Mohave County miner., 1917-02-03
FAR FAMED MOWRY
MINE is AGAIN TO
RESUME OPERATIONS
TFrom wedne,day's Daily MinerJ


says: Probably one of the biggest and
most interesting mining deals that has
been brought to our attention Of late is
the elimination of the sale of the IA
nous Mowry mines to the Standard
Metals company. Negotiations have
been pending for some time past for
the re-opening of the Mowry, but it
was not until few days ago that
Theron Walker, Los Angeles broker,
received a telegram from the East
that satisfactory purchase price had
been arrived at and the deal was now
closed. The Mowry property consists
of "a patented claims, or APO acres, on
which is situated the town Of Mowry,
with postofice, school, smelter and
everything else pertaining to a large
mining camp. The standard Metal
company's chief engineer, William J..
Mitchell, is now at the Mowry, and it
is believed extensive operations will
begin at an early date an dthat the
mine will soon again regain its old
time activity.
The Mowry is located about nine or
ten miles south of Patagonia, and
supplies for the camp as well as ore
from the mine are handled from this
railroad station. There is an interest
in gtale attached to the far-famed
Mowry mines, for during the Ameri-
can operations preceding the Civil war
the property, then known as the
Patagonia Mines" was the most not
ed and richest in these regions.
The mineral deposit was discovered
in 1858, and its diseoverer, named
johnson, sold it to a number of army
officers who operated the property for
a time, then selling it to Sylvester W.
Mowry, who had been lieutenant in
the army, resigning to engage in that
enterprise. lieutenant Mowry erect
ed reduction plant and conducted OPP
erations on an elaborate scale for
those times. He smelted the ores in
reverberatory furnaces, the product
being lead bars rich in silver, that
were transported to Guaymas by
wagon, thence by sea to Swansea, in
Wales, where the metals were sep
arated and the silver refined. It is
reported that in the course Of two or
three years the output exceeded ST.
100000.
In 1852 the property was seized by
American military authorities in Arr
IONA, and Mowry was placed under ar
rest, charged with areason. He was
kept in confinement several months at
Fort Yuma and then released. The
property, however, was restored to
him. The specific charge Of treason
against Mowry was that he had
shipped lead to the South that was
cast into Confederate bullets that were
used against the federal armies in the
Civil war. Parish, the official his
torian of Arizona, states that Mowry
endeavored fruitlessly to secure from
the government reparation for the
damage done in seizure Of his prop
erty, writing extensively to bring his
case to public attention, and that a
few years later he died in poverty in
London. McClintock gives a differ
ent version. According to that his
torian, Mowry did succeed in collect
ing $4,000 from the general govern
ment, which sum was paid in 1868,
shortly after which payment Mowry
died in London. Mowry's writings call
ing attention to the rich mineral re-
sources of Arizona and Sonora, in his
endeavors to right his own wrongs, are
valuable contributions to the annals Of
both states.
Several times since Mowry's day
have the Mowry minesbeen worked,
and about dozen years ago there was
erected reduction plant of goodly
size and capacity, handling about 100
tons of ore daily. The mine was ex-
plored to a depth of 500 feet. Litiga-
ton terminated operations, however,
until the last few months, when some
parties leased the property and
worked it on a small scale up until
the time negotiations were started for
its purchase by the Standard Metls
company.