Year: 1878

disfricf.

 The Richmond Basin inning camp is situited in the Apache III ,Iltains, about seventy miles from Florence, Arizona. For years it has been fact we'll known tO all old ArizoniaNs that the Indians of the Apache trire have used metallic cilvcr and horn silver bullets in their hunts and in their attacks upon tht white man, and though Arizona has been known to contain silver in almost every hill and mountain range, vet nothing had been found to com pare with the richness of the metal as shot from the guns of the Indians In the win fer of l875-7j Mr Henry Waggcner, q young German pr0spect0r, in travelling over the mountains in search of veins of the precious metal was le in his wander IF; int) the basin formed by the Apache mountains. Here he found beautiful flat of land covered with the annual grasses of the country and on the sde next the moun- tain q fine spring of water, bat he observed no vein of precious metal. On crossing the flat, however, he noticed a piece of metal lying on the ground and, upon eX- animation found it to be al.nost native sil- yer. This led him U prospect with more care, and he succeeded in finding among the grass quite number of pieces Of horn and native silver. This to him was new and stialgc way of finding silver and, though he could find no vein, he al once located q claim on this flat of 150J by 600 feet, and named it the Hoo Doc.

 About the same time Messrs. Dickey and Albany had found on the range to the north and east some quartz veins which they To- catcd, and on prospecting them they prov ed to be very rich. The next day man 'hy the name oG Cnilson arrived in Richmond basin and was shown the pieces of silver that Waggener had found He at once measured the ground between the Hoo Doc claim and the Dickey- Albany ledge and found q piece of vacant fat of 622 feet. Then he also located from the west side of the Hoo doc another claim which he ram- ed the Llanelly. This took in about 390 feet of the flat and then passed over on the mountain to the ,uthwest of the Hoo Doc.

 During this time nuggets of rich ore were being found, and d great excitement sDrang uo among the miners. For several months it was question where all the rich silver nuggets came from. It was ev- ident tLere must be d vein, and a fat vein was finally found in the flat claims about two fleet under the surface. From this vein about S5J000 have been taken.

 All the veins that had beel discovered u9 to this time were pitching in q wrong direction, and We're also of different char acter of ore. h t short time the source was found on the side Of tine III Junta,I on which tue Lianelly was located. littlc pros peclin5 showed it to be OH the same level at the point where il cropped from the mountain aS the vein on the flat. A tunnel was run into the mountain on the fine of the vein, and found that from q fa. vein at the start it took pitch down into the heart of the m0untlin at an angle of about ? degrees. Here were also found cross veins and strata, all carrying ore. From this tunnel has been extracted the richest silver ere that was ever shown in tie mining markets of the Pacific coast, assayins as nigh as $27,000 per ton; bat the average ot the ores. sold have been about $260J per ton.

 All miners agree that Tn this mountain there is a deposit of metal that would put

 in the shade all the tales of Mexico and it's wonderful richness. All the indications are that a range of metal has been found that will, after full deye!opement, equal if not surpass the great COmstOck in Nevada

 Now, since the prospectOrs have found this rich camp, the Indians have gone among them and .od them that here in this beautiful mountain basin they cut their bullets out of the soft metal they found on the surface. thus aga!n is one of the many Indian legends brought to light by that fore runner of c;yiliZation-the .rUS OectOr.