El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-30
Major Davis Writes From The Fa
nous 3Sdnpedro Mines.

Major S NJ Davis has been down on
the Sierra Madre line for the past week
in the interest Of the chamber of COM
10 cree mineral exhibit. Following 10
the fret letter received from him since
be went down into that territory. 1t Ia
written from San Pedro, about 125
miles southwest of Ell Paso acd three
miles off the main lioe of the Sierra
Madre
find that the San Pedro district. Is
four snd half to five miles long and
Two 20 three miles wide, and the whole
district is ribbed up with assure and
contact veins. Wherever they have
been opened up they chow mineral,
most of them from the grass roots
down. This is q wonderful camp, and
to look over 1t as 1 would ike to would
take ten to fifteen days. have already
made surface examinatio of about
two thirds OF the district.
The largest mines In the district, all
| shipping ore are as follows, COM
mencine at the north end: The Old
San Pedro, Candelaria, Santo Niuo,
Caodelaria Extension, Durita, San
Nicolas, Hennessy, Golondrina, and
santa Celestina. These mines have
miner al In place.
to twenty feet of work done ON them
are showing up ore. Many places
where ore is cropping out at the sur
face could In few months he made
shippers.
1 will only give you an outline OF the
camp In this letter, but in my next 1
will tell you more about the different
ing about 1 200 people in the district,
with pay roll of $50. OCO, Mexican cur
ency. The wages are much better than
I people in the United States think.
Mexican MIXERS get from SO to SO SO
per day and labor on surface gets from
80 to 81 per day. American fore men
get about 81 q day. These figures are
all In Mexican currency. When this
camp is properly developed, have no
hesitancy in saying 1000 to 0 min
er- can be put to work taking out ore.
l went through the old San Pedro
today. 1t is q curiosity to see the old
Mexican workings of some $50 years
ago The San Pedro is now worked
by tunnel, which runs some 200 to
l, 500 feet into the bottom of old work
1ngs, which are about 500 feet deep
from the surface. The company is
taking out some very high grade ore
as 1900 to 1000 ounces OF silver,
but the ore has to be aorted.
Some goes to the smelter and
some to the c,ncentrator at Ju.rez. |
saw one place in the old mine 600 feet
long and 400 up to the surface that did
not have prop or pillar until ecently.
when the company put in props and
bers to keep it from cavipg. This
would be curiosity to an American
miner.
The old underground church is on
the San Pedro property. The Mexicans
place three crosses with candles burn
Ing around them, down deep in the
mine. They say 1t keeps them from
accident and makes y good mine.
The company is building houses as
fast as it can to accommod ate the
miners, but many of the Mexicans
have gone Into the old workings and
made underground homes. They are
celightfully cool. The old workings
on the San Pedro and also on the Leon
claims are immense caverns where
they took out the ore 200 or 300 years
ago. In some places they have taken
out ore up to the surface,
leaving great gaping ehasma
over a hundred feet wide. one to two
hundred feet long and one to two
hundred feet deep. There are still
great shutes of ore running off in diff
ferent directions which will be taken
out at some future time. [ saw one
place where one could knock down q
carload of ore at one shot, ore tt ut
could be shipped at good profit.
This district Is ia large as the Lead
vile district, and will some day In the
very near future, be an enormous pro-