The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-08-15
TIN MINES OF TEMESCAL
Talk with a Former Indianapolitan
Who Resides at Riverside, Cal.
Producing Good Tin and Preparing to
Mine Much More Of IL.

cratic organs have even ridiculed the ex-
istence of tin mines at all in California
and have given interviews from other
Democrats and opposers of American en-
terprise to show that the mines were. to
use an expression of the late William
Alien. of Ohio "a = barren ideality."
Yesterday Journal reporter CHANGED to
meet George l.. Bush. former resident Of
this city. and who is now here on q visit
Il live at Riverside, Cal, - said Mr.. Bush.
land have lived there for SIX years. am
now In the nursery and fruit business.
but for time was somewhat interested
in gold mining. The Temescal tin minet
are twelve miles from the usiness portion
OF Riverside. lived for time only six
miles from the mines. The land grant
upon which these mines are aud which
grant joins the Riverside tract is owned by
an English company called the San
Jacinto Estate. limited The word Inn
tied would almost as q matter of course in
dictate the concern 10 be English. The
mines are called the Jualco: that is the
Spanish name. though II Is not known that
the Spaniards or Mexlcans ever worked
them. There are. however. gold mines
upon this San Jacinto estate which have
been worked In primitive way By the
Mexicans. Recently these old gold mines.
called the Gavalin mines now, Whatever
they may have been called before. have
been leased to Riverside capitalists. who
are working them.
1.-THE TIN mines are considered greatly
more important than the gold mines on tho
tract. ana the company concentrates its
efforts on the one kind OF mining. My visits
there have been frequent, and know the
country whereabouts thoroughly WELL
There are now sbout $50 men employed in
these tin mines. majority of whom are
Americans. This Is, TO be sure, no great
number, but the work OF opening
them mp has hardly fairly begun.
when the number employed will be
much greater. 1 was assured that Ameri-
cans who applied for work were put on,
though il is necessary 10 have quite q NUM-
Der of experienced tin-miners, and these
are chiefly Cornishmen. Captain Harris,
who is In charge OF the mines. has told me
that the ore as far as he could see and he
had mace many teets. was fully III per cent.
richer In tin than the best British ore. He
said, however. and this statement Is sig
nihcant, that labor here was enough higher
TO equaliZe that difference. and for that
reason IL cost as much 70 produce metal tin
in the richer mines of Temescal as
in the British mines. This English COM
PAW has expended large sums OF money IN
opening the mines and getting ready. Cot
tages have been erected for the pen; there
are boarding houses and offices. Every
thing is done with a completeness that
shows that the company Is preparing for
many years to come. There Is telephone
connection between the mines and River
side As | said. the development of the
mines has just began. and the ore gets bet
ter AS they get deeper into 1t. 1t looks as
though there was an almost limitless
| amount of the metal. but. like gold
| mining. there is the hazard that
one never knows when vein.
| no matter how promising, may suddenly
| give out. The TIN is found in the granite
aud prophyry formation and Is not special
" N aessn
crushing process and 1t goes on very nice
| ". When was last there. lt was in Octo-
Der, q new stamp-mill was being put IN. q
very large affair brought over from Eng
bought u better mill in this country and
think for less money. But that was their
British idea. / do not believe they will re-
peat 1t. We are old enough In mining IN
this country to know what is best in all
the necessary machinery, and We have IL
and make il here, too.
"IhOsr Britons don't appear to think as
quickly "r as clearly as We DO. and seem to
20 at every thing In the hardest way. i
think there are forty-three thousand acres
In the grant held by this company lie Was
In litigation Tor many years before they
got it. There are about ten In the compa-
ny, l have been informed. and the d.
rectors are In London. L have eeen all the
processes of mining, crushing and smelt-
ing al these mines and know they are get
ting out tin in commercial quantities
Considerable time and labor have been and
will yet be required before the mines are
fully opened TO the desired capacity. The
owners are doing things In o thorough way
and not as we Americans sometimes do,
merely TO work up boom. They are ap-
parently very apathetic as 10 what the
newspapers say one way or the other.
They are after tin, knowing there is no
trouble about q market for 1t after they
get 1t.
"a pig of tin is sixty pounds. and per-
haps you remember that when President
Harrison made his tour 10 the Pacific coast
be passed through Riverside. At south
was a mountain of tin in pigs
for the presidential party To LOOK
upon. great many people were very
proud of that gew product of California.
South Riverside is eight miles from the
Temcscal mines, and mostly down grade.
1t Is the point from which the tin must be
shipped. A tramway will be put In by
which the metal can be sent down to the
| station.
THAT country has been pretty thoroughly
pr0spected, and we do not think there 10
any tin ore except upon this san Jacinto
grant But, OF course. no one can be posi-
| tive as to that. When first went to CALI
fornia the talk was about this tin de-
post, bus Americans knew nothing OF that
kind of mining. Beside. the property was IN
| litigation and some OF these foreign syndi-
| Gates are more greatly attracted TO such
| ventures than American capital All
| though the work of getting out this metal
| ia, practically In it's infancy. IL has lost in
Ierest as q novelty to the people OF River
| side. They know the tin Is there and that
| il is being got out and that ie all there Is
about it. AS to wages. common labor 10
paid 81 day and board. which would
| mean from 81 IS to So day If they had To
| feed themselves. Experienced miners
| get more. / have no exact information
| on the subject of wages, as / was not
specially interested. A few of the men
have families The management has been
changed number of times heretofore, so
| that not being sure how long their heads
| would be on, they did not bring their
| families. i believe il 10 different now. The
| success OF the enterprise seems TO be as
| sured, and as the stockholders see the tin
coming out. they will be satisfied TO allow
| things TO run as they are.
The mines are in the foothills. and the
| investment, l understand. IL. thus lar,
| over half million dollars. The River
side men. who have gone into gold
] mining this region, have al
ready done considerable systematic
1 work and In the past few months have ex-
pended about $4,000. This is no great
amount, but 1t Is enough TO show they are
| in earnest.
| '.But one word moro about tin. The
| metal is being shipped of day after day.
| We say shipped To the Last Plttsburg
| has been getting some OF IL. L believe.
| There is no duty on metal TIN, only on the
| manufactured product; but, as an Amer
| lean, i might perhaps be pardoned even N
| / would prefer tin mined in California TO
| that brought from abroad.
| There are good many Indi-