Albuquerque weekly citizen. (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1891-19??, 1903-12-05
EXCITEMENT OVER GOLD.


l.. w. GALES southwestern manager
of the State Life Insurance company
OF Indianapolis. Indiana, returned this
morning from the new placer gold
fields OF Sierra county. Mr.. Gales left
here last Friday, went to Hillsboro
ana from there went to the gold
fields. He said to The Citizen today:
Accounts Of this wonderful find
have not been exaggerated. was in.
credulous myself at first, but believe |
now ii will prove the biggest thing in
the gold line New Mexico has ever |
known"
The gold sas first discovered by |
Bernard Silva, his six brothers and |
Ramon Rodriguez, In gulch near
Apache gap, an eighteen miles nearly |
due east of Hillsboro. Almost at the
same time Manuel Stapleton and Felix |
Trujillo, with the father and several
brothers of Truiillo. found gold In an.
other gulch bu. In tho near neighbcr.
hood. Since then better finds have
been made fully six miles from the
first onos.
The placer grounds extend from
Apache Gap a distance of fifteen miles
down the Rio Grande to Green can
yon, and from rear the river to a dis
lance OF five niles TO the east. The
whole country is very rough, being the
western foothills OF the Caballo noun.
talns, while the hills themselves are
cut by innumerable gulches. II Is in
these gulches that the placer ground
has been found lying on bedrock, and
covered by ou. few inches of coarse
sand made ND OF granite and lime
Gold. however, has not been discover
ed in all the gulches, not because It
may not be there, but because the
sand Is mucn Ceeper in some places
than In others. In fact. as one de
scends the river the dip of the bed
rock increases.
! Bet while gold has not yet been
found Ia all the gulches, it has been
found on the divides between the
gulches, in gold bearing cement, the
components OF which are the same as
that of the placer sands; and mauv
|
Gaping Of tho ridges win be found
richer in gold that even the sands
! themselves. The cement Gaping"
said Mr.. GALES, Seems TO stand on
end, and reminos me of the descrip.
lions | have read OF the same charac.
ter of formation In the South African
gold fields"
The principal rush Of people. so far
has been from I'll Paso, though they
are beginning to come In now from all
! directions, as many as fifty arriving
in day. Blu. little has been done In
the way OF working the claims. every.
one being too busy In locating claims.
What little work has been done is OF
a peculiar character. The prospector
selects the place he is going to try;
rakes off the surface with his hand TO-
a few inches; bows away the remain
ing sand down To bedrock; then moist
ems the end OF a match with spittle,
and with this picks up the flakes Il
gold which lie exposed after the sand
has been blown away.
One man in this way. from a piece
of land about FIVE feet long by three
feet wide and at no greater depth
than six inchos, obtained $500 OF gold
by weight Mr.. Gales had a vial with
s2.25 worth OF gold In IL, which no had
obtained In that way In about ten
minutes.
The gold is CT a duh yellow, and
chiefly In flakes or grains, the largest
nugget so far found being worth 81 so.
This Is natural. as the large nuggets
will follow tho dip OF the bedrock to
greater depths. The value OF the gold
which is nearly pure has been placed
at $40 pennyweight.
Mr.. GALES denies the story OF the
discovery having been made through
the assistance or an old Mexican
chart; but SAWS that twenty-five years
ago the Apache Indians used to go
there for gold. SO they said, but the
whites did not believe them, thinking
they had gotten the gold from placers
near Hillsboro, The Mexlcans how
ever, believed the Indians and more or
less effort has since been made by
them TO discover the Indian placers.
Two, years ago Mr.. GALES hunted
all over this now famous section. aud
killed a deer en- almost the identical
spot where the silvas found the first
gold. Indeed. while conducting no.
tel at Hillsborc, which no did for
4 many years, he actually entered