Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1876-05-30
ARIZONA.



Ayouhe gcntleman IT good edu-
casioa, sound sense, and con.idsfsbls
|expsrisncs in mining affairs in car
sister Republic of Mexico, arrived
last week in Virginia ON Sfoos iron
the White Mountain placcrs Of All
zona. lie had previously been in the
rich u,aang regions Of Gasaaxuats,
DURANGO and Chihuahua, in Upper
and Northern Mexico, but firing of
1.-THE insecurity Of life and property in
those sections, he thought 10 I'LL his
depleted purse 1trmn the piacers at
the hssc of the White Mountains of
| Arizona, ofwhosc extraordinary rich
ness he had heard such glowing &C
| counts in Mexico. This is, in effect,
his statement to our reporter;
I arrived at the White Mountain
placers on the Sd of April last and
found provisions exceedingly scarce
and high, as they have to be hauled
with difficulty and packed over the
Sierras from New Mexico. and across
the sands of the ella desert from
Yuma, or over the Cabczon desert IN
Southern California, via Gutenberg,
on the Colorado, to their destination,
Ioycr an ascending and very rough
road where not sandy, Potatoes soc
pound flour, IS a hundyed pounds;
coffee, $i.5e per pound, and other
needed articles Of food at correspond
ing prices, 'sColor" can be got any
where in the immediate regions of
the White Mountains, but, where the
camp is at present located no
placers had paid over $a adsy to the
hand; parties who had been there SIX
months and prospecting all the time,
had not yet found anything better
than that. Better success had been
met with in quartz. Fine outcrop-
ping lodges of gold-besring quartz
had been discovered, of from two to
twenty feet wide. trayersing the
country from northeast to southwest,
but the before-stated high prices
asked for provisions, and the absence
Of mills, together with the bad state
of the roads, which are mere trails,
operate to keep the country back,
rich as he declares it to be. The aid
of San Francisco capital is being
invoked to.open up that region. This
White Mountain section is where sew
eral of the largest streams Of Arizona
and their tributaries have their be-
ginning, and the insecurity of the
region, Notwithstanding the generally
received outside idea that the
Apaches are now peaceable,
may he inferred when il is
known that. Gov. Stafford went
through it some three years ago with
800 picked men, and the Indians
would not allow him to remain long
enough to make thorough pros
pect, but kept his party skirmishlng
most OF the time for twenty days.
The country is full of broke" men,
and in view of the long distances
travelled between town and settle
ment, together with the scarcity and
higa prices Of provisions outside of
the populated places, he does no,
think il advisable for any man other
than old fronticrsmca IL 20 there.
Game is plenty, and little further
north the country is heavily ,imbcred
with oak, pine, quakiag aspen and
fir. and .hounds in the precious met
ais, petroleum, salt, rubies. agates.
COMEDIANS and some say diamonds.
with great open longitudinal valleys
aud basins that are covered with
grams and other mountain grasses
splendid places for stock, but hui
man scalp is not worth much there,
especially if the hair on it be long
and silken. The Apaches inhabiting
ah that region are hardy, brave, cruel
and cunning, and number abou,
1000 actually on The war-pa,h, with
5000 more that cannot be. deenaed
upon unless t,re whites are in supe.
rior force, and they have a system of
telegraphy by means of smokes
built on mouutain-tops which. ~
ge,her with "bone-pilcs, answering
with them the same purpose rs our
newspapers, aad also arrows
stuck in the ground at angles inlh-
eating the time Of day, make them
formidable enemies. They range
over = region all mountAil,Aus, ahoa,
500 miles square in Arizona. and fai
into the border Mexican SsstsS Of
chihuahua, Durango and Sonora,
When the whites shall be able to
drive the Indians xway from the cens
trail mountain region Of Arizona,
then there is an almost certainty that
new FL Dorado of placer mines
will be discovered.