Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1916-10-20
WEALTH OF SONORA
MINES OF NORTHERN MEXICAN
STATE AMONG RICHEST
IN WORLD.
Legends Of the Immense Wealth Taken
From Them and How 1t Was
Wasted, by the Nations
Early Conquerors.


If Americas army sees foreign serv-
! ice in its patrol duty along the
northern Sonora border the boys in
khaki will be in a Mexican state where
fact and fable are fascinatingly inter
woven in the accounts of its vast MIN
eral wealth, says the geography bull
Ietin issued from Washington by the
National Geographic society. Even the
name Sonora is said by some histo-
rians to be derived from a peculiarly
musical and "sonorous'' quality pos
scssed by certain marbles quarried in
the state.
Within a decade after Cortez land.
ed on Mexican soil and conquered the
followers of Mohtezuma the Spaniards
had launched expeditions by sea and
started exploration parties over the
mountains to find that region which
two centuries before, according to tra-
ditiOn, had supplied the Aztecs with
great stores of gold and silver when
they passed through the land in their
tribal migration to the vale of Ana
. huac. BY 1880 Alnindez Chirinos had
proceeded up. the coast as far as
the mouth of the YaQui river, and he
was followed by De Vaca, who
brought back a report that gold and
! silver could be pluclSed from the
ground in unbelievable quantities. One
t OF De Vaca's followers was Sebastian,
: mulatto who had remarkable gift
of Imagination. Among the places he
'saw' were the Seven Cities of CT
| bola, ruled by King Tatarax, whose
wonderful bejeweled robes dazzled the
! eye as he wOrshiped each morning in
r his magnificent palace before golden
D cross. Mermaids also figured in Sc
t bastian's narrative as alluring mar
r vels of the Sonora coast.
Among the Sonora mines about
a which romance and reality are strange
II mingled is that of Senior Almada
:, of Quintera. The owner is said to
have celebrated the marriage of his fa-
o vorite daughter by paneling the
bridal chamber with silver, and paw
ing the road from his heme to the
church r with bars of the precious
= metal.
The legend concerning the Dona
7 Maria mine is that its owner, the wild
ow of a Spaniard. De Rodriques, la
| bored for years saving nuggets of gold
until she had treasury which re-
! quired a caravan of 10 mules to convey
the four tons of precious metal to Mex
leo City. 1t was long and arduous
journey, and the widow was constant
n ly in fear of being robbed. When she
finally reached the capital she would
not rest content until the fortune had
been placed in the safekeeping of the
j Spanish vicerey. A few days later the
i widow disappeared. and the vast store
of gold was appropriated by the gov
ernment treasury and that treasury's
custodian.
= An equally pathetic story is told OF
e the Planchas de Plata (Silyer Plates)
mine, which, according to Jesuit ac-
d. counts, was discovered by a Yaqui In
~ dian during the first half of the eight
- eenth century. From d deep canyon
the Jesuits are said to have takeI
~ great globules of silver ore, weigh
ing from 20 to 80 pounds. One mann
moth nugget of pure silver, weighing
-, quarter of ton, was discoverd, an(
be >, proved the undoing of both the priest!
and the Indians. This treasure reel
was with great difficulty loaded be
10 tween two pack mules and taken t,
ov the capital, where 1t was seized fo
the crown. After years of litigation
id the authorities decided that not onl.
%. this nugget, but all other ore from tn,
nd canyonN belonged to the state. Where
upon Jesuits and Indians conspire,
,ro successfully to 'lose' the mine
Just 10 miles south of the Arizon,
~ line and midway between the borde
towns Of Nogales and Naco, i
Cananea, the center of one of the rich
- est copper regions in the world, Will
-, to the south is NIagdalena station, cas-
-, of which is the SantO Domingo canyo
with its placer gold deposits whic
20 are said to have furnished the .ca1
80 80 go for many of Spains treasure ga
Icons.
In addition to copper, gold and si
yer, the mines of Sonora produce leaC
80, 10 coal, antimony, mercury, iron, zinc, sal
-iS and tellM'iuIn. The graphite deposit
~ of the state are said to be the fines
in the world, producing an even be
ter grade than the famous mines of S
~ IBERIA and Japan.