stern highland are doubly
handicapped. The building of railways is enormously expensive, and in a
region of sparse population there is comparatively little local freight
to be hauled. The difficulties of developing such a region from a
commercial stand-point, therefore, are very great.

Mining is the chief industry of this section, and silver, gold, and
copper are its most important products. Since the discovery of precious
metals in the United States, this region has produced gold and silver
bullion to the value of about four billion dollars. This sum is about
one-half the value of the railways of the country,[55] and from 1865 to
1880 a large part of the capital invested in railway building represents
the gold and silver of these mines. In the last twenty years of the past
century they produced an average of about one hundred and twenty-five
million dollars per year, and this average is constantly increasing.

Coal-measures extend along the eastern escarpment of the Rocky
Mountains, and these are destined at no remote day to create a centre of
steel and other manufactures. Several of the railways operate coal-mines
in Colorado and Wyoming for the fuel required. A limited supply of steel
is also made, the industry being protected by the great distance from
the Eastern smelteries.

[Illustration: GOLD MINING--CRIPPLE CREEK, COLORADO]

_Denver_ is the chief active centre of finance of the mining industry
in the western highlands, although many of the great enterprises derive
the capital necessary to develop them from _New York_ and _San
Francisco_. _Leadville_, _Cripple Creek_, _Butte_, _Helena_, and
_Deadwood_ are regions of gold and silver production. _Virginia City_ is
the operating centre of the famous Comstock mines. At _Anaconda_ is the
chief copper-mine of this region. _Salt Lake City_ and _Ogden_ are the
centre of the Mormon agricultural enterprises. _Santa Fe_, _Las Vegas_,
and _Albuquerque_ are centres of agricultural interests and
stock-growing.

_Spokane_ and _Walla Walla_ are commercial centres of the plains of the
Columbia River. The former is the focal point of a network of local
roads that collect the wheat and other farm products of this region; the
latter is the collecting point for much of the freight sent by
steamboats down the Columbia River from _Wallula_. Railway
transportation has largely superseded river-navigation for all except
local freights, however. _Boise City_ is the financial centre