The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-09
ARIZONA COPPER MINES
OUTLINES OF THE BISBEE FIELD,
WHICH is RICH In THE METAL.
Lake Superior Mine Owners Are OPP
Grating Extensively in This Dis
trict-Its Prospects.
Correspondence of the Associated Press.

Correspondence Of the Associated Press.
BISBEE, A T., Sept. 6.--The opening or
an important new copper field, or the oe-
velopment of an old field beyond its for
merly accepted limits, are matters or I'M
portance, for copper mining is at once the
costliest and the most profitable form or
mining known-the costliest where work is
done upon a large scale, and the most prof.
liable when really first-class mines are
opened During the past two years more
new mining ventures of importance nave
been undertaken in and near Bisbee than
in any other cupriferous field of the world.
Preceding detailed descriptions of mines
and prospects, in outline of the history,
geography and geology of the district Will
enable the reader to form better under
standing of the various properties, their To-
cation and their chances of success.
The Warren mining district takes name
from it's discoverer. An occasional pros
pector wandered into the Mule mountains,
then in Pima, but now in Cochise county,
in the early and middle seventies, and it
is not certain that all of them got out
again, as the Apaches were vigilant. When
Schieffelin told the soldiers in Fort Hua-
chuca, about 1877, that he proposed explor-
ing the hills to the eastward, he was told
to take his tombstone along, and Tomb
stone was the name he gave the camp that
sprung up around the mines he found in
the extreme northern foothills of the Mule
mountains. An occasional prospector from
Tombstone CHANGED a day or two in the
mountains to the southwark, but the coun-
try was rough and the Indians active, and
under the leadership of old Cochise. who
We than successor.
Geronimo, the Apaches kept the would-be
prospectors pretty close to the established
camps. little work was done in the War
rem district in the late seventies, in
purely prospecting way, but gold and sill
yer seemed lacking, and the prospectors
scored the green copper stains. Eventual
ly considerable outcrop of copper ore was
located and mining begun. This was the
beginning of the great Copper Queen mine,
one of the six largest copper producers or
the world. Real mining may be said TO
date from about 1881, though the property
was small and Its future uncertain Tor
some years. This great concern was the
A little prospecting was tried from time to
time, but ii was not until Lake Superior
people begun work in 1899 that any min
ing work of real Importance was done, out
side of the Queen lands. The district now
has two producing mines, both of the first
magnitude, with third property nearly
great promise. a few properties with fair
prospects and a dozen or more wildcats,
which may may not make mines.
TOWN IN THE HILLS.
The Mule Pass mountains have a gen.
orally northwesterly and southeasterly
trend. with a gulch, known as Tombstone
canyon, running approximately through
the axis of the range. with numerous
smaller and continent gulches leading from
the parent gorge into the hills in various
directions. The town of Bisbee is in the
main canyon and on several adjacent hills,
the main street being part of the narrow
gulch. The town lies at an elevation of
almost exactly one mile, and the hills in
the vicinity range 500 to 600 feet higher blu.
a short distance west and north become
much higher, reaching an extreme eleva-
ton of nearly 400 feet above sea level.
The hills are steep, and in many places
inaccessible on their escarpments, but at
any point can be reached by trails, on the
back of cow ponies or the patient burro-
even on shanks mare, by those who do
not mind physical exercise of a strenuous
sort.
The geology of the district has received
much study of late, and is fairly well es-
tablished. Locally the miners and towns
people divide the rocks into two classes
porphyry for the igneous rocks, and lime
stone for the sedimentary forms. The
word porphyry, as used in the Western
mining States, is like charity, in that ii
covers multitude of sins. The igneous
rocks OF the Warren district called por-
phyry. include a considerable variety of
rock forms, including fine-grained schists
supposed TO be the oldest rock formation of
the district; quartZite, running 400 to 500
feet in thickness; granite and granite por-
phyry, shales and even conglomerate. the
latter made up mainly OF the igneous
rocks, but including limestone and a little
of everything else in the neighborhood in
its makeup. The limestones, in which the
mines so far developed have been found
are or various ages, ranging from Cam
brian through Devonian and carboniferous
of both the lower and upper series. The
limestones rest upon quartzite, which in
turn is superimposed upon schists. Above
the Upper Carboniferous limestone beds are
found the conglomerate. OF varying thick
ness. from few feet TO 500 feet or more.
succeeded by thick beds of sandstone and
shale, while above beds OF cretaceous
limestones OF perhaps 600 feet, while top
ping all are beds of sandstone and shale.
In places 200 feet In thickness. and with