Bisbee daily review., 1904-03-31


 Arizona imprints the motto "Ditat
 DeL 6- winch means enriched by Goa. It is wonderfully appropriate, notwiths tanding that it Is directly op- posed in significance to the popular
 expression used by many writers yhen referring to Arizona as "the tand that God forgot" The latter
 idea possibly was brought about by
 ihe fact that while the natural re
 sources of this section of the country
 Eere known to be practically unparal
 feied in richness there seems to be
 Aehciency in the natural facilities ai
 hand for the conversion of these re eources into tangible wealth. bs that as it may, no one who is familiar
 with mining conditions in the Terri
 tory at the present time is botherine his head about the opinions and views ef a class of people who are anywhere from ten to twenty years behind the
 simes. The American capitalist is a pretty shrewd individual. Taken as q class they usually exhibit that sort ot judgment that makes money, and gith many of our most conspicuous capitalists the mining question today fs the mining of gold and silver and copper and lead in Arizona-and the best and quickest way Of getting into such an enterprise.
 The land area of Arizona is 112,- 320 square miles, or more than that ef the States of New York, Pennsyl- Sania, Vermont and Massachusetts eombined-and practically all of it is a land of minerals. In the years from 1890 to 1900 its population more fhan doubled, and it is now producing 424, ,000,0e0 in gold, copper, silver and lead per year, being the third largest State in the Union with respect to its copper production. It is purely a rich mineral deposits. and it always will be a mining country, although with more progress will come exten- sive irrigation, and then its broad des-
 
 its climate is purely iueal, as western climates go. In most parts of the Territory you can raise strawberries and conduct mining operations just as easily in December as in July. One 6ears of Arizona thermometers that Registers at time 120 degrees in the shade But what of it. Did you ever hear of a case of sunstroke in Arizo- na? Man and beast in Arizona do not know what it is to be 'over-heat- ed" You can drive a team all day Tn the "boiling sum- cover a distance 0T 50 to 60 miles, and not feel a sus- picion of hardship. Another case, simply, of air that is devoid of mois- enre, where even the rain is dry" In portions of Arizona the climate ls positively delightful, rivaling that ef the most famous parts of Califor tia, but like Idaho it can not hang out It's sign as the Garden spot of Aneri- ca until irrigation has wrought pleas ing changes in the character of the On the surIace, general iy speaking, it is a barren country. But beneath the surface-ah! It is hat of which we are to tell. And if, 5n the telling of it no man perceives lis chance to profit by foresight and then, indeed he must be hlind to opportunity. Arizona is the home of the arrastra. These crude ailling devices were built and operat- en at some time far back in the dim past on the hills and in the valleys oi every mining district in the Territory. The Mexicans or the h. djans, the owners of these crude gold mills, were not deep level miners They unk an occasional shaft, and sometimes drove tunnels into the for distance of a hundred feet or so, but as a rule they confin- Cd their operations to mining the sur face ore, by digging extensive open cuts. In some cases deep mining vas conducted, with shafts and drifts and a moderate amount of timberlng, hut 1t IS evident that this was not the popular method, especially where good returns were to be secured by milling the rock actually in sight on the sur face. The arrastra in its most com nion foru was simply a circular exca- xation with a solid rock bottom and a perpendicular post in the middle. A long horizontal pole fitted to a piy- st in the top of the post, and to this sole were attached heavy rocks or kouiders that dragged slowly over the n6ck bottom as the pole was drawn round and round by burros or mules add sometimes by the miners them selves. In this way the ore. thrown fhfo the pit in broken pieces was kSound into comparatively fine sand, and when the grinding process was finished miners washed out the gold