Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-11-26
THREE INCHES ENOUGH.
The Santa Fe Canon Gold Find Elk.
pertS See the Samples-Will Run
$4,000 to the Ton.

The announcement in these columns
last evening that rich gold ore had been
encountered in the Breeder Sloan min,
ing claim, near Monument rock, in the
Santa Fe canon, eight miles east of the
city, creates the liveliest interest in local
business circles. Half the people in
town have discussed the find to-day, and
aside from congratulating the lucky
owners they feel that the discovery is
worth great deal in business way to
the community as settling the long
mooted question of the existence of pay
ore in the Santa Fe mountains.
There has been feeling that, had gold
existed in this immediate locality, it
would have been developed long ago by
the early Spanish prospectors. and since
it was not found the American prospec-
tors have perslstently ignored the Santa
Fe range. But this belief is shown to be
not we'll founded by those acquainted
with the early Spanish miners and their
methods. They sought chiefly placer
gold, and were content with that, or if
they undertook lode mining it was in ac-
cessible localities only and where the re-
turns were very rich and the settlements
near enough to serve as protection in
case of attack by Indians.
From time to time a few venturesome
American prospectors have gone into the
Santa Fe range, but they soon became
discouraged and quit. Some rich float
has been occasionally found, and mineral
has been located by four or five citizens,
who gave it up after receiving the assay
returns. Among these may be mentioned
the late O'Rossa, John Gray and old man
O'Keefe. This summer Candelario Mar
tinez and Manuel Prado, the latter from
Grant county, opened an attractive vein
mile south of the water works reservoir,
and while the first assay returns gave
something like 1910 per ton in gold and
silver, the later assays returned only SO
in silver and a trace in gold, 80 that the
expected bonanza failed to materialize.
But with Mat Breeder his faith has
never ceased since, over ten years ago, he
built cabin beside the Rio Santa Fe
and started tunnel under the mountain.
When his grub" gave out he went off
and worked for another stake" and re-
turned to his hole in the ground with as
much faith as ever. 1t 10 for displaying
this sort of pluck that everybody feels
elated to-day over the "Montezuma"
claims big strike.
And it is a big one. The sample which
Mr.. Breeder sent down to DR.. Sloan on
Sunday is about two inches square and
weighs perhaps quarter of pound.
The quartz is copper stained, and is
literally shot through and through with
free gold. Col. R. B. Wilson and others
capable to Judge of its richness examined
the sample to-day and pronounce it an un-
usually rich piece of ore. They say it will
run at least $4,000 to the ton, and that
a three inch seam of it would be for
tune. If it is true, as Mr.. Breeden says,
that the vein is three feet thick, so much
the better for the owners and for Santa
Fe.
At any rate, when the present SHOWS of
winter have cleared away, a good deal of
prospecting will be done in the Santa Fe
range as result of this discovery.