Bisbee daily review., 1910-10-13
REVIVAL 0F QuuOT0As
 RECALLS BONANZA DAYS

eAoo ouu WeS PicStRSnhy soiuSkSSo- <AS this stage of the proceedings the old
 board of directors met, repudiated both stock and debts and organized a new company. and on the ruins of
 the old. In the meantime the work
 of cutting a straight hole through
 the capping of the Quijotoa mountain
 went steadily on. but there was no
 ore and the Quijotoa with its bo-
 nanza lining was allowed to pass out
 of the memory of the present genera
 ton of men. In those days nearly
 every, old miner was a 'Comstock
 man." He had worked in Virginia
 City or on Gold Hill, and had, or
 claimed to have had, personal ac-
 quaintance with one or more of the
 Bonanza firm, and faith in the ulti-
 mate outcome died hard. As a stock
 proposition to work the unsuspecting
 public it was considered par excel
 lence. and it was maintained by many
 that if it was necessary to pad the
 report with Comstock bullion the
 company would not hesitate to make
 the shipment. This belief led to a
 ludicrous robbery. A bar of babbit
 metal, which to the uneducated eye
 resembles silver in the rough, was
 sent to the Quijotoa for use in the mill. At the express office it was dumped into the body of the st1ge. On that particular morning there was one lone passenger. He was stran- ger in Tucson and was unknown.
 When the stage reached the top ot Robles Pass he was known to be still in it, but when the change station was reached he was gone and the bar of babbit metal had gone with him. As neither were ever heard of afterwards the metal is still supposed to be cached somewhere in the hills west of town.
 All this time while the game on the hill was being played and lost the valley lying at the foot and inn east of the range fairly reeked with gold. That it contained yellow metal was known to every placer miner in the Southwest. In the great Horseshoe basin, northeast of the range, the Indians had dry washed for the precious metal for nearly 100 years. They were visited ln 1878 by the writer in company with oscar Ashburn of Santa Cruz county. and an old Mexican, an uncle of the wife of the late Rufio Velaz- This man knew of the gold strewn ground. When a young man and this country was still a part of the republic of Mexico, these piacers were extensively worked. He had kept a small store and supplied the camp with four, beans and salt and such class of clothing as was then in Ise. As the country was practically xaterless between rainy seasons, .inajos and artifcially made charcos furnished their only water supply. With this gone the camp was aban- toned, men. women and children re- turning to the towns in Northern So- lora. Although the ground had to be Try washed, much gold was taken put With American occupation the country was abandoned to the Indi- ms and they have worked the grounds continuously since. It was not a white mans camp, pending
 he introduction of machinery. and put for the invention of the Quinner it would not be a white mans camp today. The coming of
 his machine has revolutionized ''dry and the first section O. he country in the United States to 'eel the vitalizing effect of the new method is the Horseshoe basin, at
 he Quijotoa. The introduction of ,ne machine has led to the placing of a second, and dozens of others are sure to follow The ground is
 in the great placer belt of Northern Mexico and has the incalcul- able advantage of being in the United States.