject in band, that I may completely set forth circumstances, as I have been led to view them, which in the end have been .productive, not alone of results injurious to the proper conduct of this office and incident official work therein, but have well nigh shut out and cut off all possibility of rendering useful and hence valuable the services of my~elf-as your state geologisL MTh~S AND MINERALS OF W.ASHINGTON. PART · FIRST. SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF GEORGE A. BETHUNE, STATE GEOLOGIST. PROPOSED GEOLOGICAL SURYEY. At the i:ession of the 1ttate legislature which convened in January, 1891, a bill was pa11!'ed and oltirnately accorded the appronl of Hon. Charles E. Laughton, then acting chief executive of this state, whereby a certain sum of money, derivahle from various eources of state revenue, wa11 appropriated for the purpose of di11bursing such sum in the preliminary work necessary to thecommencemeut of a geo logical survey of the state, and for the purpose also of carryitig ahead the actual work of i;uch geological survey in so far as f!ucb appropriation would admit. Acting upon the fact that this appropriation bad passed both house11, and had been, therefore, recommended to the acting goY ernor for bis approul and approved by him, with the cooperation of the state mining bureau, I, as state geologist, completed the neces11ary preparatory work; and actual field operations were in pro gress, when the meai,;ure appropriating 1>uch sum for such geological survey was by our honorable supreme court declared illegal, there fore null and YOid. An unfortunate omission in the verbiage of the bill brought about this lamentable denouement to l\ plan certainly improvised for the benefit of our commonwealth, and one which, completed, no doubt would have been resultant in profit t-0 our state, in even a far great~r measure than the most sanguine could hne anticipated. CUMULATIVE RESULTS. Cumulative results of the defeat of the plan of a geological sur vey of the state, I haYe here to say, were productive of great injury to this office; injury to its power for good, its reputation among those for whose especial benefit it was created, and to its general efficiency. In short, I feel at liberty here to say, that co-incidental with the defeat of a plan having for its object a geological sun·ey of w ashingtou, is presented the apparent fact that, for some time to come at lea&t, the ui,efnlness of a state geologist and the main- 10 STATE GEOL OGIS T OF TL4SHINGTON. tenance of a state mining bureau are at once at an end, and may in no way be made conducive to the poblic ~eal. GEOU>GICAL PROCEDURE-1891. Despite the facts I have hereinbefore recited, I have to report that, as during the previous year, I have given my undivided atten tion to the demanJs of the state from a mineralogical standpoint, in so far as I have been, alone and nnaided, able to do. Despite binderances innumerable, annoyances indescribable, and laboring · under a stigma attached to both the mining bureau and this office by reuon of events of a character political and in no way attribut,. able to the conduct at least of this office, I have pursued my work without cessation, and in order that the affairs and operations of this office may be more fully illustrated to you, append this, my seco1:1d annual report. GROWING INTEREST. · I have. to report a wide interest apparent among our populace and that abroad in our mineral resources which, during the past twelve months, have been accorded a very fair measure of develop menL The infusion of a much. larger amount of capital in the project of developing and rendering productive these resources has, as a result, not alone rendered such development possible on a much grander scale than formerly, bnt bas invited a renewal of interest on the part of everybody in our mines and ~erals.:_an interest, I am happy to state, which now gives promise of being indefinitely retained. Several new and important mineral discoveries in widely separated and hitherto practically unprospec~ regions have been made, and all give promise of a speedy attainm~nt to a position of wealth and productiveness, and a place among the first of our min eral bearing areas. Especial atten~ion has been paid by me to the coal measures of our state, and I invite your attention to the fol lowing chapter regarding them. MINES AXD MIXERAL8 OF WASHIXGTON. PART SECO~-rn. SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF GEORGE A. BETHUNE, STATE GEOLOGIST. WASHINGTON COALS. In considering the coal measures of Washington, I shall, in a prefatory way, briefly outline as it is presented to me the geological aspect of the state, with a view of at once more completely illus trating and elucidating the arguments and statements herein made, and of natural events which finally "led to the formation by nat· ural process of the coals which in this state abonnd, and whit:h are destined to enact a leading part in its general upbailding and ad· vancement. Washington State appears to the geologist, as a result of inspee tion conducted from a topographical standpoint, a vanorama of low land, plateaus of greater or less altitude, and mountains of greater or less height. An extended account of the topographical aspect I dee~ here not necessary, in that it is well known, both as the result of private and governmental investig~tion, often times repeated; described by eminent authority, and know11 to the general public, both within and without the state. Taking first the mountainous country constituting a considerable portion of the area of the state, it is agreed genernlly _by those who have atudied the formation, that the rocks composing it may be either of the lower cretaceous, palreozoic or archaen series, or may be classed as the metamorphoi:ed strata of the upper jaro trias. The fact that the core of the various mountain ranges it1 mainly compo~ed of originally stratified rock, metamorphose'1 by beat, lends color to the correctneas of a theory that the rocks composing them are but the metamorphosed strata of the upper joro triaa. Undoubtedly of platonic origin are rocks forming branches thrown out in different directions from the main rangea, which rocks have never undergone the process of stratification. This condition ·is certainly apparent alqng the summit of the Cascade range of mountains, being most plainly dis<:ernible, I take it, in ihe vicinage of Snoqualmie Pass, in the nortbeaatem corner of Ki~g (18) J4. ST.&TE <JEOLOGIST OF W.&SHINGTON. county, in Western Waehington, and also along some of the minor vertebrae, owing existence to the'npheaval of the Cascade or mother range. In several localities along this range where greater power has elevated to a higher altitndinal plane, portions of the range, Mts. Baker, Denny, Rainier, }Jood, etc., the period of formation of which is still a question for 1tndy, ii found 1yenitio granite in enormous deposits; with this 1yenitio granite are found associated cbloritic rocks carrying magnetic iron ores, crystalline lime stone beds, both of tine and of course texture, extremely bard quartzites of fine grain, and various porphyries and serpentoids. Veins containing metals of both the precious and base varieties are found to cross these quartzites, porphyries and serpentoids at ,·arious angles. In the more elevated ranges lying north of the Columbia river, these platonic and metamorphic rocks are to be found. It has been demonstrated that on both the eastern and the western sides of the Cascade mountains are 1and atones and cretaceous conglomerates, and as far as development has progressed, shales, carrying coals in their upper beds. An almost total denudation characterizes the deposits found on the easte~n 11ide of the Caacad.e mountains, where the deposits are found to be considerably broken by arroyoe, or mammoth ral'in~ and gulches.