Gold Prospects in Kansas

Abstract

first mention of gold in the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science is found in a lecture delivered by Prof. G. P. Grimsely before the Academy at Topeka, December 29, 1900, entitled The Mines and Minerals of Kansas. As in other articles found in the Transactions, gold is omitted from the list of minerals. Professor Grimsley offers the following: Gold and silver, like the prophets of old, we have none; but we do possess mineral in abundance, which is readily exchanged for these precious metals. Scientifically the professor's statement errs slightly, as gold actually does exist in Kansas, but practicallly, it would have been better for some people had his words gone unchallenged. In the Transactions of 1901 and 1902, Professor Lovewell, of Washburn College, read papers on the occurrence of gold in the shales of Trego and Ellis counties. Evidently he spent considerable time, over several years, in sampling and assaying this material which had been exposed by the erosion of the Smoky Hill river. Values at least as high as $10 per ton were reported, and his estimated average value of all his samples was between two and three dollars. His work aroused wide interest and attracted engineers and promotors of all kinds to the district. That Professor Lovewell was unintentionally at fault in his methods of sampling or assaying seems borne out by subsequent events.