Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1908-11-04

ical fact--dhe district has produced a
great many millions in gold.
That was long ago and it was al
most all by dry paacering- 4only a.
trifle of it by lode mining There were
some thousands of men placering ia
this field from 1860 to 1867 and the
country is honey-combed with their
old shafts and drifts and open-cuts.
They were almost all Mexicans ano
when pay dirt played out they skip
ped All placer miners do that way.
But in wet placer mines they leave
some evidences behind that tell the
story of their occupation Of the field.
dams and bitches and fumes and
buildings and old machinery.
Nothing OF that sort here. The
Mexican dry washer had nothing bur
shovel and a pan All the rest was
tossing up the dry dirt in the pan
and blowing, blowing, blowing VITA
all the force of the lungs while the
tossing proceeded. IL is amazing what
skill and speed they acquire at II. A
good nanipulator will clean a painful
of dirt-as dry as ashes of course
rather more quickly than it can be
washed down.
There is plaeering going on here
still-a little. But now IL is mostly
| done by Americans who use little
dry washer" to do the blowing
something like the tanning mill which
! farmers use to winnow their grain,
nut a great deal smaller so that a
miner can sling it to his back by a
gf ra md ala
to place.
Those Mexicans built no houses in
| the diggins. so when they left there
was nothing to leave behind but the
pits and trenches. Didn't need any
houses. This region has the climate
of Paradise from September to June
In midsummer its hotter than Tophet
| Of course, but in midsummer the min
ers couldn't work the dirt anyway
The Mexicans miners however had
town where they could go of a Sat.
urday afternoon and blow in their
| cleanup at the cabling tables like
| cabelleros and fill themselves up with
rot-gut whiskey and quarrel with their
! families or get into the streets with
4 knife or a gun and make things
lively for the whole population. A
killing or two more or less of a Sat
urday night didn't count in the flush
days of old La Paz.
La Paz was the name of the city
and it was the best built and most
| populous city of it's day in Arizona
| and the richest. 1t was a really fine
Mexican built town-adobe, of course
| but the buildings were plastered OF
the outside and whitewashed and the
stores had iron shutters. 1t was ar
important trade center for the Bra d
shaw mountains country and the Bill
| Williams country and the EIdoradc
canyon country up the river. The
town was down to 10 miles from the
diggings which were in the gulchee
and aprons of the mountain plexus
called the Dome Rock range.
| The placer field was a very large
one, extending along both flanks Of
the range 10 TO Is miles, and there
were other little gulches way up in
the mountains.
/ There was gold everywhere rich
not more than just pay dirt But pa!
dirt in those piping times of the civil
war when the Indians were bad anl
the government unable to afford pro
lection had to be pretty good dirt Tn,
naughty descendants of the Monte
yuma and Cortez would scorn in thos,
days to blow dirt that paid less thar
$40 a day. Couldn't afford to. FooC
was expensive and the cost of wins
key was running nigh.
Some of that ground paid the big
gest kind. Men often made 800 !
day, one red-letter day four Mexican
working together came upon a littl
unconsidered side gulch not NOR,
than ten rods long which had beel
overlooked where they cleaned up 'i
whole painful of gold" including of COG
: ldollar nugget-about $4,000 a piec,
: for the days work
Pretty good s'ys you. Yes, like tn
old California diggings.
OF course all that gold in the gulct
es came from the mountains above
any galoot would know that b,
searching he could find the veins fror
l which II came?
Yes, of course, but you little knoy
: the naughty spirit of the old-tim
placer miner if you think he woul
: "demeGn himself" to the groyeIlin,
and despised occupation of lode mir
Ing. That would be like asking
; Irima Donna after a successful sex
! son Of grand opera TO take a plac
: in the ballet at seven dollars wee
L and board herself.
Some senseless things like that az
: count for other things which are har
Ito understand. A placer miner of tn
: old naughty school despised the sIoy
y results of lode mining He was