Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-09-17
TWO INCHES OF GOLD.
Solid Sire ak of the Yellow Metal in an
Old Aztec Mine.

|
No one ever heard of bonanza that
was discovered in plain, matter of fact
way. A mine which is rich enough ia
have stories told about it is always STUN
bled upon in the most unexpected manner
and not unusually there is bit OF the
weird and uncanny thrown In to give ad.
ditional interest to the narration. Thus
a writer in the Tucson Citizen relates how
in the summer of 1867, while he was look
ing for a stray horse in the famous San
Juan county, in New Mexico, he stumbled
upon one of the richest mines in that ter
ritory. His story is as follows:
| Descending one of the lofty peaks | was
soon enclosed in a beautiful canyon which
led out to Ute creek. | here met two
miners preparing to explore an old mine,
or rather d worked-out mine, They asked
me to join them, to which | assented. |
again asked about my horse, to which |
received the usual negative. | remained
until next morning and started with them
| to explore the mine. This mine was
about two miles away, and soon were
| there. Arrived at the mine, and Judging
from the dump of country rock piled up,
| it was either very rich mine or no mine
at all. No signs of ore were on the out
| Sue tulips. All open CUT was dU dill HI
cline Of forty-fve degrees.
We entered and were soon in what enc
would suppose to be cave. Candles were
| lighted, and a general search followed.
The formation was prophyry, and Judging
from the gouging done it was apparent
| that great quantities of precious metal
| had been taken out. There were no
| timbers and the only support was one
infE Oh rlaa 4o,. Nf
workings, about four feet in diameter at
the center, making the outlook very
dangerous [ was about to get out on ac-
! count Of few pieces of wall rock giving
way from the pillar, when | was called
back by one Of the miners. He had dis
covered a streak of solid gold running
through the center of the pillar and about
two inches thick. At this | retreated my
steps and there, with candle in trembling
hands, stood two excited men pointing out
the pure yellow gold. One of the miners
said to me: "WGll, don't you see it ?''
Eyes" said I, pointing to the ceiling,
land don't you see the trap set for us?'
"D--the trap. This is death
against gold Meanwhile | had fingered
around the gold, when part of the pillar
gave way, extinguishing the lights. We
found orr way out safely and then we
planned to get the pillar without leopard
ling our lives. [ declined having any
thing to do with the affair unless | could
get an outside job. This, of course, was
out of question, as there was only one
sack of ore to be removed. So ] was con-
sidered out of it, which | was only too
glad to accept. Ny companions then en-
tered with horn spoon and small pole
pick, and were soon at work. Shortly
they came out, and pick ing up an old
coffee sack used for saddle blanket. re-
entered the mine. They were very soon
out again. They had cut the pillar and
filed their sack. Then came a grand
handwriting on their success. The sack
was opened. Never in my life did l be-
hold such sight. A coffee sack full of
nuggets!
/ was told to pick out the finest speci-
men for my own use,5which l cid. 1t was
a piece as large as my fist and contained
$3.50 in gold. Camp was made, a matate
procured and grinding at once common 3ed.
1t took six days to reduce it to pulp, the
grinding being done by hand. The pulp
was washed out in prospecting pan.
The gold was mostly coarse and very
bright. The fine gold required amalgmat-
ing. There being no quicksilver the re-
naming pulp was taken TO Taos and there
amaIgamated The proceeds of that sack
of ore netted 937 ounces of gold, amount
ing to $4,000 in coin.
returned to Santa F'e month later
and learned that grand mining discovery
had been made at the Identical spot where
he had found the gold