Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-31

Take the surprisingly accurate four
foot SQUARE government maps of New
Mexico and Arizona, and within a space
covered by ones hand can be COM
passed in entirety the high class COM
mercial forests of the great area COM
prised within the two territories.
These areas of timber lie contiguous
to the Santa Fe railway. In Arizona
the range of growth is comprised with
In the a Francisco mountain district.
where large lumber operations are be-
ing conducted at Flagstaff by the Ari-
zona Lumber & Timber company. and
at Williams by the Saginaw-Manistee
Lumber company. In western New
Mexico the timber area is on the cont.
mental divide known as the Zuni noun
tain district. 1t lies south of the Santa
Fe tracks and is reached from the sta
tions of McCartys, Grants, Bluewater
and Thoreau. The property is known
as the Mitchell tract, comprises 292,-
625.63 acres and is ituated in the
counties of Mckinley and Valencia.
The area of the property as compared
with the 800, 900 acres of the state of
Rhode Island is 36k per cent of the
acreage of that state, or as compared
with the 1872, 900 acres of Delaware is
equivalent to 22A per cent of the area
of that state.
History of the Property.
The history of the property is some
what peculiar. Timber lands consti-
tuted a large portion of the land grant
given by the government to the Santa
Fe Pacific railroad, now a part of the
Santa Fe system, in aiding the con-
struction of this great transcontinental
line. In 1890 the Zuni mountain por-
ton of the grant was purchased by
Mitchell Bros, of Cadillac, Mich. who
for many years had been extensive and
very successful Michigan lumber oper-
ators and who are still large and pros
porous manufacturers in that district.
Mitchell Bros. are men of wealth, acu-
men, judgment and high standing as
lumbermen and are among the most
.eminently successful of the times. Pri-
marily they were Michigan white pine
producers. At the period named they
could see the beginning of the end of
white pine stumpage in the vicinity of
Cadillac. Their white pine timber was
well toward the point of extinction,
and no other tracts were available for
the perpetuation of their large saw
mill enterprises. w. w. Mitchell, of
the firm of Mitchell Bros. also had
large holdings in the firm of Cobbs &
Mitchell, re%organized since the death
of Jonathan w. Cobbs as Cobbs &
Mitchell, Incorporated. Austin Mitch
ell, associated with W., w. Mitchell in
the firm of Mitchell Bros, became i'm
pressed with the possibilities of lumber
operations in New Mexico. mi on be-
half of Mitchell Bros. purchased well
100000 Onn nnA anroe of tho Santa Ea
land grant, which comprised the choic-
est portion of the railroad company's
timber properties. During the succeed
ing two or three years years a saw mill
was erected at Thoreau, then known as
Mitchell station, and a railroad was
constructed to the lower timber levels,
about ten miles distant, in the foothills
of the Zuni mountains. An expensive
dam was built in the Cottonwood river
to provide for log storage and water
supply. The hard times of 1893 came
on and the expense attending an opera
tion of this sort in an ~undeveloped
country proved very high. Lumber
would not sell at any price and the
venture at this time promised very lit
tie. 1t was simply a case of being too
far ahead of the times.
Since that period mining enterprises
have developed all over New Mexico
and Arizona, every n of which con-
sumes large quantities of lumber. The
southern California fruit trade has de-
veloped, which demands many thou
sands of box shocks for packing and
shipping, towns have sprung up all
along the line of the Santa Fe system,
the country has become a prosperous
one and the demand for lumber has
multiplied and multiplied again. Early
in the '90s the health of Austin Mitch
ell. who was h prime mover of the
Mitchell Bros. firm in the New MeXi-
can proposition, partially failed, and
since that time he has been obliged TO
resort to the pacific cline of southern
California to retain anything like pass
ing good health. IAus it happened
that w. w. Mitchell has been obliged
TO exercise double executive action in
handling both the great institutions OF
Cobbs & Mitchell, Incorporated, and
Mitchell Bros. of Cadillac.
After the depressed period OF 1893
there came a new development in the
lumber history of Michigan. 1t was dis
covered that the despised hemlock was
a commercial proposition. 1t was furth-
or ascertained that Michigan hard
woods were an exceptional commercial
Droposition. Mitchell Bros. and Cobbs
q Mitchell owned hundreds of thou
sands of acres of hemlock and hard
wood lands in Michigan, which had
been taken on in connection with prev
ious white pine timber purchases; They
had their great saw mills plahlhg
mills and other plants at Cadillac and
Vicinity and discovered that instead OF
being out of the lumber business IN
Michigan their houses had but reached
the zenith of their careers. Two mon
strous maple flooring plants were adu.
ed 10 the equipment and also a great
handle factory and other enterprises
invoiving the consumption of large
quantities of hardwoods. In view oil
these changed DONATIONS Mitchell
Bros. were recently induced to par
with great New Mexican timber prop
erty. which had been purchased by the
American Lumber company, with head
quarters at 617-619 the Rookery build
20 - MI, fnnnunfnu state