Arizona citizen., 1875-10-16
Lost Mines of Arizona-

The following is clipped from The
 San Diego World: In the last cen.
 tury, one of the most notable mines
 of what Is now Arizona, was the one
 called the Planchas de Plata, the
 "planks of silver" Its exact posi-
 tion Is unknown now, though the
 neighborhood in which it was found is plainly indicated by the old records
 and letters. Don Manuel Retes, now
 Captain of this mine, in an essay on
 the mineral resources of Northern
 Sonora, says:
 This mineral deposit, situated 3lI north, to long. lli50 west of
 Greenwich, Is described by Yaoui
 Indian towards the commencement of
 the last century, distant from 4 to ,
 leagues from the mine of Arizona !;
 about fifteen from the town of Tu- macaccori, the nearest settlement !; aoout twenty-five from the Presidio of Santa Cruz; nearly ninety from
 tres, and abolt one hundred and thirty from Guaymas. The Silver
 vas discovered III sheets of different size, from which the name of Plan
 alas de Plata, sheets of silver. !"
 originated. They were found almost on the surface perfectly pure, and
 without adhering to any foreign sub stance; in flexible state capable of receiving impressions. and only har- dening on being exposed to the at
 mOsphere. The region which pro- duces the same Is an earth of the color of, and very similar to, ashes, which extends in visible leads more or less vide, and in parts subdivided iu veins. sover all the hills and mountains ad- joining the main deposit. Among the sheets extracted, two are worth men tioning-especially one which on ac- count of its almost fabulous size, weighing one hundred and forty-nine arrobas, 1t was found necessary to employ the heat of four fUrges at the saEe time to reduce to a smaller bulk the other weighed twenty-one arro-I bas, though according to other ac- counts if waSmuch larger. The news of such immense Jumps having been found. without the investment of much labor, could not fail to convokei q great number of people to that re- zion, not only from the neighbOringI settlements but also from the most distant provinces. The amount of sil- yer extracted within 8 very short peri od, amounted to 100 arrobas or five tons"
 Another mlne very rich in silver was the Arizona, the position of which is also lost. It was in search of this mine that Count Roousset de Bourbon made his celebrated expedition into Sonora, whither he went, at first, in good faith and with peaceable inten- tions, though after he had been de- frauded and attacked, he turned fili-I buster. There are persons who areI ready to assert that the exact position of the Arizona mine Is known; butt the best informed say 1t Is not.
 In relation to the foregoing, THE CITIZEN will now say but little. Att one time, over year since we pub lished short translation of Spanish history on this same matter. There is surely an error ill regard to location of the Planchas. for thedistances given from v.riou [ olntS. would make that from Guaymas much greater than l30I miles as given in the ticle. If any of our readers know anything for cer-I tain, not given in the above re-publi-I cation, or therein incorrectly stated, we would be glad to be furnished with the same.
 NoTICR advertisement of Briggs Good