Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-06-04
IS TREASURE
HOUSE, SAYS REFUGEE
Lakes Of Oil, Great Ranches and
Vast Natural Resources
There.

years In Mexico had driven back Il
New York. was telling about the things
ne mad left behind there the other nigh,
n this was the burden of his tale
says the New York Times.
he told of a snbterranean lake OF
Oil. known to be 200 miles long and
from 10 to 30 miles wide, with a "gush-
e." that flowed more than $780, 900 bar
refs IN "a U before it was capped
and regulated: Of valleys filed with
oil in that "a hours; Of vegetation
orenched for miles around. OiEcrude
oils worth roughly 81 q barrel at
the well.
He told of ore that assayed $3.50 0 to
the ton. and hundreds of tons of it in
sight, and the eyes of the Americans
Who listened opened wide.
Under Spanish, rule" said the man
from Mexico, the mines Of Guanajuato
alone produced over 1900. 100000 worth
OF silver. The mine owners made mil
lions SO quickly that one of the Span
ish ytceroys was forced to Issue an or
der ~forbidding them from scattering
handfufs of silver on the streets be-
cause it Increased the number of beg
gars. Also, 1t was a public nuisance.
Well, 1t isn't very different in the
year 1914. For instance, there's Pedro
Alvarado, the owner OF the Palmillo
mine. He is an ignorant Indian who
has 10 idea how much money he has,
Siiy AdCd " u NdluS. III lIic idoS
few years he has built 80 churches, at
least 100 schools. and has given away
several fortunes. Christmas, 1910.
Pedro Alyardo gave away $4,000 900 to
the poor FOR the love of Cod he said.
Pedro dresses like a peon. but he
has a beautiful home in which there Is
the finest furniture, several pianos and
20 talking machines. Before Poririo
Diaz abdicated. Pedro offered to pay off
the national debt of Mexico. When his
request was refused he asked to be al
lowed to pay off a piece OF It, anyway.
When this was also refused he got in
dignant and gave away a fortune esti-
mated to equal the Interest on the ma
tional debt for five years. Fact!
There's a mine in the state OF SON
ora. not far from Arizpe, which is prob
ably the richest mine in the northern
half Of h republic, This property a
high gold as well as silver values. An
engineer from Cananea was allowed 10
visit the mine and the Mexican owner
asked him to sample and assay a ship
ment OF Sc tons OF ore that was going
to the smelter. The owner said he
didn't think the smelter was giving him
full value. He didn't care for n
money, but he wasn't going to be
robbed by anybody.
.'The engineer assayed the ore. Then.
thinking he had made a mistake, he nad
two other assayers check his results.
All three assays checked within a rev
dollars, That ore was worth more
$50 5000 ton, The shipments had been
going on regularly for, quite a whlle.
Whenever he needed money ne Would
send O.. few men into 1T and take out q
small fortune. / know that, because l
was the engineer.
sssThere Is another property In the
same district and this is how IT was
discovered: There had been a tradition
In that region about q wonderfully ricn
mine, which had been worked by
Spaniards. The mine was supposed
to be in a certain direction from a mis-
sion, now ruined and could be seen
from a corner OF the main building. An
American ~prospector followed n Oh
rections. He5was sure he was close 70
It, but he couldn't locate the old WORK
ings.
"At last he took a trip to Spain; ne
said he was going to see II he couldn't
some record of the mine IN the
18th century archives which were sup
posed to exist there. It has never been
proved what he did in Spain, but he re-
turned and went straight to h district
ln which the mine was said to be and
right on the property. He took
out q fortune in less h q a year. Then
he sold the mine to a syndicate, which
was doing very we'll when the wars
broke out, when It suspended opera
tons.
.sThe old workings. OF the mine had
been carefully covered over when the
American discovered It, n the re-
of 40-odd Indians were found
walled up In the tunnel. BY wauing up
the Indian miners, you see. the Span
lards had made sure that he location
Of the property would not be betrayed.
They thought they We're coming back to
some day, and intended re-
opening Me. mine.
why, there are lots OF creeks OF
streams, particularly In Sonora. where
q peon or a Chinaman can make from
IS to $40 day washing for gold with
m ordinary pan. They call these little
streams poor mems banks
.sYou mustn't forget the cattle, when
you think of Mexico. Until the various
armies began TO q them up, the own
ers In the two big ranches OF Sonora
and Chihuahua had no idea how many
they had. Thesecattle are what
the armies are living OFF now; that's
how they get their meat. AZ few years
ago when / was mining on the big
ranch In Sonora, we never ATTEMPTED
to buy meat, We Just gave the Chinese
q Winchester and two cartridges
only two. because he'd 60 hunting IL:
you gave him; more, and swouldn't re-.
~turn--and that night we'd have beef
steak for supper.
Her Absence.