Lead was the first metal mined in the State, its production having been mentioned in the year 1700. The Mine LaMotte diggings, in Madison county, were opened in 1723 and have been worked at intervals since that date. Lead has been mined in twenty-six counties, most notable among which is St. Francois, Jasper, Lawrence, Madison and Washington, the output for the State in 1897 being about 70,000 tons, worth approximately $1,500,000.

While the southwest part of the State leads in the production of zinc and is a large producer of lead, in southeast Missouri are located the principal lead mines. One company in St. Francois county has a capital stock of $3,000,000, has paid $6,000,000 in dividends and has produced since 1869, 339,000 tons of lead valued at $24,000,000, or an average of nearly $1,000,000 annually. 

Two shafts recently opened near Bonne Terre are producing annually about 22,000 tons, one of which is capitalized at $400,000 and the stock is worth fifty percent above par. In this vicinity is located a lead company that manufactures seventy-five per cent of the white lead of America and will make mammoth additions to its works this Season.

The production of lead in this district to June 1897, reaches 580,161 tons, at present prices worth $40,000,000.

No other district in the world can show productions equal to the shafts in south Missouri, the risks are comparatively small, and profits reliably uniform if the mining is done intelligently.

The zinc region of the State is concentrated in Jasper, Newton and Lawrence counties, ninety-seven per cent of the State's production coming from these counties and seventy nine per cent of the total coming from Jasper county alone. Dade, Jefferson, Greene, Barry, Washington, Wright, Christian, Howell, Webster and Morgan counties also mine zinc and it is known to exist in many other localities in the State. 

The output of zinc in the Joplin district alone for 1897 was tons valued at $3,209,118.

The output of lead for the same district was 30,825 tons and the total valuation of lead and zinc nearly $5,000,000 for 1897.

The grand total paid out for lead and zinc. since the beginning of mining in this district is $55,115,954. The increase for six weeks since the close of 1897 is 333 cars valued at one fourth of a million dollars and promises an output for 1898 of over $6,000,000.

These figures from the Joplin district are given as indicative of the vast mineral wealth of the State. Other sections with mines of hidden wealth only await the efforts of the industrious prospector to turn fabulous fortunes to the account of the Missouri miner.

No mountains of ice, no eternal snows, no intolerable low temperatures nor starvation faces the miner in this Missouri Klondike. On the other hand our mines, exceeding in wealth the actual returns from Alaska, are in the midst of a genial climate, abundant necessities and even the luxuries of life, fruits and flowers and sparkling springs, a veritable land flowing with milk and honey.

Missouri has been a very prominent and important producer of iron are but the decline in price has of recent years discouraged this industry. Iron ores are widely distributed throughout the State and occur in different forms in most of the geological formations. Mining, however, has been confined to the southeastern part of the State. In 1892 St. Francois county produced 79,000 tons, Crawford 13,800, Phelps 1,3oo, Franklin 300, Dent 24,800, Howell 300, Iron 7,000, total for the State 126,500 tons.

The coal area of Missouri is generally stated to be 23,000 square miles. In many counties the beds lie very near the surface, and may be easily and cheaply worked. Beds as thin is eighteen inches are mined with profit. "Coal pockets" lying in isolated position outside the main coal measures show coal over limited areas to the enormous thickness of fifty or even seventy feet. By far the largest part of the coal mined is bituminous, but some cannel of good quality is produced. In 1897 coal was produced in thirty four counties to the total amount of 3,000,000 tons. The deposits are generally from three feet to seven feet in thickness.