Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-05
PROSPECTORS SWARM
IN PATAGONIA HILLS
Country with interesting History
Now Has $1,Oo0,O00 in Pre-
Iiminary Developments

Cdn IOTIn no COnSepllOn OI lu6 SuOL-
nous amount of dead work done in
the range. Outside the big mines, of
which there are several, and upon
which there has been a lavish expendi-
ture of money, $1,000,000 would not
cover the amount of energy wasted
in ten-foot holes. The range is highly
mlneralized, and when once its vast
ore bodies are thoroughly understood
the fame of the Patagonians will be
far-reaching, it is said. From the
early days of American occupation its
hills have swarmed with prospectors,
miners and adventurers, all looking
for the wealth of the indian king in
surface cropping.
Around the old Mowry mine, with
its uses and abuses, still clings that
eternal underlined glitter of early day
romance. The American army of oc-
cupation, consisting of a few bold
spirits, was located at Camp Buchan-
an, a great adobe building that then
stood on the right bank of the Sono-
ita, east of where the little town OF
Crittenden now stands. 1t was the
half way house between the Colorado
and the Rio Grande.
When the Civil War came the camp
was abandoned, and those in command
went north and south to engage in
the fratricidal strife. Among those
men was Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry.
He is said to have been stationed
at old Fort Yuma when 1t was first
established to guard a crossing on the
Colorado. Buchanan, on the Sonoita,
was far out of the line of emigrant
travel, but Yuma was strictly in it.
Garrison duty is seldom alluring to
the bold and adventurous, and much
less so was 1t at Yuma when Mowry
held the fort. At that time Arizona
was travelling incognito, and probably
not one man in ten in the United
States knew of its existence. Hemmed
in on all sides by the Great American
Desert, Il was the one unknown spot
in the great American commonwealth.
But from its mysterious depths came
strange tales of hills that were ribbed
and scanned with gold.
DELIKED POST DUTY
To a man of Mowry's temperament
garrison duty on a bare bluff over
looking this mysterious land of prom
Use was maddening. 1t meant either
desertion or resignation. AS the latter
was open to all officers, he availed
himself of it. When again heard from
he was in the Patagonias and was
part owner of the mine which now
bears his name, the other claimants
being federal officers stationed at
Camp Buchanan. Later he acquired
the mine in its entirety, and at once
began its systematic development.
That he made ends meet and tie in
bow knot is found in the belief that he
netted some hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the property.
At that time there was not rail-
road within 5000 miles of the Pata-
gonias, and the expenses incidental
to mine development were simply
enormous. That even the Mowry could
be made pay under such strenuous
conditions is almost beyond the bounds
of human belief. The ne Arrest supply
station was San Diego, a distance of
at least 600 miles, and every pound of
machinery delivered at that point had
to be brought around the Horn, and
then hauled 600 miles across the dead
and dried up sea, so old" of Southern
ern California and Arizona.
Between the Colorado and the Pata-
gonias was a hostile country; every
foot of it was Apache beset. But with
all this Mowry worked his mine and
made 1t pay big. The ruins of six
adobe furnaces are yet to be seen, and
the great Stag dump is an evidence of
the work done The fifty-foot stack
built at an enormous cost of brick
brought around the Horn was thrown
down and carted away for use by the
owners of the San Rafael grant at
the time they enjoyed the pleasure of
DeIleVlTR In6Y OWH6u lnG WilOlO COuIl-
try. The old charcoal pits from which
his fuel came are scattered far and
wide over the adjacent timbered hills.
But these pits are fast wearing away,
and another fifty years will see them
far on the road to obliteration.
Within quarter of a mile of the
plant is the old graveyard. Men died
faster in those days than they do now.
1t is said to contain 1856 bodies, nearly
n ~ Tuhnnn haliaVnd fn have hpHn
Americans.
The sloping hillside in which they lie
is brush-covered, and the site if known
only to few of the old-timers. Quite
recently, while sinking a prospect hole,
Mr. Miller, who. with his home, now
occupies the old smelter property. dug
into one of these graves. The skull and
a few of the larger bones were in fairly
good state of preservation. Evidently
1t was the grave of white man, as
there were fragments OF both blanket
and box still visible, luxuries in those
days that did not go to the common
herd.
DAY AND NIGHT GUARDS
On a high hill south of the smelter,
and overlooking the whole country,
stood sentinels on duty both night and
day. The ruins of a small stone fort
are still in evidence. This same hill,
because of it's peculiar situation, had
been used for like purpose for perhaps
thousand years before Mowry was
born or thought of, and the numerous
stone defenses of a prehistoric people
cover much of the hillcrest. Whoever
these people were, they swarmed in and
cultivated the lower valleys which now
for the first time in perhaps hundred
generations is being taken up and
brought to plow by homeseeking Amer
leans.
Fifty years ago Tubac, on the Santa
Cruz, fifty miles south of Tucson and
about half that distance west of the old
Mowry, was the only white settlement
north of the international line and
south of Tucson. Tubac, unlike Tue
son, was never a walled town, and the
Apaches repeatedly forced its abandon
ment but subsequent to American oc-
cupation It was made headquarters for
mining interests in that immediate
country. 1t was in that town that
Mowry fought his duel with Col. Cross
Rifles were used, and reserve shot fell
to the fortune of Mowry. After delib-
erately aiming at Cross he slowly
raised his rifle and fired in the air.
When the country was occupied by
Confederate troops under Captain
Hunter the Mowry mine was seized and
worked by them for the lead the ores
contained. When these troops we're
driven out by General Carlton, COM
manding the California volunteers, he
placed Mowry under arrest as an alder
and abettor of the southern cause, and
in the end forced him to leave the
country. He later went to London in
+ha interest of fhe mine died there, and