From 1824 the search for gold continued, and by 1829 the business
had become important, and was attended with no little excitement.
In 1833 and 1834 the amount annually obtained had risen to fully
a million of dollars. A rapid development of the lead mines of the
West, both in Missouri and on the Upper Mississippi in the region
where Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois adjoin one another, took place
during the first quarter of the 19th century, and as early as 1826
or 1827 the amount of this metal obtained had risen to nearly 10,000
tons a year. By this time the making of iron had also become
important, the production for 1828 being estimated at 130,000
tons.
In 1820 the first cargo of anthracite coal was shipped to Philadelphia. From 1830 the increase in the production was very rapid, and in 1841 the annual shipments from the Pennsylvania anthracite region had nearly reached 1,000,000 tons, the output of iron at that time being estimated at about 300,000 tons. The development of the coal and iron interests, and the increasing importance of the gold product of the Appalachian auriferous belt, and also of the lead product of the Mississippi Valley, led to a more general and decided interest in geology and mining; and about 1830 geological surveys of several of the Atlantic states were begun, and more systematic explorations for the ores of the metals, as well as for coal, were carried on over all parts of the country then open to settlement. An important step was taken in 1844, when a cession of the region on the south shore of Lake Superior was obtained from the Chippewa Indians. Here explorations for copper immediately began, and for the first time in the United States the business of mining for the metals began to be developed on an extensive scale, with suitable appliances, and with financial success. An event of still greater importance took place almost immediately after the value of the copper region in question had been fully ascertained. This was the demonstration of the fact that gold existed in large quantities along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada of California. In five years from the discovery of gold at Coloma on the American river, the yield from the auriferous belt of the Sierra Nevada had risen to an amount estimated at between sixty-five and seventy millions of dollars a year, or live times as much as the total production of this metal throughout the world at the beginning of the century.
The following details show the development of the mineral resources of the country at the middle of the 19th century. In 1850 Mining Industries about 1850. the shipments of anthracite amounted to nearly 3,500,000 tons; those of Cumberland or semi-bituminous coal were about 200,000 tons. The yearly production of pig iron had risen to between 500,000 and 600,000 tons. The annual yield of gold in the Appalachian belt had fallen off to about $500,000 in value, that of California had risen to $36,000,000, and was rapidly approaching the epoch of its culmination (1851-1853). No silver was obtained in the country, except what was separated from the native gold, that mined in California containing usually from 8 to 10% of the less valuable metal. The ore of mercury had been discovered in California before the epoch of the gold excitement, and was being extensively worked, the yield in the year 1850-1851 being nearly 2,000,000 ℔. At this time the copper mines of Lake Superior were being successfully developed, and nearly 600 tons of metallic copper were produced in 1850. At many points in the Appalachian belt attempts had been made to work mines of copper and lead, but with no considerable success, About the middle of the century extensive works were erected at Newark, New Jersey, for the manufacture of the oxide of zinc for paint; about 1100 tons were produced in 1852. The extent and value of the deposits of zinc ore in the Saucon Valley, Pennsylvania, had also just become known in 1850. The lead production of the Missouri mines had for some years been nearly stationary, or had declined slightly from its former importance; while that of the upper Mississippi region, which in the years just previous to 1850 had risen to from 20,000 to 25,000 tons a year, was declining, having in 1850 sunk to less than 18,000 tons.
At the end of the century, in only fifty years, the United States had secured an easy first lace among the mineral-producing countries Present Position of Mining Industries. of the world. It held primacy, with a large margin, in the yield of coal, iron, lead and copper, the minerals most important in manufactures; in gold its output was second only to that of South Africa (though practically equalled by that of Australia); and in silver to that of Mexico. Although the data are in general incomplete upon which might be based a comparison of the relative standing of different countries in the production of minerals of lesser importance than those just mentioned, it was estimated by M. G. Mulhall (Industries and Wealth of Nations, edition of 1896, pp. 34-35) that Great Britain then produced approximately one-third, the United States one-third, and all other countries collectively one-third of the minerals of the world in weight.
The leading products, as reported by the Geological Survey for 1907, were as follows: coal, $614,798,898 (85,604,312 tons of anthracite coal, 394,759,112 of bituminous); petroleum, $120,106,749; natural gas, $54,222,399; iron ore, $131,996,147 (pig iron, $529,958,000); copper, refined, $173,799,300; gold, coinage value, $90,435,700; building-stone, $71,105,805; silver, commercial value, $37,299,700; lead, refined, $38,707,596; and zinc, refined, $26,401,910. The North Atlantic and the North Central census groups of states (that is, the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio rivers, and north of Maryland) produced two-thirds of the total output. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, California, Colorado, Montana, Michigan, New York and Missouri were the ten states of greatest absolute production in 1907. The rank relative to area or population is of course different. hose which, according to the bureau of the census, produced $1000 or over per sq. m. in 1902 were Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia; $500 to $1000, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Vermont and Massachusetts. Seventeen states produced from $100 to $500 per sq. m.
The total mineral output for the decade 1899-1908 according to the United States Geological Survey was as follows:—
| Year. | Total Value of Products. |
Value of Non-metallic Products. |
Value of Metallic Products. |
| $ | $ | $ | |
| 1908 | 1,595,670,186 | 1,045,497,070 | 549,923,116 |
| 1907 | 2,071,607,964 | 1,167,705,720 | 903,802,244 |
| 1906 | 1,902,517,565 | 1,016,206,709 | 886,110,856 |
| 1905 | 1,623,923,720 | 921,075,619 | 702,453,101 |
| 1904 | 1,361,067,554 | 859,383,604 | 501,099,950 |
| 1903 | 1,491,928,980 | 793,962,609 | 624,318,008 |
| 1902 | 1,323,102,717 | 617,251,154 | 642,258,584 |
| 1901 | 1,141,972,309 | 567,318,592 | 518,266,259 |
| 1900 | 1,107,020,352 | 512,195,262 | 550,425,286 |
| 1899 | 1,014,355,705 | 446,090,251 | 525,472,981 |
The vastly greater part of mineral products are used in manufactures within the United States, and only an insignificant part (for example, 2.47% in 1902) is exported in the crude form.
Coal exists in the United States in large quantity in each of its important varieties: anthracite, or hard coal; bituminous, or soft Coal. coal; and lignite; and in various intermediate and special grades. Geologically the anthracite and bituminous coals mainly belong to the same formation, the Carboniferous, and this is especially true of the better qualities; though it is stated by the United States Geological Survey that the geologic age of the coal beds ranges from Carboniferous in the Appalachian and Mississippi Valley provinces to Miocene (Tertiary) on the Pacific coast, and that the quality of the coal varies only to a very uncertain degree with the geologic age. The following estimates rest upon the same authority: (1) total area underlaid by coal measures, 496,776 sq. m., of which 250,531 are credited to anthracite and bituminous, 97,636 to sub-bituminous and 148,609 to lignite; (2) total original coal supply of the country, 3,076,204,000,000 short tons, including 21,000,000,000 tons of anthracite in Pennsylvania, and small amounts elsewhere (semi-anthracite and semi-bituminous), 650,157,000,000 tons of sub-bituminous and 743,590,000,000 tons of lignite; (3) easily accessible coal still available, 1,992,979,000,000 tons; (4) available coal accessible with difficulty, 1,153,225,000,000 tons.
The total production of coal from 1814 (the year in which anthracite was first mined in Pennsylvania) to 1908 amounted to 7,280,940,265 tons, which represented an exhaustion—adding 50% for waste in mining and preparation—of 11,870,049,900, or four-tenths of 1% of the supposed original supply.
In 1820 the total production was only 3450 tons. In 1850 it was already more than 7,000,000. And since then, while the population increased 230% from 1850 to 1900, the production of coal increased 4,084%. At the same time that the per capita consumption thus rose in 1907 to 5.6 tons, the waste was estimated by the National Conservation Commission at 3.0 tons per capita. This waste, however, is decreasing, the coal abandoned in the mine having averaged, in the beginning of mining, two or three times the amount taken out; and the chief part of the remaining waste is in imperfect combustion in furnaces and fire-boxes. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that the supposed supply still available at the close of 1908 was 7369 times the production of that year, and 4913 times the exhaustion such production represented, so extraordinary has been the increased consumption of the country that, in the opinion of the Geological Survey (1907), “if the rate of increase that has held for the last fifty years is maintained, the supply of easily available coal will be exhausted before the middle of the next century” (A.D. 2050).
In 1870 both Great Britain and Germany exceeded the United States in the production of coal. Germany was passed in 1871 (definitively in 1877); Great Britain in 1899. Since 1901 the United States has produced more than one-third of the world's output.
Coal was produced in 1908 in 30 states out of the 46 of the Union; and occurs also in enormous quantities in Alaska; 690,438 men were employed in this year in the coal mines. Pennsylvania (117,179,527 tons of bituminous and 83,268,754 of anthracite), Illinois (47,659,690), West Virginia (41,897,843), Ohio (26,270,639), Indiana (12,314,890) and Alabama (11,604,593) were the states of greatest production. The production of each was greater still in 1907.
The total output amounted to 415,842,692 short tons, valued at
