The Washington herald., 1914-11-10
HISTORY BUILDERS.
How the Gold Mines of Bolivia Were
Rediscovered.
Cwitten Expressly for The HsrAhl
By DIR. z. }. EDWARDS.

II think that the manner in which
the gold mines OF Bolivia, which were
concealed for many years, were dis
covered by an American miner was one
OF the most romantic OF the many ro-
mances associated with the mining OF
precious metals"
Horace G. Knowles made this statement
tonne a few hours before his departure
for Bolivia, early in November. Mr..
Knowles was for some years the United
States minister to Bolivia, and before
he entered upon that service he was
United States Minister TO Roumania-
With the beginning OF President Wilson S
administration, Mr.. Knowles resigned as
minister to Bolivia and was Immediately
appointed by that government commits
sioner general for Bolivia at the Panama
Exposition at San Francisco.
In the early part Of my service in
Bolivia as minister continued Mr..
Knowles, "I occasionally made inquiries
Of some Of those in authority in the
Bolivian government respecting the an
cient gold mines OF the country.
None Of them was able to give me
any information. Everybody in author
ity in Bolivia knew that at the time Of
PiZzaro the Spanish had worked gold
mines in Bolivia and had taken out enor-
NOUS quantities OF gold which they sent
to Spain.
About a hundred years ago there was
a revolution in Bolivia and IT assumed
such proportions that those who were
still operating. in a crude. primitive way,
some of the old gold mines were fright
ened. They decided to close the mines
and thoroughly TO conceal the openings
to them. They did this work with con-
summate ability. They rolled stones up
against the openings Of the mines. and
so did IL as TO lead one TO believe that
the stones had rolled there naturally
from the sides of the mountains. They
also made skillful use Of brush and
small stones SO that at last there was
nothing to distinguish the openings to
the shafts OF these mountains from the
general aspect OF the mountain sides.
After the revolution was over and
peace was restored. many attempts were
made to discover the openings TO these
mines. but no one was able TO point to
any place which might Justify eXplora-
tion. There was prospeCtor. Henry
Bricker by name, who in his boyhood
was a playmate Of ex-senator Clark, who
afterward became one of the worlds
greatest copper producers. Mr.. Bricker
was associated with Clark in some OF
his mining undertakings in the far West.
The two men were so intimate as to call
one another by their first names.
"Bricker was a natural-born prospec-
tor. He loved the work. He cared less
for the wealth that there might be in
any of his discoveries than in the sense
Of success at having made discoveries.
He went to Bolivia and started out to
find where these old mines were located.
He seemed to have a scent for discovery
Of that kind. He recognized instantly the
places where the old workers OF these
mines had placed distractions to the en-
frances. although in the course Of many
years these had become overgrown with
brush and shrubs. He poked among these
obstructions with his cane and in one
instance discovered an opening Just large
enough to permit him to crawl into II.
When he was in. he was compelled to
twist his body like snake in order to
crawl through the opening, and after
much wriEgling at last found himself In
large chamber, and this was where
these ancient miners had worked.
"Bricker pointed out the places where
the dumps left by the miners were placed
and you could not put your hand into
these dumps without finding that you had
fistful Of small bits of quartz, all Of
which contained free gold.
'In this way the gold mines OF Bo-
livia which were frst worked by the
Incas and afterward by Pizarro were re-
discovered SO that gold mining upon an
extensive scale is now under way in Bo-
livia-"
Copyright. lslt. By z J. Edwards. An rights rs-
scrredJ
Tomorrow DR.. Edwards will tell of "A
Slave to Detail"