The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1922-10-20
MONTANAN. WORKS
OLD AZTEC MINES
JACK HOY TAKING SILVER FROM
ANCIENT SHAFTS THAT BE-
LONGED TO MONTEZUBIA
Modern Machinery Installed in Old
Workings on the Arizona-Mexican
Line in Ore Bodies that Have Been
Worked at Various Times Since
Before Columbus Found America.

i A Butte man, Jack Hoy, is mining
silver in shafts originally started b.
the prehistoric Americans, down OF
the Arizona-M exican line. These orr
bodies have been worked intermit
tently since long before the coming
of Columbus.
The white man, applying white
mans mining location laws, has cu1
the ancient mining claims into dim
ensions conforming to present usage
He is equipping them with modern
machinery and using dynamite where
the primitive prospector used an elk
horn pick.
The Mexican character is not gen
orally understood, according to Hoy
who has spent many years along the
border and across the line and who
insists that the Mexican is the vic
tim of much propaganda" in this
country.
81 rode 10000 miles in old Mexico
during the revolution" he said, "and
was never bothered. The Yaqui In
dians, the best soldiers in Mexico,
were always friendly to the United
States.
There was a temporary change in
their attitude, it is true, when Presi-
dent Wilson allowed Mexican troops
to cross into American territory to
attack Villa. The feeling of resent
ment was natural. Villa was a pop
ular idol in the north. The other
military forces were detested.
THAT feeling of antipathy has sub
sided. A new government has come
into power. Another strong man, a
kindly broad-minded statesman, sits
in the seat of Diaz.
President Oregon, whom I hap
pen to know personally, is a Godsend
to Mexico. Competent soldier that
he is and idolized by the fighting men
and particularly by the Yaquis, he
occupies a position invulnerable to
attack from within his own country.
His liberal attitude toward the for
eigner is winning him friends in other
countries.
Originally of Irish stock, the
O'Briens came to Mexico about the
time those other Irish, the O'Higgins
for whom the Chilians once named
the flagship of their navy The name
of O'Brien gradually corrupted into
Obregon.
This statement has been contra
dicted, but the fact is that the presi-
dent of Mexico comes of ancestry that |
once breasted the broad bosom of the
Shannon or heard the banshee's cry
amid the hills of Kerry.
He has made property as safe in
Mexico as 1T is in Montana and is
becoming known to Americans in Old
Mexico as the president of the square
ieal. Mexico reminds one very much
If Montana. There are unlimited OBJ
,ortunities, vast mineral wealth as
yet untouched. The scenery of the
lorthern part is very like our own.
1--WE need capital for development
ust as Montana needed capital in the
lays when Boston had not yet started
o invest in Montana mining ven
ures.''
One of the best known of the old
Aztec silver mines on American ter
itory has been known since the civil
var as the Mowry mine.
The Mowry shaft owes its name to
n old-time army lieutenant who, in
he early sixties, when the war be-
won cAO hoi III duu LuO SOuIn D6-
anne imminent, resigned his commits
ion rather than fight against his
ative state.
During his service in the west, .
lowry had heard of these ancient
lines. He set out to locate them
nd succeeded. He worked the shaft
nat bears his name for some time, :
IMPLYING silver to the confederacy
The federal government learned of
is activities and confiscated the pro
erty. 1t lay idle for many years
4 1871 it resumed operations. The !,
lump in silver in 1893 closed the I
roperty and it remained closed I'M
| 1912. This old mine now has
lousands of tons of ore blocked out. 7
he assay shows large percentage of I
9th silver and lead.
The pre-Columbus Aztec miner I
orked with crude tools, with flakes
Smoky topaz obsidian and flint. ;
e dug comparatively shallow shafts
e brought out his ore in bag on
IS back and supported from a band
'ound his head. His means of as
mt and descent was rude chicken
oder such as may be found in old d
exican mines to this day. 1t was q
0thing more than tree with not :.
les cut in it.
Attention has been attracted to the
atagonia mining district by the