USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 58
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"The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad has struck the Rio Grande and is pushing down the rich valley, flanked by mountains full of gold and silver ores, sulphurets, carbonates, chlorides and rich placers not yet prospected. Daily main coaches and telegraph lines to all points. The whistle of the conquering locomotive will soon be heard in the newly discovered mining camps of New Placers, Silver Buttes, Galisteo district and the famous Cerrillos, the mountains around Albuquerque, the rich leads in the mountains back of Socorro, the mines near Belen and the mines near Fort Craig: then comes the world renowned Mesilla valley with its vines and fruits, encircled by the Organ and other mountains from which fortunes have been extracted.
"Westward lies Silver City, with its mills and mines; then comes Shakespeare, the crowning camp of New Mexico, with San Simon and its Carbonat mountains hard by-the latter named camp 4,000 feet above the sea on the Divide of the continent. Here the Rocky mountains end, and the Sierra Madre begin. Here the bold out- croppings towering fifty feet in the air, bearing gold, silver, copper and lead, greet the traveler twenty miles distant upon his approach-the eighth wonder of the world. Here the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific railways have fixed their point of crossing.
"In full view of Shakespeare tower the Florida, Burro, Steins peak, Dos Cabezas and Castillita peaks of Old Mexico, all full of mineral and not yet prospected.
"N. B. Information willingly furnished by all government, territorial and county officials, and citizens generally."
With the fall of Ralston and some of his associates, careless methods adopted in partially developed properties, troublesome Indians, inaccessi- bility of the camp and the decline in silver, the Shakespeare district came almost to a standstill. One of the latest producing properties was the Aberdeen mine, its production being mainly a high grade of lead. The Aberdeen Copper Company, which owns about sixty claims, also operates the Manhattan mine and has a forty-ton concentrator located on its prop- erty. Until 1899, for a number of years the Shakespeare district showed no signs of a revival, but in that year came the rise in copper, and future development promises to be in connection with that metal, which, al- though not classed as "precious," is proving the salvation of more than one old camp which formerly relied upon the mining of gold or silver. .
Among the Pyramid mountains and adjoining the Shakespeare district on the south is what is known as the Pyramid district, these mining sec-
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tions covering an area of about fourteen by five miles. The most im- portant property in the latter district, lately developed, is the Viola group of silver mines, which embraces the Leidendorf property and is owned by the Pyramid Mining Company. At one time the Leidendorf mine was quite a large producer. Of late years the principal operator in the entire region south of Lordsburg has been the American Consolidated Copper Company, owning the Atwood and Miser's Chest groups. Their operations, however, have not proved very successful up to the present, and develop- ment rather than important production seems to be the order of the day, with a tendency toward deep mining for copper.
The country along the boundary between Grant county and Arizona has been more or less prospected and mined, the principal production coming from the region around Stein's Pass, just south of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Stein's Pass was one of the three mountain gaps which formed portions of the route of the old Butterfield stage line and of the early emigrant trains to southern California. It was while defending Doubtful Canyon, ten miles northwest of the pass, against a terrific on- slaught of the Apaches that Captain Stein met his death ; but although the savages were repelled and the passes remained in possession of the whites, the Apaches virtually cleared this part of the county of prospectors a few years thereafter. The first real prospecting in the region of Stein's Pass was not accomplished until 1883-9.
Mining in Doña Ana County .- After the great copper fields of Santa Rita and Hanover Gulch, Grant county, the next mining section of New Mexico exposed to the world, was fifteen miles northeast of Las Cruces, having the Organ range of mountains as its backbone. It has been for years an important producer of lead-silver and copper-silver, especially the properties which lie in the vicinity of Organ postoffice, which is near the center of the range. The district was first exploited and developed for its lead-silver deposits, the celebrated Stephenson-Bennett mines being the pioneers of that class. The Stephenson lode was discovered by a Mexican in 1849, who formed a partnership with Hugh Stephenson, residing on the Rio Grande, not far away. The American, within a few years, became sole owner of the mine, and although its development and working were sorely hampered by the Mexicans, who were bitter toward all of his na- tionality as a result of the war, it netted its owner handsomely for those times. Not only the Mexicans, but hostile Apaches, made the early years of the Stephenson mines most trying and hazardous. The fierce savages made not a few determined raids upon the works, and strong fortifications are still standing on the heights overlooking them, behind which the hardy miners defended the property.
In these early days the ore was extracted by the old Spanish-American methods, with the pick and shovel and without the use of powder. Up to 1882 no hoist or windlass was in operation, the ore being brought to the surface on men's backs, and the means of ascent and descent were notched sticks instead of ladders. After being crushed between large stones, the ore was transported sixteen miles on burros to an adobe furnace near Fort Fillmore, on the Rio Grande, where it was smelted with a loss of about 50 per cent of its silver contents and all of its lead.
During 1854-7 work was carried on somewhat systematically, and notwithstanding many drawbacks, the production was about $80,000, and
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in 1858 Mr. Stephenson sold the mine to army officers stationed at Fort Fillmore for $12,500. The ore first mined came from a parallel ledge above the present main workings. Approximately, the Stephenson-Bennett mines have yielded $1,000,000, of which $200,000 was produced in the decade 1890-1900. The principal minerals mined have been galena, argen- tite and wulfenite, some of the finest crystals of the last named ever found in New Mexico coming from the Bennett lode. The property, which is one and a half miles south of Organ, is owned and operated by the Stephen- son-Bennett Consolidated Mining Company, which has a recent record of shipping fourteen cars of concentrates averaging $1,000 per car. Its equip- ment consists of a sixty-ton concentrator, a hoist and compressor, and a double compartment shaft, which is being sunk to a depth of 1,000 feet.
The Torpedo mine, about 200 yards east of the Organ postoffice is the best developed property in the district. and holds the record for production in a given time. Its total output is placed at $1,000,000. In 1900 the prop- erty was only considered a "good prospect"; now it is valued at a quarter of a million dollars and has between 3,000 and 4,000 feet of shafts and drifts. The ore is chiefly copper-silver, the silver being argentite. In June, 1902, the mine was temporarily abandoned on account of a sudden rush of water from the old workings, but the levels were soon unwatered and operations resumed under the ownership of the Federal Copper Company. Most of the copper ore was shipped to the company's smelter at El Paso. The property is now being worked under lease.
About eight miles south of Organ is the Modoc mine, which was lo- cated in the late seventies and has been producing at intervals since. Its record of lead-silver production is about $250,000. The concentrates carry 60 per cent lead and some silver-copper and copper. The property is equipped with a wire rope tram for conveying the ore into a concentrating mill and shipping the high grade ore to the Deming smelter. It is also supplied with hoisting machinery, compressed air for drilling, and other modern improvements.
Mining Industries of Lincoln County .- Besides being one of the larg- est coal producers in the Territory, Lincoln county has for a number of years been second or third in the mining of gold ore. Socorro county is its closest competitor in lode mining for gold, the figures for 1902 being as follows: Output in ounces, Lincoln, 244,828, and Socorro, 202,947 ; value, Lincoln, $50,607. and Socorro, $42,056. The total ore mined during the year was, Lincoln, 23,500 tons, and Socorro, 23.734. Grant county, of course, far exceeds either in the product of its deep mines, while Colfax has no competitor in placer gold.
The gold producing area of Lincoln county lies around White Oaks and toward the south as far as Nogal peak, and was known among the prospectors and miners of forty years ago as the Sierra Blanca, or White Mountain region. It is believed that the first operations in this stretch of country were conducted by the Mexicans, as early as 1850, and consisted of placer mining in the Jicarilla mountains, about ten miles northeast of the present town of White Oaks. When the American miners came, thirty years afterward. their old pits and dumps were still visible, and, what is remarkable, although the locality has been thoroughly prospected, no pro- ductive lodes have yet been discovered. The finencss of the placer gold is about 920. Many placer companies and individual miners have operated
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in this district of late years, but with indifferent success. Among the largest enterprises was that inaugurated by the American Placer Com- pany, in 1903. It acquired 5,000 acres of ground, and during that season operated a large dredge; but the process proved too expensive and was abandoned. In recent years indications of a copper belt have been dis- covered which may prove worthy of development.
Further south, in the White Mountain district, many old ruins were noted by the early prospectors which pointed to the working of gold and silver mines by the aborigines. About 1860 is the time given as the earliest placer mining in this region by the Mexicans, and 1868 as the location of one of the oldest, if not the first, gold lode-viz., the Sierra Blanca. The vein is about thirty feet wide, but nowhere in the district is active work now progressing.
In the same year of the discovery of the Sierra Blanca lode, Billy Gill located the American mine in the Nogal district, some placers having been worked several years before in Dry Gulch above. This district covers about 240 square miles, and its elevation is from 5,800 to 11,300 feet. The surface is not rough and broken, but the mountains (Nogal) have even inclines, with very few rocks, slides or alluvial deposits. Timber, water and good wagon roads also exist, thus making prospecting easy.
The old and famous American mine was originally conducted from Fort Stanton, probably by the soldiers stationed there. As was the common experience with the miners of southern New Mexico, those who attempted operations in the region around Nogal peak thirty years ago were largely at the mercy of the relentless Apaches, and the graves of a number of these early adventurers bear mute witness to this hard fact. No systematic mining was done in the district until 1880, and at that time it formed a part of the Mescalero Indian reservation, which, two years later, was par- tially thrown open to settlement.
The Helen Rae and Cruss-Cut mines were located in 1880, and in 1882 came into possession of John Rae, from whom the property received its name. In less than a year, through shallow shafts and with mortar and pestle, the proprietor took out nearly $15,000 worth of gold. The ores turned base at no great depth, however, although Mr. Rae sold his prop- erty finally to Rolla Wells for $15,000, and in the first years of the 1900's it passed into possession of the American Gold Mining Company.
It is from the White Oaks district, however, that most of the actual production of gold has come, lode gold being first discovered by modern prospectors in 1879, on Baxter mountain. This was the beginning of White Oaks, which was surveyed in the following year. The story of the famous discovery is thus given: "A number of prospectors had been prospecting the immediate vicinity for placer gold. among whom were George Wilson and his partners, old Jack Winters and George Baxter. While the party were eating dinner, Wilson took his lunch in his hand and strolled up the side of Baxter mountain, where he climbed on the top of a large "blow- out" and with his pick chipped off a piece of the rock, and on examination was much surprised to find that it contained gold. He immediately re- ported his find to those below, and staked out the North Homestake, which was the first lode location made in the camp. On the same afternoon Wilson relinquished his rights in the property to his partner, Jack Win- ters, for $40, a pony and a bottle of whisky. Not a great while after this
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deal, the discoverer of the lode mines of White Oaks disappeared and was never heard of again."
North Homestake passed through various hands, the first few years of its existence netting its owners handsomely, both in production and the sums realized in the sale of the property. It has been quite a steady pro- ducer, and to the present is credited with about half a million dollars. Soon after the first strike, the South Homestake, Old Abe, Little Mack, Comstock and Rip Van Winkle mines were located.
Although discovered thus early, the true vein of the famous Old Abe mine was not located until 1890. As a total depth of nearly 1,400 feet has been reached without tapping water so as to interfere with the working of the mine, it is not only the deepest in New Mexico, but one of the deepest dry mines in the world. It is a free-milling gold mine, and the main streak, varying from three to twenty-two inches in width, is a sulphide ore which has averaged $8 per ton. A number of rich strikes have been made, and among the remarkable geological occurrences encountered has been virgin gold embedded in gypsum. The old shaft, 840 feet deep, collapsed in March, 1896, the new shaft having been sunk, as stated, to a depth of some 1,400 feet. According to the latest figures, there are about 3,600 feet of new drift and about 4,000 feet in the old works. The daily output of Old Abe is about fifty tons of ore, which is treated on the ground, and the total production in value is given at not far from $1,000,000. The South Homestake is also credited with a production equaling the latter figures.
The total gold production of White Oaks district is about $3,000,000, five or six gold mills being in constant operation. There are also large iron deposits in the district, averaging from 58 to 68 per cent hematite ore, as well as coal, indications of oil, and quarries of excellent marble and building stone. All in all, it is one of the richest mineral regions in the Territory.
The Gold Mines of Baldy Mountain .- The most productive gold dis- trict of New Mexico is embraced by the slopes of Baldy mountain, or Elizabeth Peak, a short distance southeast of Elizabethtown, in the western part of Colfax county. On its western flank is the Moreno river, just below the town, and in its valley lies the greatest placer field in the Terri- tory. With the exception of some placer mining conducted in the locali- ties of Ute creek, on the southeastern slope of the mountain, virtually all of the fields are to the west, and in this direction the only productive dis- trict besides the Moreno valley lies along Willow creek. None compares, however, with the Moreno fields, which chiefly have given Colfax county its standing as a gold producer. Since the discovery in 1866 it is estimated that fully $3,000,000 of gold have been washed out of the placer mines of the Moreno valley, and their yield has gone far toward maintaining the record of Colfax county as having yielded, within recent years, from one- fourth to one-third the total gold production of New Mexico. In 1902 her placers are credited with a production of $117,680, as against a total output, throughout the Territory, of $384,685. The principal lode mining has been conducted on the east side of Baldy, the chief producer, and the oldest and best known mine in Colfax county, being the famous Aztec, which has a record of $1,500,000-$1,000,000 of which was mined prior to 1872. It is therefore safe to say that since the opening of both
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the placer and quartz districts around Baldy mountain, forty years ago, fully $6,000,000 worth of gold has been mined.
The discovery of the placer fields was due to the Indians, who, in their quest for game, roamed over Old Baldy, and were in the habit of picking up rich copper float. On one of their trading expeditions to Fort Union they exhibited some of these specimens to the soldiers, and, as the metal was then in good demand, William Kroenig, W. H. Moore and others around the fort became interested. After paying the Indian for his infor- mation, as an earnest of his good faith, they sent a man out with him to locate the find, and the two proceeded directly to the top of Baldy, where an abundance of copper ore was found. This trip resulted in what was known for years afterward as the "Copper Mine," or the present "Mystic Lode."
Mr. Kroenig and his partners at once commenced to develop their claims, and in October, 1866, sent Messrs. Larry Bronson, Peter Kin- singer and Kelly to do the annual assessment work on the copper property. Late one afternoon they arrived on Willow creek, and camped for the night. While Messrs. Bronson and Kinsinger engaged in cooking supper, Kelly took a gold pan and commenced washing some of the gravel along the edge of the creek. To the surprise of all, he found gold-not in large quantities, but sufficient to spur them on to prospect further. All three now began to pan and dig, and to their astonishment the prospects became better as they advanced in their work. Several days were spent in the locality, many open cuts being run and holes dug in the banks of gravel; and the final results far exceeded their first expectations.
It being late in the season, and not having the proper outfit to com- mence placer mining, the men decided to return to Fort Union for the winter, and to say nothing of their gold discovery until the following spring, except to their most intimate and trustworthy friends. Although the trio had failed to perform the work which they had been sent to do, they faithfully marked the pine under which they had first encamped, naming it Discovery Tree, and it afterward served as a landmark from which claims were staked and consecutively numbered.
Although the intentions of the gold discoverers were wise, the temp- tation to exhibit their samples of coarse metal obtained from the pannings was irresistible, and the news spread so rapidly over New Mexico and Colorado that, long before the winter's snow had melted, a procession of prospectors was on its way to the new washings and diggings. - Bronson, with several partners, made the first locations on Willow creek, measuring their claims westwardly from Discovery Tree. Others followed thick and fast, Matthew Lynch and Tim Foley taking claims near by on the south side of the gulch. The latter two soon passed over to the eastern slope of Baldy, however, and discovered the famous Aztec lode, with whose early development they became identified. For a dozen years thereafter Mr. Lynch was known as the most successful hydraulic miner in the fields, and is acknowledged to be the father of this process in the Baldy region.
About the time the first locations were made along Willow creek, another party from Fort Union, consisting of J. E. Codlin, Pat Lyons, Fred Phefer and Big Mich, made the first discovery of gold at what is now Elizabethtown. They found gold a few hundred yards east of the present town site, and as they called themselves the Michigan Company,
H
Dredge Mining at Elizabethtown
Organ Mountains
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they named the locality Michigan Gulch. Then followed a general line of prospecting, which revealed the fact that gold existed in paying quantities in every gulch around Baldy mountain. Grouse and Humbug gulches at- tracted the most attention, probably because each had a stream of water. The placer fields were now known to extend from Willow Creek gulch north, along the foot of Baldy mountain, as far as Mills' gulch, a dis- tance of eight or ten miles; and the ground in every gulch was taken. Humbug gulch was located from the Moreno river almost to its head, having received its name from the supposition that the dirt there would not pay for the working ; but later developments proved it to be the richest of them all. Across the river, just in front of Grouse's gulch, was the famous Spanish bar, which was located by Messrs. Lowthian, Kinsinger and Bergmann.
With the great influx of people into the new gold field, civil organiza- tion and the protection of the laws became a necessity, and early in 1867 John Moore, George Buck and others got together to plan a town. To Mr. Moore's oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was accorded the final credit of giving it a name, and T. G. Rowe laid it out, as a surveyor. The god- mother of Elizabethtown is now Mrs. Joseph Lowrey, still an honored resi- dent of the place. In the year after its founding ( 1868) it probably reached the high-water mark in population, although it was so shifting and va- riable that it has been estimated at from 1,500 to 7,000. It is also believed that more gold was extracted from the gulches along the western flanks of Baldy mountain, from 1868 to 1870, than during any period of equal length in the history of the region.
After it had been demonstrated that the placer fields were both valu- able and extensive, and the settlers had organized themselves into a civic community, the problem of a sufficient water supply was one of the most serious nature. With this question unsolved, the immense beds of gravel could never be worked to advantage. Thomas Lowthian had taken in a ditch from the north side of Baldy to work his claims in Grouse gulch; the water of the Moreno river was ditched by the Michigan Company, and those working the rich diggings of the Spanish bar; another ditch had been brought to the Spanish bar from Comanche creek. This was all the water available in the Moreno valley previous to the inauguration of the Elizabethtown ditch, also known as the Big Ditch.
Parties from Fort Union and Las Vegas became especially interested in the water question, on account of their large investments in the district, and sent Captain N. S. Davis, a competent engineer, to look over the ground. It was on the strength of his report that the famous ditch, with branches and reservoirs, was built, circling along the edges of mountains, and bridging deep ravines and gulches, for a distance of 42 miles, al- though the main source of the water supply was the Red river, only eleven miles west of Elizabethtown. Considering the nature of the work and that it was completed from May 12 to November 13, 1868, it is one of the most remarkable pieces of engineering in the west. The Moreno Water and Mining Company, which had charge of the undertaking and was the original owner of the property, consisted of L. B. Maxwell, owner of the grant ; William Kroenig. John Dold, W. H. Moore, V. S. Selby, M. Bloom- field and Captain N. S. Davis, the engineer.
The main ditch, whose eastern terminus is Grouse gulch, Elizabeth- Vol. II. 28
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town, cost $280,000 in the building, the first water being delivered in Hum- bug gulch July 9, 1869. Later the supply of water was increased by ditches seven miles long from Moreno creek and the Ponil river, the latter being on the east side of Baldy mountain. Three reservoirs, or lakes, were also built high up in the Red River mountains, these minor undertakings costing about $20,000.
The construction company did not own any placer land, but it was ex- pected that the receipts from the water rates would be sufficient to make the enterprise a profitable investment. First water was sold at fifty cents per inch, and second and third was usually let by contract. The main ditch had a capacity to deliver 600 inches of water, but it was found on account of the seepage and the evaporation in coming such a long dis- tance, that really only a small amount of water compared to the capacity really reached its destination. The revenue was, therefore, not sufficient to reimburse the company in the earlier years, and it became financially embarrassed. A transfer of the property was then made to Colonel V. S. Selby, of Santa Fé, who had loaned the company a large sum of money. Shortly afterward Colonel Selby sold to L. B. Maxwell, and Matthew Lynch purchased the ditch from Mr. Maxwell in 1875, operating it suc- cessfully until his death in 1880. In the operation of the Aztec mine, of which he was one of the discoverers, Mr. Lynch had realized about a million and a half of dollars, but since 1872, when it shut down on account of legal complications, he had been engaged in placer mining at Grouse's gulch. When he became owner of the Elizabethtown ditch it had been neg- lected for several years, but he immediately put it in repair and made it carry a full head of water. The mining was carried on with considerable energy for the succeeding five years, Mr. Lynch himself, Joseph Lowrey, Thomas Lowthian and the Carr brothers being large hydraulic operators. The ground opposite Elizabethtown is still known as the Lowrey placers, Mr. Lowrey coming to the Moreno valley in 1867, the year of the discov- ery of the fields.
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