USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 55
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Even at such cost, it is evident now that all the mining accomplished by the Spaniards and their unwilling allies was little more than surface scratching or prospecting. They were locking for vast wealth with little labor : but it has remained for the hard, systematic, scientific workers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to wrest the metallic and mineral riches of New Mexico from her soil and rocks.
Professor Fayette A. Jones, who has had exceptional opportunities to examine all the purported native and Spanish mines in the Territory, comes to these conclusions: "Some mining in a desultory manner has no doubt been carried on in New Mexico under Spanish rule, and a little perhaps done by the aborigines. Yet. aside from the turquoise mines at Los Cerrillos and the Burro mountains, the evidence is sufficient to satisfy
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the statement that no true metal mining was ever carried on within the borders of New Mexico until about the beginning of the year 1800, with the possible exception of Mina del Tierra, in the vicinity of the turquoise mines near Los Cerrillos. (These were silver-lead mines.) Under Spanish rule prospecting for placer gold was carried on to a certain extent; yet no rich finds were ever brought to notice, excepting the Old and New Placers. There would be no good reason to claim that the Pueblo Indians, or the early Spanish explorers, were better qualified to find rich mines than the modern prospector. The Spaniard has been a gold hunter from the earliest times, and placer gold was the kind he knew most about ; lode mines were not so alluring to him. There are a number of old workings in New Mexico of limited extent, and presumably of Spanish origin, which have been discovered by the modern prospector ; but the richness of the ore or deposits has been almost invariably disappointing.
"It might be added that the traditional stories of lost mines are the ignus fatui that have held many a prospector spellbound and carried him into unknown regions, ultimately resulting in giving to the world a Cripple Creek or a Klondike. The enchanted Adams diggings, the legendary Pegleg lode, the mythical Log Cabin mine, and similar stories of lost lodes exist in imagination only ; yet they serve as a stimulus to the pros- pector, who, with pick and pan, paves the way for civilization. Such fantasies, when viewed from an unprejudiced standpoint, are to be re- garded as real and necessary factors in the successful hunt for gold."
One of the most curious developments tending to locate some of these lost mines of the early Spaniards is of quite recent date. In February, 1902, there died at Colorado, Doña Ana county, Don Luiz Amayo, a Mexi- can ninety years of age. His parents were killed in the state of Chihuahua during a rebellion of the early nineteenth century. Their grandfather, who was born in Spain, had received from his royal master the title to about thirty different placer fields and sites, scattered from Juarez, Mexico, to Santa Fe, on both sides of the Rio Grande, as well as from Juarez to the City of Mexico. Fortunately, through all the troublous times in Chi- huahua, Don Luis retained possession of the royal papers, and during his later years in New Mexico buried them in the ground for safe keeping. Forming a friendship for John H. Allison,* a cattle man and miner of
"John H. Allison, a rancher and mine operator at Deming, Luna county, has been a resident of New Mexico since 1880, coming to the Territory from Denver, Colorado. He was born in Dubuque, Iowa, June 4, 1847, but in early life went to Colorado, and since 1880 has been engaged in the stock business in Grant and Luna counties, New Mexico. He de- voted his attention to cattle until 1905, when he sold his cattle and is now engaged in the breeding and raising of Angora goats. This is a compara- tively new industry in New Mexico, but one which is proving very profit- able, the sale of the fleece bringing excellent prices, while the value of the animals in other directions is well known. In connection with his live stock dealings Mr. Allison has for some time been engaged in mining copper. lead and silver in the Florida mountains in the southern part of Luna county. He is thus actively associated with the development of the natural resources of the Territory, and his business interests are of a character which promote the general improvement and prosperity as well
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John H Allison
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Deming, the old man passed the papers over to him for the purpose of investigating the different locations mentioned, and the examination is still progressing.
The royal documents are dated March 10, 1650, and bear the portrait of the king of Spain. Mr. Allison has had them translated verbally, and, guided by the descriptions of the old mining properties which they present, has made one extensive trip, having become familiar with the whole trail from Santa Fé to Mexico City. He knows of the locations of some of the properties, which have since been covered by erosions of the soil ; is satis- fied that he has discovered at least one rich mine, and is quite positive that some of the mines opened in recent years are described in the documents in his possession.
Old and New Placers of Santa Fe County .- As stated. the placer gold fields were the first to come into notice in New Mexico. Even before the coming of the Spaniards it is probable that small quantities of gold were taken from the gravel beds near the Ortiz mountains, or from the beds of some of the streams in that locality. But nothing of any moment in the way of gold mining was accomplished until the discovery of the New Placers in the same old region of the Ortiz mountains. It is said that some time in 1828 a herder from Sonora straved into the mountains in search of his lost sheep, and seeing a stone which resembled the gold- bearing rocks at home preserved his specimen, which proved to be rich in the precious metal. The following, from Professor Jones' "New Mexico Mines and Minerals," is a condensed and interesting picture of the early workings of this, the oldest gold-mining district in New Mexico, and, with the exception of the copper mines of Santa Rita ( Grant county). the first really productive mining property in the Territory: "News of the dis- covery soon spread and the excitement was intense. The most crude ap- pliances imaginable were used: notwithstanding, considerable gold was taken out. Winter seemed to be the most favored time for mining: by melting the snow with hot rocks they were able to work until the dry season of the year. The gold was washed or panned out in a batea-a sort of round wooden bowl, about the diameter of the modern gold pan. The mode of operation was first to fill the batea with the auriferous sands and gravels, and then, by immersing the whole in water and by constant stir- ring and agitation, the mass of sands and gravels was reduced until nothing but black sands and particles of gold remained in the wooden vessel. This mass of black sands and gold was then reduced in a clay retort to obtain existing values, after the largest nuggets and particles of gold were first removed.
as his individual success. In 1903 he built the Odd Fellows' hall in Dem- ing, thus contributing to the improvement of the city. Above will be found an account of the historic mining claims in New Mexico and old Mexico, in which Mr. Allison is deeply interested, having in his possession papers descriptive of lost mines of great value left to him by Don Luiz Amayo, who died in Dona Ana county, New Mexico, in 1902, when more than ninety years of age.
On July 27, 1887, Mr. Allison was married to Miss Mary Charlotte Eby. Children : Laura M., Ida J., Andrew H. and William J.
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"According to Prince's 'History of New Mexico,' between $60,000 and $80,000 in gold was taken ont annually between the years 1832 and 1835. The poorest years about this period were from $30,000 to $40,000. About this time an order was given prohibiting any person from working the mines excepting the natives. Foreign capital and energy were thus excluded, which greatly handicapped development. Under this new régime each Mexican miner held one claim, the size of which was ten paces in all directions from the main discovery pit. Any claim not kept alive by labor after a certain length of time was subject to relocation.
"The gold was mainly in nuggets and dust. One nugget claimed to have been found was worth $3,400, which netted the finder only $1,400. If true, this was the largest nugget ever discovered in New Mexico. The fineness of this gold is 918. It would be hard to estimate the exact amount of gold taken from the Old Placers, but it must have been considerable."
In 1833 a vein of gold-bearing quartz was discovered in the Old Placer field, and in December of that year was recorded the Santa Rosalia land grant in favor of Jose Francisco Ortiz. This discovery by one Don Cano, a Spaniard who came to Mexico in the early part of the nineteenth century, resulted in the development of the famous Sierra del Oro, now known as the Ortiz mine. This mine, which has been worked at intervals ever since its discovery, is still the center of the Ortiz land grant, which embraces an area of ten square miles and covers the mountains by that name, as well as the choicest of the placer fields.
Jose Ortiz, the original owner of the property, took into partnership a Spaniard by the name of Lopez, who, in his day, was a skilled miner, and obtained so much gold from Sierra del Oro that Ortiz became ambi- tious to get a monopoly of its treasures. Lopez was not only forced out of the management, but out of the country; but the new management was entirely incompetent and failed to realize another grain of gold. The New Mexico Mining Company, which acquired the Ortiz grant in 1864, was organized in 1853 and incorporated in 1858. In 1865 this company com- pleted the erection of a stamp mill at the Ortiz mine, which was the first mill in New Mexico. Additions were made in 1869, but later the mine closed down, and has since been operated by other companies. It has been estimated that gold to the value of $5,000,000 was taken out of the old workings of the Ortiz mine.
The last organization to systematically work this historic piece of mining property was the Ortiz Gold Mining Company, of St. Louis, Mis- souri. It was capitalized at $2,000,000. The output was treated at a plant on the ground. A shaft was sunk some 425 feet, from which five levels were run, the lowest being 400 feet from the surface. The third level con- nected with an old incline 425 feet long. There were the usual wings, crosscuts and air shafts, the total plant costing about $75,000.
In the Old Placer district are also the Cunningham mine, which is among the early locations and belongs to the Sandia Gold Mining and Milling Company: the Candelaria lode, once owned by the well-known Colonel J. S. Hutchason, who was in the district as early as 1848; the Brehm lode, originally operated by the New Mexico Company, which also owned the Ortiz mine; the Hutchason, the Brown, and the Humboldt 100th. All of these lodes lie near Dolores. Indeed, the range of moun-
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tains extending south from that point for eight miles is one vast upheaval of mineralized matter, and only awaits the proper facilities for development.
Much of the placer gold found is quite coarse. Years ago a nugget found near Dolores yielded about $400, and after heavy rains nuggets worth several dollars are often picked up. Except for the absence of water the production of gold from the placers would be very abundant and continuous. Modern skill and enterprise have partly solved the prob- lem, through the agency of deep wells and powerful steam pumps. Artesian well experiments have so far failed.
Five miles south of the Old Placers, in the San Pedro mountains, is the New Placers district, first opened in 1839. Of late years the most mining activity has been manifested at Golden, southwest of the deserted village of Dolores ; this is the newest part of the placer district.
The Turquoise Mines .- All the historic and archaeological evidences point to the conclusion that the aboriginal workings of the turquoise mines at Los Cerrillos and in the Burro mountains long antedate the primitive mining for the precious metals. Immense hammers of the stone age, coiled pottery (the oldest known type), and other relics of antiquity excavated from the working pits, as well as lichen-covered rocks and century-old trees surmounting the heaps of refuse at the mouths of the mines, all tend to this conclusion. Mount Chalchihuitl, which lies to the north of the railway station at that point some three miles, is the site of what have been pro- nounced the most ancient workings. It is said that in 1680 some twenty Indians were killed at this point by the caving in of a large portion of the works, and that this casualty was the final spur which precipitated the native revolution of that year. It is believed that the aborigines and the Spaniards exhausted this particular locality of marketable turquoise, as any attempt to develop the mines in recent years has been unsuccessful.
Three miles to the northeast of Mount Chalchihuitl is the old Cas- tilian turquoise mine, formerly worked by the Spaniards. About 1885 the property was partially developed, and a Mexican named F. Muniz made a claim in that locality in 1889. Three other claims were made by C. D. Storey in 1881, and in the following year the entire five properties were bought by the American Turquoise Company, whose headquarters are at Turquesa, a few miles north of Cerrillos. Many thousands of dollars worth of magnificent gems have been sent to New York and other sections of the country, the Tiffanys having had a representative upon the ground for several years.
There are only a few other localities in New Mexico where turquoise (leposits have been discovered, and perhaps only one other place where they have been worked to commercial advantage ; the other favored locality is in the Burro mountains, fourteen miles southwest of Silver City. There are abundant evidences to prove that before their discovery in this district, as in that of Santa Fé county, the deposits were quite extensively worked by the Indians. Beads and pendants are frequently found in the aboriginal graves, as well as in the ruins of the Indian pueblos, and it is claimed by some that turquoise was used by some of the early tribes as a medium of exchange. The extensive excavations made by these aboriginal gem diggers pointed to many of the deposits unearthed by modern discoverers, and in opening the old workings in Grant county some hammers and ancient pottery have been taken out.
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One of the earliest white men in the Burro mountain turquoise district was John Coleman, who located several claims in the late seventies and the early eighties. Nicholas C. Rascom was also among the pioneers. These men were followed by many other miners, most of whom were local pros- pectors, who did not possess the means to develop their claims. For some years little work was accomplished beyond meeting the annual assessments, and most of the stones were sold for small sums at Silver City and other local markets.
In 1882 Mr. Coleman disposed of most of his ground to Messrs. Por- terfield and Parker, who afterward formed the Occidental and Oriental Turquoise Mining Company, absorbed in 1901 by the Gem Turquoise and Copper Company. In 1891 N. C. Rascom sold his holdings to the Azure Mining Company, which is also still in the field. These companies, with M. W. Porterfield, are now the principal operators in the Burros.
Mr. Porterfield may be considered the father of turquoise mining on a commercial scale in New Mexico, if not in the United States. Until 1888 practically the turquoise of the world came from the empire of Persia. In that year M. W. Porterfield, who a short time before had arrived in Silver City, while making excavations in ancient Indian ruins near that town found several turquoise leads and unfinished specimens of the stone. He gave the latter to an experienced prospector, with the request that he look out for that substance in his researches. The latter soon discovered sonie abandoned ancient workings in which the blue stone was found, and notified Mr. Porterfield, whereupon the two men returned to the spot and reopened the shallow shafts, in which they found immense quantities of ancient "finger nail" pottery, some charcoal, and a number of stone hammers which had been worn round by constant use. Carrying their investigations further, they found imbedded in the stone turquoise in quantities sufficiently large to induce them to develop the property. Thus was inaugurated the first turquoise mining in the United States under modern conditions, and Mr. Porterfield became the pioneer in that in- (lustry. The first exhibit of this stone was made by him at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. and so rapidly has the business developed that Grant county now supplies perhaps three-fourths of the turquoise annually sold throughout the world.
Judge M. W. Porterfield, a druggist at Silver City, Grant county, and turquoise mine owner and operator, has in recent years become one of the most widely known residents of the Territory because of his activity toward the development of the great natural resources of this part of the country, especially in the line of its mineral deposits. He has resided in Silver City since 1888, at which time he and his brother, W. C. Porterfield, estab- lished the drug business which they still control.
M. W. Porterfield was born and reared at Fairfield, Illinois, his birth occurring September 6, 1855, a son of William H. and Elizabeth Porter- field. Obtaining his preliminary education in Fairfield, for two years he was a student in the scientific department of the Illinois University, and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science from the National Normal University at Lebanon. Ohio, in the class of 1877. He became the pioneer turquoise miner of New Mexico, so far as commercial mining is concerned, and this means that he was the pioneer in that industry in the United States. He was in charge of the mineral exhibit at the World's
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Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893-a fact which indicates his standing among mineralogists and experts. For a portion of the time he held a similar position at the Omaha Exposition and at the Louisiana Pur- chase Exposition, held in St. Louis in 1904, he served as executive com- missioner or manager of the New Mexico exhibits, preparing all the ex- hibits from this Territory. One of the most interesting exhibits at the exposition was that of a turquoise mine in the mining gulch, for the erection of which he sent several tons of ore from his mines in New Mexico. Mr. Porterfield has become known in recent years as "the tur- quoise king." He was probate judge of Grant county from 1890 to 1892. Mr. Porterfield was married in Silver City, August 21, 1898, to Miss Carrie Steely, a native of Keokuk, Iowa. They have one child, a daugh- ter, Ann Elizabeth.
Oldest Lode Mine in America .- Not far from the ancient turquoise mines of Mount Chalchihuitl, southwest of the center of Santa Fe county, north of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, is Mina del Tierra, pronounced by investigators and scholars to be the oldest lode mine in America. In fact, it presents the only real evidence of ancient lode mining in the entire southwest, and is supposed to antedate the first workings of the Ortiz gold mines and the Santa Rita copper mines by at least a century.
"The old working," says Professor Fayette A. Jones, "consists of an incline shaft of 150 feet, and connects with a somewhat vertical shaft of about 100 feet in depth. Extensive drifts of 300 feet connect with various chambers or stopes : these chambers were forced by stoping or mining out the richer ore bodies. The full extent of this old working has never been definitely determined. since the lower depths are covered with water, which would have to be pumped out to fully explore the mine. As late as 1870 the remains of an old canoe were still in evidence, which was used for crossing water in the mine, or as a carrier for conveying the waste and ore to the main shaft : from this latter point it was carried to the surface on the backs of Indians in rawhide buckets or tanates.
"The shaft had step-platforms or landings, every twelve or fourteen feet, which were gained by climbing a notched pole (chicken ladder ). similar to what some of the Pueblo Indians use at the present day. Many crude and curious relics, such as stone hammers and sledges. fragments of pottery, etc., have been taken from both the mine and the dump. The labor involved, when we take into consideration the crude manner of doing the work, inust have been something tremendous. It is thought that the Jesuits had this work performed by Indian slaves prior to 1680. The ore from this mine is a sulphide of lead and zinc, carrying rather high values in silver. Silver, no doubt, was the principal metal sought and utilized."
It was in this district surrounding Mount Chalchihuitl that the mining excitement of 1879 so raged-an echo from the Leadville boom. The little boom was started by the re-discovery of the very metals which had been mined centuries before in Mina del Tierra. Two town sites, Bonanza City and Carbonateville, were staked out in the early eighties, and during the first wave of excitement fully one thousand locations were made.
Grant County Mining .- After the districts south of Santa Fé, the copper mine of Santa Rita, and the gold and silver fields near Pinos Altos and Silver City are the oldest mining sections of New Mexico. The Santa
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Rita mine has the distinction of being the first really productive piece of mining property in the Territory, judged by modern standards. Unlike the status of the industry in the old districts of Santa Fé county, the copper silver, gold and iron mines of northeastern Grant county, after a century of productiveness and exploitation, still maintain their early bright promises and constitute the most valuable mining territory (as a whole) in New Mexico.
E. G. Maroney, of Silver City, interested in mining for turquoise, is a native of Mississippi, having been born and reared about forty miles above Jackson. His youth was passed upon a farm and he early became familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He arrived in Silver City in September, 1898, and began prospecting. On the 14th of December, 1905, he sold out all of the copper interests which he had previously held, and is now directing his attention almost ex- clusively to turquoise. In conjunction with M. D. Mckees and P. J. Farley he owns and is developing the Louis turquoise mine. He is also interested in the Azure Mining Company, connected with the operation of turquoise mines for about twenty-seven years. Mr. Maroney's mine lies about a mile and a half south of the Azure mines, and produces many perfect gems. He shipped seventeen stones to George Bell, a lapidary of Denver, Colorado, and from that number obtained five perfect stones, which is an unusually large proportion. The mine is located in the Burro mountain district in Nigger Gulch. Mr. Maroney is now operating a stage line between Silver City and Leopold. He has followed mining since his arrival in the Territory and has been quite successful in this venture, his turquoise mine proving a valuable property.
Some idea of the comparative position held by Grant among the coun- ties of the Territory as a producer of the metals may be gained from the figures for 1902, gathered under the auspices of the United States Geo- logical Survey. From them it is learned that of the 133,353 tons of ore mined during the year throughout New Mexico, Grant county produced 55,IIO, the great bulk of the balance being credited to Socorro and Lin- coln counties. As to the stock of ore on hand at the last of that year, Grant had 120,753 of the total, 222,746 tons. In the matter of deep gold mining it produced 380.789 ounces, valued at $78.710, as against 244.828 ounces (value, $50,607) for Lincoln and 202,947 ounces (value, $42,056) for Socorro, its nearest competitors. In placer gold mining no county in New Mexico approaches Colfax. The whole of New Mexico produced 285,205 ounces of silver, valued at $148,659, and of the three counties which vielded the great bulk of it, Grant stood second with 48.513 ounces, and Socorro first with 146,503 ounces to its credit. In copper Grant county has no com- petitor, and as the value of its production is over sixty per cent of that realized from all the metals mined in the Territory, the significance of the statement is evident. In the year under consideration Grant county mined 7,251,757 pounds of copper, which was valued at $793,028, while all of New Mexico mined only 7,979,167 pounds. The county is third in the pro- duction of lead, being exceeded by both Socorro and Luna. As a whole (including placer gold mining). Grant county produced, in value, over sixty-one per cent of the gold, silver, copper and lead mined in the Terri- tory.
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