The Arizona sentinel., 1895-07-27

cho mountains, on the west, and the Colorado river on the east. The district has a north and south width of about twenty miles, and has been mined for the last thirty years and more. It lies in San Diego county, California, about twenty-five miles north from Yuma. In the early days of its discovery when quartz was an un- desired quantity, the district was alive with miners working or hunt ing for placers. The main Picacho gulch and it's tributaries were ex- tremely rich in coarse and fine gold, and claim holders took out numerous fortunes which, in the spirit of the times, they spent, al- most as soon as acquired, in the rough pleasures of the day.
 Two or three thousand people were camped near where the old dug,outs are now, and the remains of the bull rings, where the gam businos used to congregate on Sundays can be plainly seen.
 The character of the gold taken out, being rough at the edges and not worn smooth by long attrition, made it evident that it was ledge gold, but the expense and slow process of extraction offered, little inducement for the miner of that time to investigate the source of the gold. Nature had already ex- tracted it from the quartz and de- posited it in the dirt from whence it was easy to gather it by primitive and cheap methods.
 As the years went by, however, and qartz mining had gotten to be an understood science, making a ready sale for ledge prospects, par ties commenced looking for the gold supply of the Picacho fields. In short time a number of rich lodges were found, but the finders being Mexicans with no knowledge of the law governing mining loca- tions, merely squatted on the prop critics and hammered out enough rock to keep their arastras going. This continued for some time when one James Spann, since de- ceased, located the three principal lodes and called his claims respec. lively the Adder, the Adalaida and the Picacho. He constructed, part of five stamp mill on the river, but his money gave out before the machinery was all in place and he failed to complete the mill al- though he mortgaged mill-site and mines for some hundreds of dollars
 In 1874, by an arrangement with Mir. Spann, Samuel Purdy. our present District Attorney, lift ed the mortgages, completed the mill, and organized the Picachc Mill and Mining Company, a cor poration, under the laws of Cali fornia.
 To this corporation mines and mill were conveyed and operations commenced in good earnest. The intention was to run the 5-stamp mill until the lodges were thorough ly prospected, when a larger mill would be erected.
 The mine mainly worked was the Adalaide, which with the Ad- der traversed the flat near the old placer workings. Ore in this mine was extremely rich, averaging il the mill over forty dollars per ton and the ledge held out good anC strong.
 The enterprise ran along, paying expenses of development, for abou a year, when came the failure o the Bank of California.
 The main stockholders were Sar Francisco men of wealth who diC not know how the failure affected them, and, in the excitement, paiC no heed to a matter as remote a the Picacho mlnes, and the enter Eprise was let g, by default After wards the property was acquired b, David Neahr, deceased, ard how h. over-played himself, was robbed etc, will form the subject of th rays iu0igTatjOu article.