Arizona republican., 1898-02-28
THE BONANCITA PLACERS.

P. B. Chisem, the we'll known min ing man of Guaymas, tells the follow ing story of the famous Bonancita placers in the state of Sonora, on the Yaqui river: 'The Bonancita placers were discovered by an Indian in 1886. He returned to the ranch where he lived, with handkerchief full of mug gets, near San Marcial. The next day, before sundown, nearly two hundred men were on the ground hunting gold by dry washing in the 'batea.' In a few days a large camp of 1000 peo- pie had formed and a great business was going on in commerce, gambling, fighting and dancing. All had gold and all enjoyed it for two years, until the Apaches drove the population out, after the miners and gambucinos had extracted more than five millions of dollars worth of gold.
 "The Bonancita mines and placers remained a dead letter until 1S4S, when few ventured in again. Then came the bonanza in California in 1S49 and Sonora lost 2,000 expert dry gold washers, all possessed or money; large caravans left this state and went to California, some made large fortunes others nothing, and many settled down and never returned.
 "A new lot of people tried to open the Bonancita camp and were driven out by the Apaches and Yaquis. For twenty-five years I have tried to go to the camp, but the government forbid it until the Yaqui war was settled, and the moment the war had a prospect of being settled we denounced all the mines and p1acers in Bonancita.. The true placer ground consists of 800 acres at the very outside; we own this ground and consider that there is many times as much gold left to be cleaned up, as the amount taken out by dry washing with a 'batea' in a crude way would not allow them to save the fine gold. All the fine gold and a large amount of the coarse gold remains to be taken out by modern appliances.
 These placers are located thirty five miles east of Ortiz station and are reached in less than one day with a carriage. There are three elegant wells, that the population dug for water supplies, all three having an abundance of water of the very best quality The land lies in such a shape that it can be washed out by sluices. All the ground has gold-nothing is found without gold-and it will pay. How much it averages to the cubic yard we have not proven by practical operation, but consider it very high grade dirt, for the reason that if dry washing machine can take out on an average seven dollars a day and get one-third of the gold, what can a hy- draulic sluice take out with a good steam pump? The bedrock has never been cleaned by the ancients. More than one-half of the ground has not been touched by the miner, and am of the opinion that the best ground remains to be worked.
 ''This is the most interesting placer that I know of, and will prove all or more than I claim for it. It is the first placer digging of importance dis covered in North America, and paid all parties that worked it. The old tim CTS always mention Bonancita with feeling of admiration, and tell of the wonderful pieces of gold taken out by themselves and friends"
 These placers were purchased of MT. Chisem by Harlow & Gowan. the min ing brokers of Nogales, few months ago. They placed the rich placers in the hands of Hoadley, Turnbull & Go. of Phoenix, who organized a strong company of Baltimore and Philadel- phia capitalists, of which John w. Garrett of the Baltimore & Ohio rail road is president. Col. w. P. Harlow of Nogales is vice-president, George w. Hoadley of Phoenix is secretary, and Graeme Turnbull treasurer and man ager. Captain T. c. Cox of San Fran cisco, one of the best known mining men in California, is superintendent of the company's operations. The Bo- nancita company is one of the strong est companies ever formed in the southwest. No more than three weeks had elapsed after the Bonancita placers were placed with HOadley, Turnbull & Co. than the organization of a com pany was completed by this success full firm and the first steps taken to work the placers. Seldom in the hls- tory of mining has such a strong com pany been organized in such snort 1 period.
 1 Messrs Harlow & Gowan of No- gales have the contract to put in the | hydraulic plant, and they are actively | engaged in this work at the present | time. The plant is of 150 horse power capacity, which, with two giants. will 1 handle about 50,000 gallons per hour. l It is expected that active operations