Evening journal., 1914-11-10
New News Of Yesterday
How the Gold Mines of
Bolivia Were RediScovered
BY Holland

"I 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
,f the most romantic of the many ro-
mances associated with the mining OF
precious metals
Horace G. Knowles made this state
mont to me a few hours before his de-
parture 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 Rou-
mania. With the beginning of Presi-
dent Wilson's administration, Mr..
Knowles resigned as minister TO Bolivia
and was Immediately appointed by that
government commissioner general for
Bolivia at the Panama Exposition at
San Francisco
In the early part of my service in
Bolivia as minister" continued Mr..
knowles, Il occasionally made inquiries
of some OF those In authority in the
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
enormous quantities of gold which they
sent to Spain
"About a hundred years ago there was
Q 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
20 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 a prospector. Henry
Bricker by name, who-in his boyhood
was a playmate of ex-senator Clark,
@he afterward became one of the worlds
greatest copper producers. MIR. Bricker
was associated with Clark in some of
his mining undertakings in the far west.
The two men were so intimate as TO call
ono another by their first names.
''Bricler 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 10 the en-
frances, although in the course OF many
years these had become overgrown with
. brush and shrubs. He poked among these
distractions with his cane and in one
instance discoVered an opening just large
eiiongh, Go permit him to crawl into IL.
When he was in, he was compelled 20
twist his body like a snake in order TO
crawl through the opening and after
much WflNglnS at last round hlmselI III
a large chamber, and this was where
these ancient miners had worked
''Bricker pointed out the places where
The dumps left by the miners We're plac-
ed and you could not put your hand
into these dumps without finding that
you had fisttul of small bits of quartz,
al of which contained free gold.
In this way the gold mines Of Bo-
hvia which were first worked by the
Incas and afterward by Pizarro were re-
discovered 30 that gold mining upon an.
extensive scale is now under way in Bo-
hviar
Copyright, 1914, by Z. J. Edwards All
rights reserved.l
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell oi
"A Slave TO Detail"