The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-10-30
TALE OF TEXAS MINE
Fabulously Rich in Silver Ore It Has
Been Lost for an Hundred
Years.
Found by Patient Prospector Only to
Be Lost Again Through His
Carelessness,

of lost mines Each community has its
stock tradition, each individual his own
pet variation and determination, more or
less concealed, to search out this hidden
Wealth-some time or other. There is the
tale of that lost lake in Alaska, from
whose icy waters there rises bar that
glistens with nuggets of pure gold Plenty
of us have seen pictures OF this tempting
wonder in contemporary newspapers. II
it is as depicted, it is we'll to be on the
bear side of the gold market. In my
mind at this moment there is the shad-
owy memory of the tale of solid ledge
of gold that shines with undimmed splen-
dor through the clear, cool waters OF
mountain creek that flows over it up In
the Occur d'Alene country This ledge
has been seen once, but never seen again.
Many states and territories claim Lost
Cabin mine, but the Montana version of
the tradition is the most accommodating
in matters of detail There is a lost ce-
ment mine in Nevada. This does not
sound very rich, but that cement has
Jumps of pure gold all through it as thick
as raisins in cake. There is long
lost canyon in Lower California, whose
gloomy precipitous walls shut off the sun
light from the rival lustre Of golden
sands. Legend says that in FL Paso Tex
church tower If one looks from it in a
certain direction. he will see slight
break in the wall of blue mountains far
in the distance. This break Is the first
landmark on the road to a long-lost mine
of great richness. All other directions
have been lost with the mine. AS for old
lost Spanish mines tales of them are le
gion all over the Southwest and Mexico
Many, indeed the vast majority of these
tales are fables pure and simple, hav-
ing no more truth than the legend Of El
Dorado or of the golden city of Manoa
Others have a shadowy thread of truth
running through them, and then again
an infinitely small number have a solid
basis of fact. OF this latter class is the
history of the lost San Saba mines of
Texas. These mines are somewhere in
Menard county. Being lost in fact and
not in fiction, they are not so rich as
other lost mines, because they yield only
Plebian silver, and not patrcian gold.
They were certainly worked for num-
Der of years, and even with the crude
methods of reducing ores them in vogue,
furnished rich return. This is a fact
as historically true as the battle of
Waterloo, and the evidence as readily
attainabe
For nearly $50 years these mines have
lain so effectively hidden that no man
has ever been able to find them They
are still there, where they have always
been, for in a earthquake region
mines have no power of locomoton. 1t
is hard work for an honest man to make
living in Menard county, and the idea
of being in the vicinity of so much own
erless wealth is a continual aggravation
to the weary citizen. The history of
these riches, that keep so persistently
hidden, can be told in a very few lines.
Early in the year 1888 little band of
Franciscan Fathers set out afoot from
Santa Fe, N. NJ, with their faces turned
to the southeast. Ever keeping in this
direction, they journeyed over steep and
rugged mountains, across miles of tree
less and waterless plains among tribes IF
cruel Indians, whose hands were against
all men, until they reached the San Saba
river in Texas, near where the little town
of Menardville now stands. How these
men ever accomplished such a march
Is constant puzzle to any one who
knows anything of the country over
which they passed. 1t would make the
heart Of the sturdiest of frontiersmen
Quail to make that trip today, when the
geography of the land is we'll known,
and every peril is eliminated save the
ever present difficulty of procuring water
and food.
The San Saba is one of those streams
that is blessing of God to an arid re-
gion. Fed by never-failing springs, it
is always flowing with an abundance of
clear, cool water. In it's narrow but fer
tile valley the patient monks set up their
cross and built mission church. They
gathered the neighboring Indians about
them, taught them to build houses, to
dig irrigating bitches, to lay off fields and
gardens, to plow, to sow, to reap, and
above all to believe in God, and to be-
come true children of the Catholic
church. The Franciscans, gentlest of
priests, ruled by love and not by fear.
For years the history of this little pat
riarchial community was that of all
happy nations in being 40 history at ALL
But one day somebody, ranging about
in the mountains, found a vein of silver
The news flew, and reached in due time
the ears of the Spanish viceroy down in
the City of Mexico. The old Spanish Gu
pidity was wide awake at once and there
came soldiers and representatives of the
temporal power who substituted diff
ferent rule from the gentle sway of the
Franciscans. They took the Indian
converts from their fields and put them
III the mines. 1t was hard work under
the harsheSt and most cruel of masters
A change from free man, working and
receiving just reward therefor, to bitter
thankless toll Of hopeless slavery. AS
they worked in the dark mines the In
dams brooded over thoughts of revenge
and bided their time. Many were the
mule trains laden with silver that took
the long journey to the City of Mexico,
where to this day can be seen the record
of the bullion receipts.
But after the year 175S there were no
more mule trains and no more bullion re-
ceipts. The Indians rose, and in their
bitter wrath killed the Spanish oppres-
sors and the mission priests desolated
the fields, burned the church. destroying
all save its solid walls, filled up the mines
and scattered the dumps of debris, that
no man might find them again and be
tempted to Cypress them. few scatter
ing survivors escaped to the south and
told the terrible tale at the mission
settlements along the San Antonio river.
The blow was so sudden and terrible
that it was two years before the Span
iards recovered from their CONSERVATION
and sent an armed force to punish the
rebels and reopen the mines. The In
dams made such vigorous resistance
that the invaders were glad to get back
safely to San Antonio, having accom-
plished- nothing. At intervals in the sue
ceeding years up to the beginning of the
nineteenth century other expeditions
were sent, but all were as fruitless as
the first. Then the rising spirit of revo-