Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-06-01
ORC BLANCO.
Work Done by the Good Padres
 in the Days of Long Ago.
The Formation, Character and Guam tity of the Ores in the Orc
 Blanoo District.

The good Fathers of the Missions c
 the Southwestern and of Northern Mex
 ico laid up treasures for both this world
 and the next. Those of the other world
 they have been enjoying for the las
 POO years or so, but those os this mund ane world have been the object of nor,
 solicitude. l would dwell particular.
 on the Padres of the Tumscacori Mis-
 sion. Practical, they were here, above
 everything. They mlned silver with
 the Indian labor at their command
 They are reported to have been the
 owners of wondrously rich silver mine
 that was lost. Now be it known that
 lost mines are always the richest. If
 lost a matter of a century or two mine
 becomes very valuable indeed.
 THE FIRST MINERS OF ARIZONA. It IS told that those good Fathers of Tumacacori lost mine. Of course 1t
 carried silver in fabulous quantities, so much so that few mines like it now would bring silver down to two bits an ounce. A ve!p of 1t was said to be four inches of the native and several feet of it "petanque," or over 50 per cent silver. But one thing is sure-the Padres did have mine. They left a slag dump at their Mission, which confirms it. Furthermore their records tell of it, and so do Mexican records. Among the archives of the State of Sonora, Mexico, at the city of Magdslena, IS an old parchment, the translation of which is about as follows:
 "As you stand in the door of the Tumacacorl Mission, and face the set ting sun in the month of June, the mine lies in a direct line to the sun, nine leagues from the Mission"
 Nine leagues westward from the Tu- macscori Missionsis in the heart of the Gro Blanco district. And sure enough here are some old workings, and possibly the particular old mine Tn question Is here somewhere One man believes he knows its locality, and cites an old dump without any visible workings iI corroboration. In close proximity WAS opened up splendid silver body. in the old Commodore mine, and S7o, ,O00 taken out in 40 or 50 feet of work. But now the old shaft has a hundred feet of water in it, and silver IS in disrepute. Furthermore Gro Blsnco has passed out of it's first or silver era, into that of the only metal on earth that has not lost value in the past few yesrs-gold.
 Gro BlancO district is about the only mining locality ID Arizona still maintain ing district government. It IS gener- ally admitted in the southwest to be one of the best mineral districts in Arizona. The products of the camp are gold, silver, lead, zinc and in one place cop per. The mining was years ago for silver. Today is with the exception of the Montana mine, worked for gold.
 The region hereabouts has two pecu- liarities. The world in it's early throes was turned upside down and inside. but nowhere worse than in this same Gro Blanco district. Gaze on its hills from oGe of it's peaks and you see startling contrasts in the colors in the soil. Not less sharply defined are its sudden changes in mineral formations. The FEATURES PECULIAR TO THE DISTRICT. peculiaritities in question are the form atlons in which gold Is today found. First in development came the period of gold in quartz formation, and the mere usual. The quartz in which the gold is thoroughly Impres hated is of the ordinary hardness of that portion of the worlds anatomy. The country rock about is much softer. As the Assures in the crust of the earth formed hereabouts (and the Assures were in great pumbers) the molten quartz filled them to the surface of the earth The grand mountains of hereabouts were then much higher than now. Then the rains came. For hundreds of cen turies thelr erosion worked away at the everlasting hills," with the result that they lost good deal in altitude. The quartz YVES harder than the country rock, and dId not wash away as soil like it's surroundings. It therefore fell all about itself, in broken forms, and overlaid the hill hereabouts as described in particular in the cases of the Rognsrock, Shetenbrand and Old Glory claims: These masses of ore are often tO d6 ilCc. anu iAOOSo at some mines hereabouts the removal of ore is more quarry work than mining. One result from this peculiaritv is cheepness of mining. On the removal of these caps of the hills the veins are found below, and then mining IS pursu- ed in the usual manner.
 The other feature of gold formations in Gro Blanco is the prophyry veins in the southerly end of the district. This ore is of Inability on a par with the country rock, and up to year or two ago, with the exception of the old Orc Blanco nine no developments of gold were made in porphyry leads. The nature of these veins was first discover cd end investigated by tae manager of the Austerlitz group. Then the porphy- " of the locality of what today covers the Mechanism claims was noticed and asssyed and MT. Mo Clanahsn located every thing that looked like prophyry around there. This class of claims as Sorrel Top, Tres Amigos, and Me Clanahan group develop well. with the ere bodies clearly defined. Their best poiHt is the softness ot the ore. The Tres Amigos ore can much of 1t be shoveled out, and is like the stuff work ed by Col. Holden by hand in the Grubstake mine (see Grubstake mine.)
 Here is again the good point of cheap
 inning.
 The foregoing features are combined m some properties of the district, and the locality for each is not strongly de- fined, they running into each other. ''wHITE GoLD," AND WHY.
 "Oro Blanco" is Spanish for ''white
 gold," land the first gold mine of the district was named from it's output be-
 ing actually 8 whitish gold. resembling almost silver, due to the combination of