The copper era., 1901-10-10

to the shelter at Silver City, and good wagon roads leading to the various mines. The ore bodies occur in inn mense deposits in formation very similar to the Clifton district, the red porpbyry hills and the large iron blow outs closely resembling the Metcalf and Shannon mines, and the country between Metcalf and the San Fran cisco river. The district is large basin surrounded by walls of granite and lime. The mines are opened by shafts, the country being so uniformly level that depth cannot be obtained by tunnels.
 HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT.
 The mining history of the Santa
 Ritas dates from the first discovery of
 this country by the Spanish explorers several centuries ago. Even before
 that, great slabs of native copper were
 taken out by the natives and beaten into cooking utensils, implements of
 utility and articles of personal adorn-
 ment. Many of these relics have been found in recent years in the caves of the Cliff Dwellers, which would prove | with some degree of certainty that the ! aborigines drew their supply of na- tive copper from there perhaps even centuries before those bold Spanish explorers penetrated the desert wilds between the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers. History of the conquest of
 Mexico tells of caravans arriving
 at the City of Mexico with
 sheets of native copper, which
 undoubtedly came from the mines of Santa Rita. The first serious at
 tempt at mining in the district was commenced by the Spaniards at a
 period so remote that it cannot now
 be located with any degree of cer-
 tainty. The development work under the, he, rule nf the Snaniards-- whila-n IT, rled on Tn d very crude manner. was quite extensive, as the old shafts and drifts found throughout the newer workings in recent years attest. Those
 pioneer miners certainty had the faculty of finding good mines, and
 in extracting the ore therefrOrn. In some of the old workings uncovered about twenty years ago a large number of skeletons were found, proving that the mines had caved in and buried the miners, or that the people on the sur face bad been killed or driven of by hostile tribes, and their companions entombed in the mines. A large num- Der of adobe forts erected by the Spaniards during their occupancy of the country many generations ago, are silent witnesses of the strife for the supremacy of the land between the white and the red man. The same fight inaugurated so many years ago between the two races was continued until few years ago, with varying re- suits, but it is now safe to predict that the Indian has made his last raid through that section, and the rich lands will forever remain in the peace ful possession of the pale faces.
 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS.
 In 1880 large number of claims were purchased there by J. P. Whit ney, Boston capitalist and mining man, who spent vast sums of money in opening the property aud in the con- Struction of plants for the reduction of the ores. The works were the most extensive at that time in the South west. but soon after that came the de- cline in the price of the red metal, and like all other copper mines not con- nected with railroad, the company was compelled to suspend operations. In 1891 the Colorado Fuel X Iron Co. built a branch line of railroad from Whitewater station to Hanover, and the shipment of iron ore was then commenced, and which has steadily grown in volume since that time. About two years ago the Amalgamated Coppe, Association purchased the prop erty for Si,20O,0OO. which include I46 claims, mostly patented, from Mir. Whitney. and commenced exploiting the property on an extensive scale. The old workings were found to be in bad condition, and in most instances abandoned altogether. Three new shafts about halt mile apart have been sunk to depth of between 300 and 100 feet, which have just recently been connected by drifts. The con- pany has confined its work entirely to the development of the property. A large number of leases have been given to responsible parties, who are work ing extensively on various claims in the camp Several of them are pro- ducing an average of car of ore a day each, and nearly all of them have made big money from their leases. The has l50 ton concentrator. 1 which is kept busy on low grade ore, all of the high grade ore being shipped to the shelter at Silver City. The