Arizona republican., 1914-06-07
MINE STARTS A
 STAFFORD BOOM
Activity of San Juan Prop erty Again Puts Greenlee Town on Map - Birdno Hears of Widening of the Mines Near Home Town

Word comes from Stafford. the home of Receiver J. J. Birdno that that town is just about on tie verge of big, boom. Active operations have be- gun on the San Juan mines, nine miles north of Stafford, with that town as headquarters of the operating company.
 The San Juan property was origin ally located by Mrs. Holly about 1886. At that time it was known that the country in that vicinity was high lv mineraliZed, but no railroad being nearer than fifty miles, and the Apaches being on the war path all the time, it was found impossible to interest capital for the development of the property.
 Later the railroad built from Bowie to Globe. passing within nine miles of the San Juan. The property was then taken over by eastern specula- tors and the whole country wild 1 catted' for years. Hundreds of thous- l ands of dollars were spent in wild eating which finally gave the dis i, trict a black eye but. during all this time development work continued on the San Juan, but the people who had placed their money in this country in good faith finally learned that some l thing was wrong and refused to go 1 further.
 During all this time thousands of feet of work had been done on the San Juan, which developed an im- mense deposit of copper ore on the San Juan proper. A concentrator was built, thousands of dollars worth of high grade copper ore taken out, i concentrated and shipped Finally when the price in copper fell the com pany shut down.
 l During this time many prominent mining engineers had examined the property and made favorable reports upon it, all giving their opinion that it would prove to be another declm- mated low grade copper proposition, the limitations of which not having vet been ascertained.
 A little over two years ago Tom J. Sparks, prominent mining man heard of the San Jnan property. Last fall he looked over and wrote l.. A. Dunham, one of Americas s prominent mining engineers, that the property was worth careful investigation, with the result that Mr Dunham came or from New York. made an investiga- ton and made a favorable report.
 The result is that exploration worl l .l1 -n.I- ings are not being relied upon fol while they show the character of th'
 ore, they do not show the extent o naturalization. Several car loads o
 new machinery have been shipped t
 the mines including two big Sta
 drills, one of these now being a
 work The other one will be il
 drills are being used to determine tn
 extent of the ore beds
 It is confidentially expected that tn
 San Juan mines will soon be on tn , map among the big producers 0
 Arizona.
 l.. A. Dunham of New York is con | sulting engineer and Tom J. Spark
 superintendent. MT Sparks left fo
 Stafford on Thursday.
 . The opening of these mines to
 gether with the extension of the wa
 ter mains, which convey the pun
 mountain water from Mt. Graham | and the rebuilding of the burned cleo
 tric light plant, the prospect of man v new blocks of cement sidewalks, mol , street improvement, the election of ' progressive town council, the certain '' ty of new $40.000 high school builS V ing and the erection of a new cit e hail. makes the people of Saffol
 think their town is about the on y one on the map
 . Travelling men arriving from the '- say that Stafford is the best towns f' the west for it's size, and that u 'e opening of the San Juan mines .e sure to make it boom as never b
 fore These men say that Stafford - the center of the best and most pro
 porous agricultural valley in the Worl