CHAPTER VII.

NEW MEXICO.

My limited means have not enabled me to visit this Territóry during the year, or even to keep a paid agent there. For the information I have received from that quarter I am principally indebted to persons residing there, who take sufficient interest in the mining resources of the country to undertake the trouble of communicating information gratuitously. Among these, thanks are principally due to Mr. R. B. Willison, surveyor-general of the Territory, Dr. Hilgert, Messrs. M. Bloomfield, Eugene Goulding, and A. H. Morehead.

In the Moreno mines the placers have been worked with moderate success during most of the year, as will appear from the following statement. The Aztec mine has also been worked, and produced bullion. The Montezuma has only been prospected, and the mill has remained idle:

Exhibit of producing mines in Moreno mining district, Colfax County, New Mexico, on January 1, 1872. Reported by M. Bloomfield.

REMARKS.-Aztec mine idle since October, on account of water in mine. Montezuma Mill idle; but twenty

H. Ex. 211-22

five or thirty miners at work the whole year developing a lead of 30 inches of quartz, which will probably pay from $15 to $20 per ton. Chester Mill ran several weeks in May and June, but failed to pay expenses. A company had been formed in January, 1872, to work the Moreno Creek by machinery, and it is thought that they will succeed beyond doubt. There are some five or six miles of good mining ground, which have been secured by this company, and which they will divide to run about three claims to the mile. The plan is to employ steam-shovels to dig and hoist the dirt; the dirt to be washed on the surface, or rather in sluices, some 8 or 10 feet above the surface of the ground. This does away with the inconvenience occasioned by the slight grade of this creek, which is only about one in one hundred. The ground has heretofore been worked entirely by hand and wheelbarrows, a process which is expensive and slow.

This creek averages about 50 cents or 15 grains of gold to the cubic yard. The company calculate they can work the ground for 25 cents the cubic yard, and work 400 yards per day. Their enterprise seems entirely practicable, and may be the means of increasing the production of gold by $300,000 per year. The general prospects of the district are good, owing to the heavy snows of last winter.

From Silver City I am informed that the district still suffers on account of a lack of capital invested in the mines. Still it is reported that about $90,000 worth of silver slabs have been shipped from there since the mines were discovered. Most of this was smelted out by Mexicans in their primitive way. No mills or smelting-works are as yet erected. In July it was reported that about sixty miners were at work here taking out ore from the various silver-lodes. The Sophia lode, owned by the Spring Hill Mining Company, had a shaft 25 feet deep, and showing a splendid vein of rich ore. The vein is from 4 to 5 feet wide. The Reinhart lode, owned by Mr. William Kronig and others, was 8 feet wide at a depth of 16 feet, and very rich ore. The Colfax lode showed 3 feet of good ore at 10 feet in depth. The Great Eastern lode, owned by the Eureka Mining Company, showed a splendid vein of rich ore 4 feet wide. The Abbey lode, and a great many others, showed also good ore.

There has been a great drawback on these mines by reason of the miners being compelled to lie idle on account of not even having proper tools to work with. As a general thing they came to the district without means. In January, 1872, there were over three hundred lodes located, some of which have shafts on them of the depth of 60 feet.

It is asserted that none of the lodes, by practical tests, produce less than $50 to the ton. The area covered by these silver-lodes is about thirty miles square, and it is believed that these mines will, at some day, whenever capital comes to the country, prove far richer than is now supposed.

From Pinos Altos I have no reliable data as yet, beyond a general estimate of the product, which has been small.

There has been some activity again in the Organ Mountains during the year, but lack of capital is here also in the way of a speedy development of the mines.

Exhibit of producing mines in Organ mining district, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, on January 1, 1872. Reported by A. H. Morehead.

Exhibit of producing mines in Organ mining district, &c.—Continued.

REMARKS.-The Stephenson is the oldest mine, having been discovered about thirty years ago, and worked successfully for about twenty years. Upon the breaking out of the rebellion in 1861 labor was suspended, and since that time but little has been done. Work will begin again shortly, and every indication shows that it will prove remunerative to the owners. There have a great many new discoveries been made within the past six months, but I am unable to give the names of the mines, &c. The locations, however, are in the Organ district. The bullion produced has been extracted by the crude Mexican method. There are no regu. lar smelting-works or mills.

CHAPTER VIII.

COLORADO.

Want of funds has compelled me to investigate the progress which the mining industry of this Territory has undoubtedly made during 1871, with less detailed care than was my intention. Although the principal mining districts of Colorado are not included in the field allotted to me by congressional resolution, I have so far managed every year to record the developments made; and the processes used for the extraction of the precious metals have received their due share of attention. This last year my attention was necessarily directed to other fields which had not before been personally visited by me, and in using the greater part of the small amount appropriated by Congress for my work, in that direction, only enough has remained in my hands to furnish in this report a general outline of what has been accomplished during the year in Colorado.

As in former years, Messrs. Jacob F. L. .Schirmer, assayer of the United States branch-mint at Denver, and J. H. Jones, agent of Wells, Fargo & Co., have kindly furnished me with an estimate of the product of Colorado for 1871. Their intimate acquaintance with the mining industry of the Territory, and their knowledge of the shipments made, entitle this estimate to the highest confidence, and I accept it, therefore, as my own:

Gold and silver product of Colorado Territory during 1871.

The most accurate estimate which I could obtain of the product of the previous year gave the yield of the whole Territory for that year as $3,675,000. There is therefore an increase of very nearly a million of dollars.

This increase has been apparent on every side during the last year throughout the Territory in more extended mining, milling, and smelting operations; and it is clear that the industry is now looked upon as legitimate business more than ever before. The time of wild and extravagant speculation, with undeveloped properties and "processes," has passed away in Colorado, and if all the sigus do not deceive me, an era of steadily progressive industry has at last fairly been inaugurated. In Gilpin County many of the older claims, which had been idle for several years, have been taken up again. It is noteworthy that the larger number of these have been leased by miners, who in almost every instance have made good wages, and in some cases small fortunes. They

have generally done vastly better than the companies who preceded them, working the same veins.

On the Kansas lode, for instance, in Nevada district, there were, in the latter part of the year, nine claims worked, the majority of which turned out exceedingly well, so that the lode produced at that time much more gold than ever before. Wheeler & Sullivan, who work the "First National" claim on this lode, were furnishing 40 stamps of the New York Mill with ore. Richards & Co. were deepening their shaft on the Ophir Company's claim, and were in good ore all the way. The Garrison claim was worked by Wolcott & Co., who were both drifting and stoping, and took out good pay ore. Ira Easterbrooks, who took the lease of the Mead claim off the hands of William Lyon & Co., was drifting and stoping in his mine, which presented a better appearance than ever before. D. L. Southworth was sinking on Waterman's claim, the next one east. Mr. Root was obtaining rich ore from his claim on the Kansas, near Boston Mill. On the second claim east of Root's, Andrews & Sullivan were raising large quantities of fine-looking ore, which was being crushed at Lake's Mill, on North Clear Creek.

The English Kansas Gold Mining Company were doing well on their claims purchased some months ago of J. F. Hardesty.

Another claim, between Root's and that of Andrews & Co., was being worked in a small way, and the ore hoisted by a windlass.

The second-class ores from this vein assayed, at the time spoken of, about 1 ounces of gold per ton, and the yield in the mills was given to me as 4 to 5 ounces per cord. First-class ores brought, at Hill's works, about $100 per ton.

The Kent County lode, about 400 feet above the foregoing, was also very actively worked during last year. Mr. Eilers visited, in the fall, the Etna Company's ground, 1,000 feet in length, which was leased by Messrs. Nichols, Roe, Fisher, and Mitchel. These men started to work the mine with almost nothing, but were doing exceedingly well at the time of this visit. The mine was 320 feet deep, and the force employed in three levels and on the surface was twenty-seven men. The principal stoping was done between the first and second levels, 100 and 160 feet from the surface, both east and west from the hoisting-shaft. Here a great mass of very rich ore had been found sticking to the hangingwall, which had been overlooked in the old stopes on account of a thin sheet of slate which separated it from the ore on the foot-wall. About 30 tons of ore were hoisted per day, a considerable portion of which was first class, bringing at the smelting works from $95 to $126 per ton. The second-class ore averaged about 7 ounces per cord. This claim is very well opened. The levels are all connected by winzes, and sinking for reserves was steadily kept up. In the rich ground spoken of, the vein was over 5 feet wide, containing the usual mixture of iron and copper pyrites, blende, and quartz.

This claim connects by drifts with a neighboring one leased by the Bradley Brothers, so that in both of them the ventilation is very good. The latter claim is 450 feet long, and is opened to a depth of 200 feet, but at the time of Mr. Eilers's visit it was idle, on account of litigation with the owners of the Ralston Company lode, which appears to be a feeder to the Kansas. There were a large number of claims worked on the lode which could not be visited.

The Prize is situated opposite the foregoing. It strikes northeast and southwest, and dips steeply to the southeast, like the two last named. It is opened for a length of 900 feet, in two claims of respectively 400 and 500 feet. The latter belongs to the Cornwallis Company. Neither