The Alamogordo news. (Alamogordo, N.M.) 1899-1912, 1900-04-12
JICAR|LLA PLACER FIELDS.
They Were Sold Last Week to
the American Placer Com
pany of New York.
WELLS ARE 70 Be DRILLED At ONCE
A Big Enterprise That Will Employ Many
Men-Immense Riches Are in Sight
Primitive Methods Succeeded
By Modern Machinery.

Last week the Jicarilla Placer com
} pany sold to the American Placer com
pany 5000 acres of placer ground in tn
Jicarllla mountains In Lincoln county
The American Placer company OF New
York, which operates at Hillsboro. i
backed by New York, Cleveland anc
Chicago capital, and is considered on,
OF the greatest placer mining concern.
In America. The company Intends tC
go to work in the Jicarillas immediately
A 9,SO0-foot capacity oil we'll drill ha,
arrived, and men have been employed
to operate it,
1t was originally the Intention of th,
Jicarilla Placer company to pipe water
TO the placers from the Captain noun.
tains, a distance of twenty-two miles.
but when negotiations were opened with
the American Placer company in De.
cember, 1890, through Col. S. |. Bean.
their representative. who spent some
time last year in Santa Fe, an engineer
was sent to the Jicarillas to investigate
the possibilities of working the plaeers
by hydraulics. The pipe plan was aban.
doned for the reason that it was
thought that fifteen miners inches. the
amount of water necessary to run the
hydraulic machine, could easily be de-
veloped on the ground. Favorable re-
ports were sent to the American com
pany, and the deal was formally closed
with the provisio that contiguous claims
should be purchased by the Jlcarilla
Placer company and included in the
deal. This was done, and the deeds
passed to the American Placer company
last eesk.
In addision to the drill, the company
has ordered hydraulic machine that.
VIII cost $4,000. 1t is now in process
OF construction, and will be delivered in
May The weight of the machine with
out woodwork will be 1sO tons. and It
VIII have capacity of seventy-five cu-
bic yards an hour. In placer dirt that
only runs 30 cents to the cubic yard the
machine will turn out $50o, o0o year.
In that ground miners are at present
only making ~ and $3 day with old
fashioned rockers. Three eight hour
shifts Of five men each will be worked
Engineers and wood haulers will run
up the total number of men to Be en-.
ployed to forty. Should sufficient water
DC developed more machines viii be nut
~. Themachine will have an electric
light attachment, BoulderS to the
weight OF five tons will be hauled bv 4 |
ierricl: and thrown out of the wav Of
he machine. The hydraulic apparatus
VIII De placed on a track forty feet long
tnd works q space of eighty feet wide.
n forty feet on both sides Of the track
md takes everything clean to bedrock
The dirt Is carried on car and dnmned
nto chute, whore it passes through
cries <of grizzlies, the rock from the
being carried offion an endless
haIn. Water is turned on as the dirt
passing through a haIf-mch mesh and
nto an oscilatiag sluice box "a feet
ong, ana from this into other slnice il
'oxes where the gold deposits, allowing
ne talllngs to PASS on to the dump.
The 5000 acres OF ground will keen
he company busy for several wears to
FORK It, and the enterprise will be the
leans Of furnishing employment to a
arge number of men and the .expendl-
are Of thousands Of dollars annually.
The Jlcarllla Placer company was or !
anized BY White Oaks people. The in
orporators were Dr. M. @. Paden, Col.
!. W. Prlchard and Joseph A. Gumm.
olonel Prichard has been Interested n (
ne Jicarllas since 1870, when he with s
theirs visited the placers and located n /
um0er Of claims In Ancho gulch, which
part Of the property sold to the 2
merican Placer company. The Grst d
'cations were made by the JIcarilla 0
ompany IN October, 1898, but In 1894 v
'ur years previous, DR.. NJ. q. Paden r
nd Col. g. ". prlchard jointly made r
lumber Of locations. which, as has been
ated, were Increased to 5000 acres by Il
le Jicarilla company, and now sold to a
le American company New Mexican. e
n