The author researches the poorly studied issues about the image of Altai in travelers’ notes in the mining period. The researches’ results have not obtained a historiographical assessment. The problem is that there was no single image of Altai so to analyze the travelers’ notes it is important to compare the impressions of the contemporaries with scientific knowledge about the mining period. The author of the article uses both already well known works and the works which have not been translated into Russian. The travelers attended Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories at the turning points of their history to determine their industrial potential. Contemporaries not only answered the question about the resources and the prospects of silver smelting, but also tried to solve important scientific problems about geological processes using neptunic and plutonic theories, and also about ancient human population of the Altai territory, the so called “chud”. The processes of political joining of the Altai Territory to the Russian Empire and spontaneous agricultural colonization were considered as the ground for quick development of mining in Altai and achieving the European level of production. The regional image was made as of the region with flourishing mining industry and agriculture. The author of the article approaches to such conclusions from the position of scientific criticism.