The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-12-02
The Most Productive Mine I'm the
World.
Nevada independently

In 1903 three malefactors of the then
small town of Chihuahua, Mexico, flying
from Justice betook themselves to the sur
rounding mountains, and there for several
weeks led life of terror, moving about
from fastness to fastness in constant
dread of the fierce Apaches, who Occu-
pied the territory on the one hand, and
of their pursuing white brethren on the
other. One evening they built a large
fire in a ravine to cook their supper, and
when the surrounding powders became
heated, the molten white metal issued
out of them. The next day friendly
Indian arrived at Chihuahua, bearing
message from the fugitives to the priestly
authorities, offering as condition for
their pardon enough silver to build a
cathedral, which offer was accepted.
Such is the story of the discovery of the
silver mines of Santa Eulalia.
The State of Chihuahua is in the ex-
treme northeast of Mexico. 1t is sepa-
rated from the State of Texas on the
northeast by the Rio Grande, and is
bounded on the north by New Mexico
and Arizona. The city of chihuahua is
the Capital. The mines, Of which there
are several, are all situated in noun
tain, about twelve miles from the city.
1t rises above the surrounding plain to
distance of one and two thousand feet,
and is popularity known as the "Silver
Mountain of Santa Eulalia." Wonder
full stories are told of the wealth Of these
mines. They were constantly worked
by the old Spanish proprietors from the
time of their discovery in 1903 until
1922, the year of the revolution that
drove the Spaniards out of the country.
During this period Chihuahua grew from
a mere outpost of the Jesuit missionaries
into a city of $4,000 inhabitants, while
the mining village of Santa Eulalia and
another sprang up in the gorges of the
mountain, containing respectively 5000
and 5000 souls. From tax of one real
COY ccnts) on every mark (pound) of
silver, as it came from the refining fur
naces, there was built, between 1898 and
1850, the celebrated Cathedral of Chi
huahua, at a cost of 100000. While
Mexico was in possession of the crown of
Spain, the laws of that kingdom required
one-ffth of the product of all the mines
of gold and silver to be paid into the
Royal Treasury. This made it necessary
for the products of their mints to be re-
ported to the Kings officers. These
records were kept with Spanish formality
i'm the different mints of the Vice-royalty,
and the records of the mint of Chihua-
hua, which are still preserved, show that
nearly $500, 600, 900 were registered in
that Office, most of which was the pro-
duction of the miners of Santa Eulalia.
The revolution in the empire of Itur-
bide, and the establishment Of the Re-
public involved struggle of fourteen
ears, which greatly crippled the re,
ources of the country. Then, four years
later, came the expulsion of the Span.
iards, who were the capitalists, and this
was followed by constant internal revo
lutions, with wars with Texas, France
in 1839-the United States, growing out
of the annexation of Texas, and the con
quest by Macmillan. These, and the
ravages of the Indians, who claimed the
mining districts, paralyzed Mexican in
dustry, and put a long stop to the new
development of riches that had hithert,
been considered inexhaustible.