1864 Mines
Arizona and Sonora, by Sylvester Mowry, was published in 1864. A few pages about the Colorado River area mines is provided here.
CHAPTER IV. THE COLORADO RIVER MINES IN 1864.
The following extracts from the Alta California published during the
month of April, 1864, present a summary of the condition and prospects of
the mining region of the Colorado. It says:
In consequence of movements in San Francisco to secure the full and cheap
navigation of the Colorado River, mining operations throughout that section
are being pushed with energy. Many tunnels and inclines are being run, and
shafts sunk. Assays of different ores indicate values per ton of $85, $170,
$70, and $30. One mill is already at work, crushing chiefly gold ores, and
arrange^ ments are in progress for the erection of a first-class mill, with
the necessary machinery for working silver ores, near the mouth of the
river. Large piles of rich ore have been taken out of the various tunnels
and shafts, of which there are nine mentioned in the report before us.
Extensive discoveries of salt, free from impurities, have been made. It is
found in veins similar to the mineral veins, underlying at an angle of 45
degrees, and varying in width from eighteen inches to three feet.
Discoveries of coal are also reported. Several mining districts are
organized — the San Francisco, Williams's Fork, La Paz, etc. The mines on
the extreme lower river are chiefly valuable for copper; farther up, silver
and gold predominate. The San Francisco Mining Press, from the columns of
which we condense the above, closes its article thus:
"The river, which is now attracting a large share of attention, is destined
to become one of the most important rivers on the Pacific coast. Its
topography and general characteristics are certainly most remarkable. Taking
its rise, as we have already said, in the Pike's Peak mining region, it
constitutes simply a mountain stream until it reaches the vicinity of Black
Canon, about eighty miles above El Dorado Canon. From this point to its
mouth, a distance of a little over 600 miles, this river is navigable for
river steamers of a small draught; and for 500 miles of this distance the
entire country is rich in minerals - gold, silver, and copper - down to its
very banks, and to an unknown and unexplored distance into the interior. All
kinds of miners' supplies will soon be delivered along this river, via the
Gulf of California, for a price not greater than that now charged for the
delivery of goods at Nevada City or Placerville. Freight has already been
delivered at La Paz for three cents per pound."
The Alta California then famishes the following detailed description of the
mining districts upon the Colorado, and the modes of working in use there:
The mining districts on the banks of the Lower Colorado continue to preserve
their attractions for s considerable number of miners who have been in them
for several years. They have as yet produced little bullion, but they
promise to increase in importance, and to furnish no small portion of the
gold, silver, and copper crop of this coast.
The Colorado River empties into the Gulf of California in latitude 31° 40,
and for ninety-five miles above that point the river runs through a low
plain. At Fort Yuma, as we ascend the river, the mineral region commences.
The various districts are as follows:
I. Yuma or Pichaco District, on the western side of the river, near Fort
Yuma. There may be 100 miners, mostly Mexicans, engaged in dry washing for
placer gold. There are some rich lodes of silver and copper, and a few veins
of auriferous quartz.
II. Castle Dome District, on the eastern side of the Colorado, between that
stream and the Gila. There may be 100 miners here engaged in silver mining.
The ores are rich, but they are from eighteen to thirty-five miles from the
river. Some furnaces are now building for smelting the ores. The chief town
is Castle Dome City, which has four or five houses, and is thirty miles
above Fort Yuma, by the river.
III. Eureka District, on the eastern side of the Colorado, twenty-five
miles, by land, above Fort Yuma, is twenty-eight miles long on the river
bank, and twelve miles wide. There are 100 miners there, of whom a majority
are Mexicans. The mines are silver, lead, and copper, and. very near the
river. The country or bed rock is granite and slate; the silver veins are in
pink and white quartz ; the lodes are from two to ten feet thick. The chief
town is Williamsport, which contains one stone house and many tents, and is
forty-five miles, by the river, above Fort Yuma.
IV. Weaver District, on the eastern side of the river, ninety miles above
Fort Yuma. The mines are copper, silver, and gold. The principal town is
Olive City, which has twenty houses, and is 150 miles, by the river, above
Fort Yuma. The ledges which are now being worked are situated at from six to
fifteen miles of the steam-boat landing at Olive City. Among these are the
Great Central, Colorado, Blue Ledge, American Pioneer, Weaver, Henry
Barnard, and others.
V. La Paz District, on the eastern bank of the Colorado, 100 miles above
Fort Yuma. It contains 500 miners, who are engaged in silver, copper, and
lead veins, and in gold placers. There are some Mexican smelting furnaces at
La Paz, the chief town of the district, and ore is regularly shipped to San
Francisco. La Paz City has 150 houses, and is 155 miles, by the river, from
Fort Yuma.
VI. Chemahueva District, on the western side of the river, opposite La Paz.
VII. El Dorado Canyon District, on the western side of the river, 250 miles,
by land, above Fort Yuma, contains a population of about 300 miners, and has
some rich silver and copper lodes.
There are several other districts along the river, but some of them are
almost unknown save to a few prospectors, who are wandering about in them.
The Walker Placer Mines, on the foot-hills of the San Francisco Mountains,
are 150 miles east of La Paz. The diggings are good there, but the Indians
are troublesome. Persons bound for those mines, from California, usually go
through La Paz.
Freight for the Colorado mines, from San Francisco, goes by sailing vessels,
in a voyage of three or four weeks ordinarily, to the mouth of the Colorado,
at a cost of $20 per ton. There are four steam-boats on the Colorado River;
and they charge $25 per ton to Williamsport, and $75 to La Paz, from the
mouth. The stream is about 350 yards wide, and the channel averages five
feet deep, but it has a swift current, and a bed of quicksand, which is
constantly shifting. In the dry season, the steamers have much difficulty
above Williamsport in ascending the rapid stream, in which no experience can
enable a pilot to know where the channel will be tomorrow, however familiar
he may be with it to-day. The steamers take six days in low water in going
from the mouth up to La Paz. It is thought the price of freight will fall,
in consequence of competition and opposition. Flour at La Paz is worth $9
per 100 pounds.
There is not a good silver mill in the whole Colorado county, and not one
mine is opened so that a large amount of ore could be supplied at a short
time, but the vein stone is known to be good. The Apache Chief and the
Providencia Mines, in the La Paz District, and the Carmel, in the Eureka
District, among others, have shipped ores to this city. The Arizona Company,
in the Eureka District, has sent down sacks to hold 500 tons of their ore,
rich argentiferous galena, which is to be shipped. The Margarita, River,
Norma, Enterprise, Rockford, Gray Eagle, Cache Knob, Cocomongo, and Rosario,
of the same district, have smelted rich ores in Mexican furnaces. The ores
of the two last-named mines yielded seventy ounces of silver to the ton.
The silver ores of the Colorado Valley, or nearly all of them, contain large
quantities of either copper or lead, both of them unfitted for amalgamation.
No attempt has yet been made to reduce the cupriferous ores; those are
either neglected or shipped to Europe. The chief attention of the miners is
turned, therefore, to the argentiferous galena. That found in the Cache Knob
and Arizona Mines contains sixty per cent, of lead and sixty to 100 ounces
of silver to the ton. This and similar ores are reduced by smelting, which
is managed by Mexicans in the rudest manner.
The rock is crushed, not with stamps or arastras, but between two flat
stones, the upper one being worked by hand. Some of the workmen stop when
there are no pieces of ore larger than a hazel-nut, and others will not have
a piece larger than a pea; very few insist on reducing the ore to a fine
flour, as is done in good silver mills. The finer the ore, the quicker the
smelting, and the more thorough the separation of the metal.
The furnace is built of stone and adobes, ten feet long, four feet wide, and
eight feet high. The inside is lined with clay mixed with bone-dust, this
being the best material to be had there for resisting the action of the
fire. The bellows is worked by hand. It is made of canvas, and has two
horizontal chambers, each about as wide and half as long as a barrel. These
two chambers or bellows are put on a level with a man's breast; and the
workman pulls out the board end of one bellows, while he pushes in the board
end of the other. Each chamber has its own pipe, but the two unite, and
thus, by the alternate movements of the arms, a constant stream of air is
kept up.
The fuel used in smelting is charcoal, made of mesquite, which gives a fire
of intense heat. Twenty-five or thirty pounds of ore are put in at intervals
of ten or fifteen minutes, and at the end of an hour and a half or two hours
they tap the furnace, let out the metal, clean out the slag, and commence
anew. The metal which has run out, called a plancha, weighs from 125 to 150
pounds, and contains only about one half of one per cent, of silver to
ninety-five per cent, of lead, with a few other base substances.
After all the ore on hand is smelted, refining commences. Two or three
planchas are put into the furnace and melted, and kept at a high heat. The
lead* turns to litharge, which is raked off, and, as the molten metal
decreases in quantity, more planchas are added, until the lead has all been
converted into litharge, and the silver remains pure enough to be sent to
the market. The litharge is worth seven cents per pound, and brings nearly
as much as the silver.
There are numerous furnaces of this kind in the Colorado region, nearly all
of them worked by Mexicans. It is plain that, if ore will pay for such
working, there must be silver in it. The Mexicans offer to pulverize, smelt,
and refine for $40 per ton. Some Frenchmen at Olive City have a better class
furnace, and rumor says they are doing well. The Americans are anxious to
get stamps and good furnaces. The Recorder of the Eureka District, Mr.
Spann, is now in this city for the purpose of getting fire-brick for
furnaces, for the clay and bone-dust will not last long in a heat hot enough
to smelt silver.
The Colorado valley may not be equal to Paradise for a home, but it is rich
in silver, and silver mines arc not generally found in the most fertile
valleys and the most genial climes. There are probably no silver mines in
the world so near the level of the sea as those at Eureka.
