Description
This open file report for Jackson County an introduction to the geology and mineral resources of the county along with an index map of tract locations, as well as maps of oil and gas test wells with oil field locations, coal resources, metallic mineral prospects, and industrial mineral prospects. The main body of the report is an evaluation of each individual tract, which includes text as well as corresponding topographic and geologic maps. Digital ZIP/PDF download. OF-01-15D
Four general categories of resources are included in this inventory:
- oil and gas
- coal
- metallic minerals
- industrial minerals and construction materials
Each individual tract evaluation includes:
- A bar graph which ranks each tract’s resource potential for each of the four mineral categories. An explanation of the categories may be found at the end of this introduction
- Tract identifier number, county name, and county location map
- Tract location on a 7-1/2-minute United States Geologic Survey topographic map
- Tract location on a United States Geologic Survey surface outcrop map
- Location as to section, township, and range and approximate acreage
- Overview of tract geology
- Specific assessment of the resource potential for the four resource categories
- References used in assessing tract potential
From the Introduction:
Jackson County is located in northern-most central Colorado along the border with Wyoming. Much of the county includes the North Park Basin. This evaluation of the mineral and mineral fuel resource potential was conducted for the nearly 129,400 acres of state mineral lands within Jackson County. It was conducted as part of its long-term evaluation of approximately 4 million acres of state lands administered by the State Land Board. For evaluation purposes, the county was divided into 57 individual tracts that range from approximately 160 acres to 77,890 acres.
In 1998, Jackson County ranked 14th among Colorado’s counties in annual oil production and 31st in annual natural gas production from a total of 14 producing fields. Within the North Park Basin, coal has been produced from the Coalmont Formation of Paleocene-Eocene age.
There are no significant metallic mineral districts in Jackson County. There are a few isolated copper occurrences in pegmatites within the Proterozoic gneiss. These deposits rarely exceed a few feet in diameter and are of little economic importance. Two gold placers districts exist, but there is very little information regarding production. There are a few isolated uranium occurrences in Jackson County; however, none of these have ever been mined.
The only significant industrial mineral occurrence in Jackson County is the fluorite deposits of the Northgate district. Fluorite occurs in veins and fractures in Precambrian rocks. Fluorspar production occurred from 1922 to 1973. Details are provided in the report.
