Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-01-23
TO Be STARTED SOON
Promises That the Smelter At Ger
rillos Will Be In Operation
Within 80 Days,
GREAT MINING ACTIVITY
Ful6llment of Predictions Made By Men Of
Science Will Make Oerrillos the Pitts
burg Of the West-Mining and
Personal Notes.
Special Cor, New Mexican.

CerrlllOS, N. M, january 22.-Ihe
smelter will be started within thirty
days and run for all it is WORTH" said
Mr.. A. C. Thomas, son of the general
manager, to your correspondent this
afternoon. Mr.. Thomas was up to his
eyes in business, but took time to re-
ceive the seeker after facts with cour-
tesy, and responded to his volley of in
terrogatories with an easy, off-hand
conciseness that served to make it read
lily discernible that he Is a business man
of affairs, who knows what he is here
for Cerrillos and the people Of the
county have heard it stated many
time before that ''the smelter would
soon start up" but the statement has
never before been made with such un-
equivocal force as characterized Mr..
Thomas remarks, SO that the above
quoted words may be regarded as the
first definite and authoritative assertion
on the subject, and the New Mexican
is glad to be the first to print it,
you may tell the people," added Mr..
Thomas, "that we are here to do busi-
ness on business principles, and hope to
merit their good will and confidence by
fair dealing and contributing our full
share toward the industrial advance
ment Of Santa Fe county and the ter
ritory in general. We shall treat ores
from the mining region about Cerrillos,
and will also receive and treat a regular
supply from the vicinity Of Magdalena
from the Hardscrabble mine, which is
owned by the same parties who recently
purchased the smelter here. The condi-
tions for gathering the necessary raw
materials, such as fuel, lime, iron, etc,
for fuxing purposes, seem to be happi-
ly blended at Cerrillos, and we hope
and believe that our undertaking will
prove highly successful from the very
hour that the furnaces of our plant are
fired up"
This Is truly the sort Of talk that the
willing ears of the miners of south Sam
ia Fe county have long yearned to hear.
Mr.. Thomas arrived here at a. m,
accompanied by Mr.. Frederic H. Lee, a
capitalist of Erie, Pa, and after looking
hurriedly over the splendid smelter
plant, they proceeded to inspect the coal
mines at Madrid, the electric power
plant, the coke ovens, and other points
Of industrial interest, and later in the
day drove up and examined the spring
and pipe line which supplies water for
the smelter. No details as to plans for
the future beyond those above given can
be had until the arrival of Mr.. r. B.
Thomas, general MANAGER, from Mag
dalena, on Thursday next, but it is safe
to assert that everything is going for
ward satisfactorily for the early OPEN
ing of the smelter. One point Mr.. Thom-
as said he would like to make clear and
emphatic. 1t had been limited at that
perhaps this plant would be torn up and
moved to Magdalena or some other
point. He wanted this denied; there
had never, he said, been any move OF
the sort contemplated; the plant would
be operated to it's full capacity and kept
right here in the Little Pittsburg of
the vest
Thus it is again evidenced that the
smelter here has fallen into good hands.
The plant is spic, brand-new, occupies
a commanding sight at the north edge
Of the town, near the Atchison Topeka
& Santa Fe tracks, and is of the latest
Fraser & Chalmers pattern, complete
and conveniently arranged for economic
work. Its capacity at present Is eighty
tons daily, but 200-foot smoke and dust
f1ue and all necessary power has wisely
been provided, so that two additional
eighty-ton stacks may be put in at a
minimum cost.
TURQUOIS MINING.
]. P. McNulty Is working seven men
at the American Turquois Company's
mines, and Mike O'Neill also has force
at work on his famous Blue Bell. The
other day he fired off four sticks Of
giant powder and culled from the rock
about ounces Of beautiful gems in the
rough, worth $40 per ounce. That turk"
property is as good as a national bank
for Mr.. O'Neill.
BRIGHT PREDICTIONS.
Not so very long ago Professor Wal
ters, a well-known mining engineer
from Kansas City, gave 1t as his firm
conviction that oil or gas, perhaps both,
would some day be developed on w. P.
Gould's ranch near here, and recently
r. c. Hills, geologist for the Colorado
Fuel and Iron Company, gave it as his
opinion that the most likely place for
striking artesian water was in the same
neighborhood. Guesses by such men
mean a whole lot.