History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 165

H O T

be of very high grade, but no examination has
yet been made of them by the survey.
A great quantity of hemalite iron.stone is
reported to occur in the beds adjacent to the
Waldrip-Cisco division, which, if it equal tlhe
sample analyzed, is a very valuable ore.
The iron ores of tlhe central inineral region
are of three classes, magnetites, hematites,
and hydrous ores, each of which has its own
place and mode of occurrence. The magnetites
lie in the northwest trend in the Arch'ean
rocks, which for practical purposes may be
confined between northwest-sou theast lines
drawn through Lone Grove town upon thle
east and through Enchanted Rock upon the
west. This blocks out a district twenty miles
wide, and extending perhaps thirty miles in
tlhe direction of the strike. Within this field,
however, various structural features have prevented,
in many places, the outcropping of
the iron-bearing system, so that probably
two-thirds of the area is not in condition to
yield ore without removing thick deposits of
later origin. Assuming that one-third of tlIe
territory, in scattered patches, will show the
Fernandan beds at surface or at depths that
may be considered workable from an economical
standpoint, it must be understood that
only a small fraction of the thickness of these
strata is iron ore. Keeping in mind also tle
folded condition of the rocks, it is evident
that the chances for mining will be dependent
largely upon the character of the erosion,
it being premised that the iron bed, if
such it be, is not very near the top of the
system to which it belongs.
The general section of this system of rocks
shows that the magnetite, sometimes associated
with hematite, occurs in a bed usually
about fifty feet thick at a definite horizon in
it. The investigations of the survey show that

there are several belts within which valuable
deposits are known or may be discovered.
The most eastern of these is the Babyhead
belt, and the outcrops follow a line bearingF
southeastward, west of liabylhead plostotE:ce
and Lone Grove, and coming out solutl!war(l
very near the Wolf crossing of the Coloraldo
ri er. Probably tile best exposure of tilis
belt is tile Babyliead mountains, and its nortihern
boundary does not cross thle Llano county
line. To the southeast good results may be
expected as far as Miller's creek.
A second belt west of this occupies the
area between Packsaddle and Riley lmountains,
and stretches nlorthwestward by Llano
town toward Valley Spring. Ores of value
have been found ill many places in this belt,
tlhe surface indications of the underlying
beds of magnetite being hematite or limnonite.
The third, or the Iron mountain be't. is
that on which tlhe greatest amount of work
lias been expended, and in two l)laces in it
large and valtiable masses of magnetic iron
have been exposed. The bed is most persistent,
and can be traced for miles. At Iron
mountain a silaft lias been sunk down tile
side of the iron outcrop to the depth of fifty
feet, and across-cut of twenty-two feet cut in
the lead. The quantity of magnetite and
hematite exposed here is very great. About
three miles south of llano City considerable
prospecting has been done by drilling with
a diamond drill, and also opened by a shaft,
disclosing iron almost identical with the Iron
mountain product.
The most western of these belts lies between
the Riley mountains and Enchanted
Rock in the south, possibly having also a
greater width to thle northwest. While it is
covered in places by later rocks, thle indications
are good for the discovery of important
masses of iron ore in it.

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165