Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1910-11-01
BLOWING Up THE
OLDEST MINES IN
UNITED STATES
Tons Of Powder Used to Wreck
Ancient Working e Santa
Ritai Two Big Steam ohoveIs
Digging Copper Out of Hills.

Especial Correspondence 20 Morning Journalf
Silver City. n. NJ, Oct. 30.-Tons
of powder are being used at the great
Santa Rita copper camp to blow up
The oldest mine workings in The Unit
ed States In order to facilitate the new
operations at the rich mines. That
tremendous results are being aecomp-
lished at santa Rita Is told in the Sill
yer city Enterprise as follows:
@. G. Hinman, John Leras and III. o..
Wicks spent Wednesday at Santa
Rita and Hurley making the trip in
Mr.. Humans machine. They say that
these two places are the liveliest min
ing camps they ever saw. Santa Rita
especially is a wonder and the people
Of New Mexico have no idea or the
extent of the operations there or their
importance to the copper producing
industry. Two large steam shoVels
are l~evellng down the copper-bearing
hills as II they We're ant hills and
work with almost human intelligence.
1t takes but thirty econd for a show
el to dig its way in the side of a hill,
load five tons. swing around and un-
load It on the waiting ore car. 1t loads
an ore car in about two minutes. Two
more shovels are 10 be put into COM
mission soon. Tho p~ostOffice building
is almost completed. 1t is a COM
modious two-story structure, the ~
per floor Of which will be used for
lodge purposes. The sixty room bunk
house IS also fast nearing completion.
One Of the interesting operations at
Santa Rita has been the literal blow
ing up of the underground workings
for the purpose of loosening the soil
to permit Of its being scooped up By
the steam shovels. There are miles
and miles Of underground workings
on Chino Hin, some Of them the old
est mine workings in the United States
as Santa Rita was the scene OF the
earliest mine operations in this conn
try. Several tons Of black powder
were distributed through these work.
ings and then set off. The detona-
lions shook the earth for many miles
and accomplished their pur-
pose wen. Mr.. Hinman a there are
depressions in the earth that You
could drop a silver city block into
and not notice 1t.
At Hurley. ten miles south Of sam
ia Rita. Is a scene Of activity ana
4ilEAAt NilNAt Aih nARAiNAAH NEf N'
quiet COW pasture. Train loads of ma
terial are being hauled from Santa
Rita and from outside points. We'd
there were eight cars or
crushed rock and sixteen cars of lum-
her hauled into camp. for the big
concentration. the concrete foundations
for which. are being poured. Eight
powerful locomotives are employed
ana keen things humming. Several
hundred men are employed at Hurley.
The water supply at Apache Tejo,
which has been developed by the COM
Is immense and is sufficient TO
treat several thousand tons of ore per
day.
d. c. Jackling. general manager,
q large stakeholder in the COM
nany. visited the properties recently.
dispatch from salt Lake states that
IL is not improbable that announce
VIII De mudc shortly of the in
.reasing OF the capacity of the mill
from 5000 go 5000 tons a day. The
september report taken from Hay
len. stone & Co.'S market letter. gives
he fully developed tonnage at "a
,9S.S79 and the partially developed
IRE as 4.3f6.465 tons.