The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-05-09
OLD MEXICAN MINES.
Rediscovered After Being Lost for
Three Hundred Years
The Find Was Accidentally Made by
American Prospectors Near the Pueb-
los OF COchiti and SandIA
In New Mexico.

All New Mexico and southern Colo
-ado are excited over the rediscovery
near Santa Fe of rich gold mines that
were worked by the Spaniards more
than three centuries ago and were lost
during the Pueblo insurreetion in 1850,
when the Indians, oppressed beyond
endurance, suddenly arose. massacred
the priests, destroyed churches and
drove the last Spaniard out of the
country The Spanish masters had
compelled the Indians TO work in the
mines. and that labor was so hateful
10 them and its results seemingly 50
useless-they attached no value to
gold, according TO the San Francisco
Examiner-that when they had eS-
PEELED the Spaniar,is they filed up the
shafts and tunnels, removed the debris
and utterly obliterated all traces of
mining. All the white men who knew
the exact locations of the mines were
killed during the insurrection, and
when De Vargas reconquered New
Mexico in 1852 none of his men could
find the mines Men have spent their
money and their lives in searching for
them, and SO futile has been the search
that the history of them has come to
be regarded as mere legend and fable.
But the old Spanish people OF New
Mexico have always stoutly asserted
that the Pueblo Indians have preserved
in their traditions the secrets Of the
mines. and that they know to this day
the locations of the old workings So
Jealous of this knowledge are the In
dians that they punish with death any
one of their number who so much as
hints at the location of a mine to an
American or Mexican The richest Of
the ancient mines were known 10 be in
the vicinity of the COchiti and Sandia
pueblos, and the present inhabitants
Of those villages are supposed to know
the exact locations of the old works
The Sandia Indians have deeply worn
trail in the mountains that is supposed
to lead toward the mines, but they
guard it very carefully
The mines of Cochiti have been re-
discovered. not with the assistance Of
Indians nor through traditional infor-
nation, but by plain American pros
pecting. The Indians could ill up the
old shafts, but they could not conceal
the groupings Of mineral veins. Two
men of Jemez, named Eagle and Dor
sey, have been knocking about in the
mountains near the Cochiti pueblo for
about four years, and last fall they
stumbled upon some groupings that
assayed high. Other prospectors heard
= sgfrs lot
and now they have found mineral
belt that has set the country wild with
excitement. The veins are true fis-
sures in porphyry, running north and
south along the slope Of the Jemez
mountains, parallel with the trend of
the range. The rock gives high assays
in gold and silver, and mill runs on
average lots from eight-foot veins have
returned one hundred and fifty dol
lars a ton. The lead has been traced
in an unbroken line for eight miles
and claims are stal1ed ont for five miles.
There are several parallel veins, all of
them assaving high. Old miners who
have been in the Coehiti camp declare
that the strike is the biggest that has
been made in fifteen years. OF course
the usual comparison with the Com
stock is made, sometimes to the dis
paragement OF the latter. The Cochiti
Indians view with wonder and be
wilderment the procession of pros
pectors through their ancient plaza
and have not yet quite got it through
their heads that all their precautions
70 conceal the old Spanish mines have
been in vain.