The morning call., 1893-03-05
LOST MINE FOUND.
Worked by the Padres in
Ages Agone.
Remarkable Find of Prospector in
the Santa Lucia Mountains, in
San Luis Obispo.
San Luis oblspo Tribune.

There Is no old mission but in its vicinity
there is lostmine The old fathers brought
with them from Spain a keen appreciation
of mineral wealth. and having an unlimited
supply of cheap labor and keen nose for
mineral deposits. they rarely failed to find
a mine of some Kind and to work it sue
cessfuly.
The mission Of San Miguel was no excep-
tion. 1t was a rich mission IN the old times,
one of the richest in the territory. 1t num-
bered its possessions in cattle and sheep by
the thousands and Its Indians by the tens
Of thousands, Among the soldiers and
followers that came from old Spain there
were plenty who knew a silver vein when
they saw it and were not unfamiliar
with ways to probably work II, and it
has been a matter of common knowledge to
the successive priests who for generations
have run the old mission that here had been
successfully worked in the Santa Lucia
Mountains a silver mine. There were even
preserved seven small bars of silver in the
treaSHreboXes of the mission, and there
were records carefully hidden away that
told OF the expenditures and how dollar a
day was spent on the labOrers who worked
in the mine, and how, for some reason,
either of war with the Indians or epidemic
of some kind it had been ordered that the
mine should be closed down and abandoned
and all tokens OF 1t obliterated as far as pos
sibe.
So when about five months since Mr.. T.
B. Gamble. an old resident of the county,
in the course of his prospecting for mineral
wealth OF some kind, stumbled on verita BILE
workings that evidently antedated any
American occupation of the country, and
went to the good priest for advice and in
formation, the old padre had little heslta-
ton in assuring him that what he had
found could be nothing else than the long
lost mine of the old fathers.
The mine Is situated about four miles
| northwest OF Beams, which is point half
mile east OF the opening OF the first OF the
tunnels of the new Southern Pacific Rail
road work that is to close the gap" Half
a mile from Beans the old trail becomes
dimy visible. Certainly it Is forty years
since it has been travelled. for there are
residents hereabouts who have known the
| country in that neighborhOod for that
length OF time, and who never heard Of the
trail or mine. II is rough country and
the trail is rough one and always was.
Now, trees have grown up on it foot thick
At the mouth of the old mine, under the
dirt and debris of a half century may be
discovered dump, that seems to contain
thousands of tons of rock A beautiful
stream of living water ruShes down the
mountain in close proximity, md near it
is an ola arastra most carefully made of
granite and put together with the skill of
an expert stunemaSon. There is the great
around In the bed of the arastra, but all tie
woodwork has since rotted away. There
are two small va,as, or Mexican furnaces
in which, doubtless, the bars of silver that
the old priest displays at San Miguel were
made.
The mouth of the mine is caved in, and it
would appear Intentionally, because was
timbered with logs of cedar foot thick
that would have kept the tunnel intact for
many generations yet Climbing up the
mountain side to a point about Eighty feet
beyond the mouth of tile mine there Is an
airshaft. Once there was LADDER In it,
The remains are tillthere. Dropping down
in this to the tunnel, 1t is found to be
about ten feet high and six feet wide For
about 200 feet it is timbered with heavy
tree trunks, still in good preservation.
There is q cT0sscut which is directly on the
ledge, and runs cue northwest and SOUTH
east.
Going southeast perhaps 100 feet the vein
appears TO have Detered, but going north
westit runs about 200 feet and stops at stope
in good ore. There is still another tunnpl
leading e1sterly from the crosscut for about
200 feet, which appears 10 have followed a
tributary vein aud which also stops at a
Slope OF good ore The vein in both ends
is about feet wide between well-detined
hanging and foot walls; the ore il a sul.
phuret OF silver carrying gold md from the
assays of Selby and of Price is very rich
AS we are informed the samples sent up
run from $500 to $1,000 IN silver and e25 in
gold.
A mining district has been formed called
the Alta district, the mine being named the
Alta. Several others have already been
located aud the whole mountain will doubt
less be taken up.