Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-01-05
ScsoFa Antiquities.
Gieut. Flipper in Nogales Hcrald.)

While Padre Niza, Coronado Espe- jos Father kino and others were ex- ploring Arizona and New Mexico, the Spaniards were pushing across nothern Mexico west from Tampico and other points on the Gulf of Mexico. They founded Monclova and the mission and presidio of San Vicente in the State of Coahuila, the town of Santa Rosa, in Chihuahua, discovered and worked the Santa Rosa mines ill the Sierra Rica near the last mentioned town; the towns of Julimes, San Pablo, Santa Cruz de Rosales. All dama, and San Felipe el Real, now the City of Chihuahua in the State of the
 same name. The site of San Felipe el Real was some fifteen miles south east of the present City of Chihuahua, to which location the former town was
 moved. Chihuahua was early made
 center of exploration and many ex- petitions were sent out from there.
 Fl Paso, Casas Grandes (the modern
 pueblo,) Galeana and all the older
 towns ill western and northwestern
 Chihuahua were founded by emigrants
 whose last starting point was Chihua-
 hua. One of the oldest towns found
 ed in this way was Santa Rosa de
 Cosihuririachi, ninety miles west of
 Chihuahua. Cosihuiriachi soon be-
 came famous for its rich silver mines,
 the Candelaria being the first mine
 discovered and worked there and yet
 being profitable worked by an Ameri-
 can Company. Cosihuiriachi (the
 town of the standing post in the Tara
 human dialecD was made "real de
 minas" that is the seat of the Mining
 Deputation, and afterwards became
 the political and religious capital of
 all the northwest country. From
 there, as from Chihuahua in earlier
 days, expeditions were sent out. All
 the older mining districts in western
 Chihuahua were disco cred red in this
 way and populated and developed by these adventurous hordes.
 These expeditions extended their
 explorations westward and Guaynopa,
 Santa Fe de Rodrigues and numerous
 others were discovered and became
 fiourishing towns or mining camps
 Guaynopa has probably never been
 found though there are voluminous
 records of everything pertaining to
 that once famous mining district.
 The district now called Guaynopa is
 is positively known to be Santa Fe de
 Rodriguez, another old mining dis
 trict as famous in its day as Guaynopa.
 Santa Fe de Rodriguez is the most
 western of the old minerales or min-
 ing camps in Chihuahua and the nes t
 step brings us into Sonora. DumI S
 here and there, on and off the trail
 old rastras (Americans, many of whom
 ought to know better, persists in say
 ing arrastras. There is no such word
 in the Spanish language. If they in
 tend to say arrastra, 1t Is verb, third
 person singular number, present
 tense, indicative mood, and means he,
 she or it drags. The mill grinding ore
 is called rastra by people who speak l correctly the language of Cervantes,
 ruins of houses, old acequids Or fgi-
 gation ditches, fruit trees, dams, slag
 piles, prospects, ,etc. enable one to trace them as they proceed westward with the 'star of Empire" The frs ruins encountered on the Sonora side
 of the summit of the Sierra Madre arr at place called "Iglesia." The ruins of large, well built church exis there, to-day the solitary relic of { perhaps once large and prosperous town. No other ruins of any kinC F can be recognized any where in th' vicinity and even the name of thi
 town has disappeared from the page ,, of history. It is known to-day simpl, f as 'Iglesia," the church. Coming stil farther west we reach the "mesa d, I Satachi," a beautiful country mad Q interesting by the ruins that exist , there. Farther west we reach tn $ Nacori River at a point where ono . stood the town of Mochopa, in a beau Q tiful, broad and fertile valley. Thi
 must have been town of much in f portance and was perhaps the cente e of extensive mining and agriculture Q industries, as is evidenced by tn ruins, the old acequias, slag pile' n rastras, fruit trees, etc. It decayed a h did almost everything the Spaniar l. touched, or was destroyed by tn Il ruthless Apache. A new town wa a founded higher up the River and sti l. exists under the eupheoneus name ( V Nacori Chico, small walled town ( F no importance but situated in tn V loveliest spot in all Sonora and tn i, only walled in town to be found i if Sonora. Some four leagues west ( s Nacori on the Bacadehuachi River if the town Of the same name, a prett if little village nestling in a beautifl ? valley, walled in by timber crowne 3 mountains and famous for its catt # and tobacco, the best produced in u l. state. The handsomest church i i- Sonora is perhaps the church at Bac is dehuachi, which contrary to the GU " tom of the country in such matters Is kept an excellent condition Abol " four leagues west, on the Bavisl o- River, Is the town of Granadas, of modern town founded some fifty yea ts ago by seven brothers and their fan m lies, and contains at present some tv at thousand souls most of whom are T 10 latives. Up the river is the old tow 1s of Guasabas, prosperous agricultur 2" town of some importance. Furth ,d up the river, some seven leagues is u 10 old Oputa Indian town also call, n- Oputa. Down the river from CT ro nadas are the ruins of an old tow h name died with it. It is known to-di " as Pueblo Viejo,' the old tow le Farther down the river is the o at ranch of Badesi, among whose rui or Capt. Lawton overlook Geronimo al it. captured all his stock and camp equi TO age two years ago.