The Santa Rita del Cobre, New Mexico, The Early American Period, 1846-1886

Robert L. Spude

Panoramic view of rhe Sama Rita basin with Romero Hill at center and Sama Rita Creek Oowing left ro righr. S. Paige photograph, ca. 1905, courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Denver.

cor of the census' report brought scant attention, n 1862, the Direccor of the U .S. Census Bu­ however, since it appeared at the height of rhe Civil I reau published a compilation of sraristics War, just as Union forces overran the Southwest re­ about the United States. The direccor's review of the talcing it from Texan Confederates, and, coinciden­ mining industry included tabulations of U. S. metal tally, causing the cessation of copper mining opera­ production, including copper. The mines of Michi­ tions. The conflicts of war, which stopped produc­ gan, scene of nearly two decades of mineral activity, tion, would be a recurring theme in the history of the led the nation .in production. Second, surprisingly, Santa Rita del Cobre.1 were the isolated mines of the New Mexico Terri­ Of all rhe U. S. territories in the nineteenth cen­ tory, prominent among them the Santa Rita del Co­ tury, New Mexico was among the best known for its bre. These deposits, located in a 6000' high basin in frontier turmoil and lawlessness - the cerricoria1 era's the transition zone between the Chihuahua desert most famous inhabitant is the homicidal psychopath and the towering Mogollon Mountains, poured forth Billy the Kid, who spent three of his teen years near red metal that Texas and Chihuahua teamsters Santa Rita. During the Southwest's early territorial hauled 1000 miles to the Gulf of Mexico port of La period, 1846- 1886, the history of the Santa Rita del Vaca, Texas, where ships carried it to the mineral Cobre mine in southwestern New Mexico would be a markets of New York. According to contemporaries, complex story of contested terrain, and optimistic the purity of the native copper of Santa Rita del Co­ beginnings followed by, at best, sporadic operations. bre exceeded that of the Michigan mines. The direc- Many adventurers vied lOr ownership. A purported T/Je Snntn Ritl1 del CobN, New Mexil'o, Tbe Ertdy A111~ticrtn Pl'riod. 1846-1886 9

Spanish grant confused, or offered lawyers the oppor­ state of Chihuahua, the most celebrated is the 'Santa tunicy to confuse, the ownership issue. The story also Rita del Cobrc'." Between 1828 and 1838, Wis­ includes the Mexican-American War; feuds among lizenus noted, ''a French resident of Chihuahua ... Apaches - soon ro be dispossessed of their lands - is reported and generaJiy believed to have cleared in and Mexicans and Anglos; Texan expansionism and seven years about a half million of dollars from ir .. . grasp; battles between Confederates and Union [the operator] soon monopolized the whole copper forces; and contests between scandalous territorial marker of Chihual1ua; and as the state at that time economic and political factions. coined a great deal of this metal, he made a very Although the Santa Rita open pit still produces profitable business of it; but at last the mine, wruch copper some 200 years after its discovery, the minels seems to be inexhaustible, bad ro be abandoned on mid-to-late nineteenth century history remains rhe accounr of hostile Indians, who kJlled some of the stuff of legend, some of it buried in garbled chroni­ workmen, and attaclManifest Destiny." Among rhem in Chihuahua and ten or fifteen shafts sinking into the earth. The City was Frederick Adolph Wisljzenus, a thirty-eight entire surface of the hill jnto which they are sunk is year old German medical doctor and amateur geoJo­ covered with iron pyrites and the red oxide of cop­ gist, whose chronicle of the military conquest was per." Lt. Emory also described the rolling landscape, first printed by Congress, and later became a popular an orchard along the creek, and the flowing lush book. He observed that, "of the copper mines of the Mimbres River valley nearby. Tumbling out of the 10 1999 M/niii!J Histmy ]oumrt!

10,000 foot high Mogollon and Black mounraJn with Spaniards, and later Mexicans, but duoughout ranges, the Mimbres began as a trout filled scream the early nineteenth century periods of calm occa­ that spread into the flat Chihuahua desert, only to sionally flared into forays and murders by both sides. vanish into the hot sands. the scrambling ground of Competition for resources, raids for plunder by all, lizard and scorpion.' and perfidious deeds were too common. J(jr Carson From the few accounts left by General Kearny's did not trust the old chief and told General Kearny men ir can be deduced thar mining at Sanra Rita had that Apache war parties were to blame for the 1838 followed the Mexican rradjtion of the mining haci~ mine closure. Other soUices reveal that, in I 837, an enda, similar to the somewhat self-contained iron American named John Johnson tricked chief Juan plantations of the British colonies. A village pro­ Jose into a trading rendezvous south of Sanra Rita, tected by a triangular, adobe presidio or fort stood which turned into a massacre when Johnson opened west of Santa Rita Creek at the foor of Romero Hill, fire on the unsuspecting Apaches, killing cwency-five. sire of extensive mine dumps and shafts. The main "Hostiles" indeed. 10 shaft, approximately sixty feet deep, was filled with During the gold rush to California the aban­ water. At rhe base of the hill stood the rujns of a doned mining hacienda became "a convenient ren­ smelter where the miners had worked the hjgh grade dezvous and jumping off point" for some 500 49ers, ores in addition to the native copper, and nearby according to overland trail historian Patricia Etter. piles of charcoal and ore suggested that the miners Past the ruins treld(ed the respectable and disreputa­ abandoned the works in haste. The orchard and gar­ ble, including famed explorer John Charles Fremont, dens showed that they produced a few of their own military surveyor Lt. Edward F. Beale, a shepherd goods, though freight trains from the south un­ named "Old" Roberts with his flock bound for Cali­ doubtedly brought staples and other foodstuffs. A fornia markets, and a Clarksville, Tennessee party, well worn track, the "Copper Mine Road," pointed which stopped briefly to mine before continuing on soutb across the desert to Janos Presidio and on to to the gold fields. Mangas Coloradas' band parlayed the Chihuahua City mint.8 with some travelers, avoided most, and, after the General Kearny encountered rhe powerful leader of the "Coppermine" band of Apaches, Mangas Coloradas, and his band near Santa Rica. He ne­ gotiated safe passage for his troops through the Apache homeland. ~ Mangas Coloradas' Chihenne band, known co nineteenth century Americans as Coppermine or Mim­ bres Apaches, were a subgroup of the Chiricahua, one of the seven Apache linguistic groups. The estimated 3,000 Chiricahua, around 1850, sub­ sisted on the game and natural food­ scuffs of mountain ranges and deserts of roday's southern New Mexico and Arizona, and south into Mexico. They did not mine copper, though they undoubtedly camped along the Santa Rita Creek and hunted its val­ ley, gathered agave or century plants, and sought nuts from the pinon trees . c ds John Banlert's sketd1, ca. 1851, norrbwesr roward the rnangular fon and rhe Sanrn h Tb A h d d t ere. e pac e tra e ror goo · Ri ra d e 1 C o b r~ worki ngs. Courresy M useurn o fNew M eXJco,· N.eg~ttve · N o. 5274 . Tb~ Sttntlt Ritn del Cobre, New Mexico, The Elli'O' Anlt'riCtlll Period, /846-1886 l (

stare of Chihuahua offered a bounry for Apad1e broughr the experienced international merchant to scalps that encouraged murderous attacks on the what would become El Paso, Texas. He built a grand tribe, began retaliatOJy raids imo Mexico and on hacienda, around which were wagon freight yards whomever mighr cross their path. Santa Rita became and fields. Freighter Francisco Elguea had followed an unsafe place to linger. 11 the trade routes with Magoffin and probably men­ In rhe midst of this frontier chaos, Fr-ancisco El­ tioned the Sanca Rita to him. In a June 1850 letter, guea, Chihuahua rrader and heir ro the Spanish Elguea reminded him of the fortune made by the grant to the Santa Rita, tried to sell the mine. El­ Frenchman Stephen Courcier. Papers were prepared guea's deceased father, Don Francisco Manuel de to lease the mine to Magoffin. 1.l Elguea, had been a prominent Chihuahua banker Because we lack the business papers of Magoff and businessman, and, according to some accounts, in' s wide-ranging operations, we can only sketch the had acquired the grant in 1804 from Lt. Col. Jose pioneer merchant's investments. He held land, mer­ Manuel Carrasco. Carrasco had been led to the chandise, freight wagons and muJes, salt mines, and, plrtnches de cobre - sheets of copper - by an Apache most likely, a lease on the Santa Rita, In 1850, he ftve years earlier. Banker Elguea died in 1806 and rhe negotiated a supply contract with the U. S. Boundary family leased the mine to a series of entrepreneurs, Survey commissioner John Russell Bartlett, who was including a Frenchman, Stephen Courcier, and his a guest in Magofl-ln's home. The trader offered to American parrotT, Robert McKnight, who profited move the surveyor's equipment and men from lndi ~ greatly from their lease. On September 11, 1849, anoia, on tl1e Texas Gulf Coast, to El Paso via San Francisco Elguea's agent wrme the acring governor of Antonio. He also offered to move goods to Santa New Mexico, Donaciano Vigil, requesting American Rita, where Bartlett set up a supply depot and central troops be sent to end the violence around the mine. headquarters for the survey during rhe summer of The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had guarameed 1851. At Santa Rita, the largest cluster of buildings that Mexican dtizens' legitimate land claims would between the Rio Grande Valley and Tucson, Barderr be honored, rhough ir lacked specific reference to found some 50 adobe houses as wdl as the old three­ mineral land grants. (The first legislature of the U. S. sided presidio, which Col. Louis S. Craig, leader of T errir01y of New Mexico would send a resolution the military accompaniment, refitted, naming it asking rhar the federal Congress recognize Spain•s Cantonment Dawson. 1 ~ mining code of 1783 as the mining code for the Magoffin's freight wagons supplied the base camp United States, thus protecting such mining grants - and the mili(ary post, which was maintained in rhe but Congress never seriously considered the resolu­ area until 1853. But it is doubtful that he operated tion.) While Captain Enoch Steen met with Mangas the mine. Bartlett and other members of his party Coloradas at Santa Rita to bring about a tenuous left much information about the area, including the peace, Frandsco Elguea offered the mine to mer­ mention of a Mr. Hayes opening an old gold mine chant James Magoffin for 40,000 pesos. 12 near the Santa Rita, but does not mention anyone re­ In 1849, Magoffin, a prominent trader along the opening the Santa Rita. He also mentions rhe con­ Santa Fe and Chihuahua trails, seeded in Texas, flicts with Mangas Coloradas' band, especially after across the Rio Grande from El Paso del Norte, mod­ members of his party sold whisky to the Apaches, ern Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. He had had a long and when Bartlett's New England puritanism failed career as merchant jn Mexico and in the 1820s had him in dealing correctly with a tense sjruarion over a served as U. S. consul at Saltillo, During the war, Mexkan girl held as an Apache captive. Such ten­ Magoffin led the traders' wagon caravan ahead of sions would have made mining difficult. In his report Kearny's and Donipban's invading army and is given published in 1854, Bart:lert gave a description of the much credit for negotiating the peaceful conquest of camp, and noted the abundant red copper oxide ore New Mexico. Later captured by Mexican (roops, he and masses of native copper about the Santa Rita spent the war in comfort, yet still a prisoner. The works. He suggested char the mines could be worked economic opporrunities along the new border• "without much labor" and made to pay "if cheap 12 1999 Mining HistOI')I}OIII'IIfll

transportation could be found." He recommended Imperial Texas, 1854-1861 forming a company to work the ores and ship the copper to world markets via Texas porcs.15 Texas jnreresr in expansion to the Rio Grande A more conservative writer, Josiah D. Whicney, had been a facmr in causing the Mexican-American reviewed the literature about Santa Rita and wrote in War. Wirb peace, Texas residents' imperiaJ vision his summary of U. S. mjning: "The region of the expanded to [he Pacific via a proposed southern head-waters of the Gila is spoken of by travelers as transcontinental railroad. The demand for the rail­ rich in copper ores, and were they nearer a n1arket road had almost caused a rcnewaJ of hostilities be­ they might become of importance; ar present they tween the U. S. and Mexico when the Bardett must be looked on as of lirde value."''' Magoffin boundary surveyors found that the 1848 treaty had probably agreed with Whimey since there is no rec­ Aaws, which placed the jnitiaJ boundary survey point ord of his operating a mine at, or shipping coppet tar to the north and east of E 1 Paso. Bartlett was from, Santa Rita. ready co compromise, bur the fiery U. S. Surveyor That docs not mean the area was abandoned. The Andrew B. Gray would not give his required concur­ U. S. Army continued ro post soldiers at Canton­ rence and wrote protests to Washington. Gray and ment Dawson, renamed Ft. Webster, near or in the orher southern railroad supporters demanded the line old buildings at the mine, to ensure some prmection be drawn just above El Paso; the Mexican surveyors for overland travelers. The troops feared rhe Apaches demanded a line drawn as shown on the treaty map, especially after their inexperienced captain caused a though in error - which, incidently, would have put brief reopening of warfare. One newly arrived trooper Santa Rita in Mexico. After U. S. and Mexican mili­ nmed in his diary, "there are 50 men here, aJI fright­ rary displays and marches up and down the Rio ened out of their wits." No one recorded the Grande and threats of another war, the U. S. took Apaches' state. A11other observer, Anna Maria Mor­ advantage of an unstable Mexico in order m buy the ris, whose husband later commanded the post, ar­ disputed boundary country. ln 1854 the U. S. com­ rived the following year. She noted the Apache were pleted the Gadsden Purchase. The South's and sur­ at peace, and wrote: "the Indians were in again eo­ veyor Gray's low elevation gateway ro a southern rail­ day. The Maj. bough[ me two nice baskets of the road route to California was secured. That year, Gray chief's daughter." Pt. Webster, despite only three helped organize and survey the Texas Western Rad­ years of existence, had become a hub of frontier go­ road, partially pmmoted by Texan Senator Thomas 17 ings on. J. Rusk. 1Y Magoffin supplied these posts until an error in Gray, who previously had been a mineraJ sur­ judgement kept him from New Mexico. Residents of veyor during the early copper boom at Keweenaw, Mesilla in the Rio Grande Valley north of El Paso Michigan, also touted the richness of the copper had harvested salt from dry lakes to the east, bur in mines of New Mexico Territory. The strong-willed ] 852 Magoffin claimed that the salt was his. In U. S. Senator Thomas Rusk, a leading proponent of January 1852, with the help of the El Paso county the southern railroad, which coincidently passed near sheriff: he evicted the New Mexicans in a fight. The the Santa Rita, also helped kill the bill to create the "salt war" brought charges against Magoffin, which Mimbres Apache Indian Reservation. Agent Michael were dropped two years later after he paid for the Steck, a friend to the Apache, was embarrassed and killed oxen of the snlineros. By chen the Santa Rita had to explain that, yes, "a copper mine Grant" of was again abandoned. Previously, as the military left "nine square leagues" w:~s well-known in the area. To Fort Webster, the Apaches burned the post, making his regret, rhe treaty with Mangas Coloradas creating it uninhabitable. ln 1855, Indian Agent Michael the agreed upon reserve for the 850 Mimbres Steck and Governor David Meriwether negotiated a Apaches failed to pass Congress. Amblti.ous Texans treaty with Mangas Coloradas, providing for a la rge had already sprinlded the region with agricultural reservation within rheir homeland, which included land claims and with stops for an overland st"J.ge li.ne the Santa Rita mine. The Coppermine or Mimbres from SaJl Antonio to San Diego. The copper mine Apaches began fiu:ming along the Mimbres River.• ~ gram would catcl1 the anendon of speculators from Tbe Srtllttl Ritn del Cobre, New Me.\'ica, T/;e EnrLy Amerimll Period 1846-1886 13

rhe Lone Sra1· state. 111 San Antonio, and a neighbor of Magoffin. During In 1854, on the alkali-choked two thousand mile the 1\1exican-American war, Hart feU in Jove and uail from south Texas to California, John James of married Jesusita Siqueros, daughter of Leanardo San Antonio led thirty-eight well armed men and a Siqueros, prominent merchant, farmer, and trader thousand head of cattle west to sell to gold miners. from Santa Cruz de Rosales, Chihuahua. Leanardo Like orher bosses he trailed his herd from water hole and Francisco Siqueros of the mining town of Parral, ro water hole, especially across the Chihuahua deserr. Chihuahua, would provide the mine management South of Santa Rita, ar Ojo de Vaca- cow spring- a skills and workers. The Texas merchants provided well known watering stop for immigrants, soldiers, credit, supplies, and space in their empty wagons re­ Apaches, and cattle herds, he may have learned about turning from rhe frontier military posts /~ che Sanra Rita copper mine. His men could not have During 1857-8, the Siqueros negotiated a lease missed the well-worn "Copper Mine Road" from from the representative of the Elguea heirs, Don Santa Rita ro Chihuahua that crossed their path, Juan I bern y Mandri. The lease would run for seven noted by every American traveler. James, a wealthy years, with no payments for the first two years but land speculator, had immigrated from Canada to 600 pesos each year thereafter. The lease also in­ Texas in 1837. As a surveyor he was able to daim cluded the responsibility of removing the Apaches some of the few springs in West Texas. He also from the land and, if the atracks became too over­ owned the land and mineral rights ro old sliver mines whelming, the contract could be terminated. The in the Presidio Mountains of west Texas. With his agreement went into effect April 10, 1858.l4 brother-in-law James R. Sweet, mayor of San Anto­ ln preparation for leasing the mine, Leonardo nio, be operated a mercantile and freighting business. Siqueros and his son had Haveled to Santa Rita in Sweet & Co. had sold mules to the Bartlett survey in the fall of 1857. There be encountered an angry 1851. At any rare, by rhe late 1850s, partners John brother of Mangas Coloradas.. who ordered the James, James Sweet, and Jean Batiste LaCoste, a self­ Mexican to leave his land. When Jose Mangas at­ 11 trained engineer, had learned of the Santa Rlra. tacked Siqueros1 his son fired a shot which rn.issed its LaCoste and Sweet were relative newcomers to mark, killing an Apache woman. Siqueros avoided a San Antonio, Texas. The short, gentlemanly French­ potentially explosive dash by offering rhe Apaches man, LaCoste - remembered today for introducing $400 worth of goods which, according to Indian the first ice plane in San Antonio- migrated ro New Agent Michael Steck, "seemed to satisfY them for the Orleans in 1847, then shortly thereafter arrived in present." After gaining a tenuous treaty with the San Antonio, where he entered business with Sweet. Apache and after signing the lease, Siqueros arrived Sweet hailed from Nova Scotia. "A gencleman much late the following summer with a few Mexican min­ liked by all," he was also a powerful, physically im­ ers and their fami lies to begin operations. Pack trains posing man, especially to those who crossed him. He carrying loads of native copper were, at first, sent di­ once stood down a gun-man in San Antonio's main rectly to Chihuahua City.15 plaza when che police failed to arrest the desperado. Siqueros tried to hiTe the Apaches as laborers, but The firm of Sweet & Co., later Sweet & LaCoste, claimed they would not work. He or his son-in-law, was part of the interconnected merchants of El Paso Simeon Hart, also wrote the military, Indian agency and San Antonio, who supplied the west Texas and hierarchy, and others to request protection, aod more New Mexico military posts and settlements. zz gifts and supplies for Mangas Colorado's band. The Today, at this late date, it is difficult to derail the potential for bloodshed remained high, they feared. chronology of events that brought about a partner­ Much to the Mexican's t'elief, however, Mangas Col­ ship to try to reopen the Santa Rita. Included were o.radas and his band, under the guidance of agenr James, Sweet, LaCoste, Sjmeon Hart, his father-in­ Steck, made an earnest srart to firm on Mangas law Leanardo Siqueros, and, possibly, James Magof­ Creek to the west. The band did not attack rhe min­ fin and others. Simeon Hart, flour mill owner of El ers, but did continue its traditional raiding into Mex­ Paso and major supplier m military posts along the ico for plunder and horses. On one occasion, Rio Grande, was also an agent for Sweer & Co. of Siqueros .intervened on behalf of some Mexican car- 14 1999 Mining Histol'y }ollmfll

1 tlemen whose stock had been stolen. G Hanover mine, five miles ro the northwest, which By 1859 Siqueros could focus oh mmmg. Ac­ began to out produce the Santa Rita. Like Siqueros, cording to one report, he brought in 180 miners Henkel's backers were from Texas and New Mex­ from Chihuahua, opened the old workings, and was icoY operating Mexican style adobe blast furnaces to work One famed visiwr to the area was Sylvester rhe oxide ores. The report added he could put an­ Mowry, a self-proclaimed delegate to the U. S. Con­ other 400 men to work. Gambusinos climbed down gress from the proposed territory of Arizona, a politi­ chicken ladders - poles with foot notches cur into cal vehicle to serve the Texans, miners, and other them - into the shallow shafts to horizontal passage­ newcomers. Mowry wrote on February 3, 1859, that ways, where they crawled with simple tools to pry the "The Sama Rita del Cobre copper mine, of ancient copper nuggets, stones, and boulders loose from the fame, and a little to the northwest of the Mimbres, limestone and country rock. The native copper was has lately been reopened by a capitalist, who has al­ sorted and cleaned, then melted into bars and ready begun to reap rbe reward of his enterprise. One snipped. They also mined the high grade oxide ores, hundred and thirry thousand pounds of this copper hauling it to the sLLCface in large deer-skin or cow­ were sold a few months since to the Chihuahua mint hide bags. Jean Batiste LaCoste came from San Anto­ for rhirry-ftve cents per pound. A quantity has been nio, inspected the works, and co~staked a nearby sent co New York to be experimented on. It is claim, the San Jose, in accord with New Mexico ter­ claimed that the superior malleability and ductility of ritorial laws. A smaller operation started at the San rhjs copper must make the demand for it very Jose. under Mariano Varela, freighter and one-time great. " ZK owner of rhe ranch which became downtown El We know little about the Mexican miners at Paso. Sofia Henkel, German metallurgist and one­ Santa Rita. The 1860 census enumerators found 155 time assayet at the Chihuahua mint, opened the miners, laborers, and thei( Families, including two of

"Enslaved in the Mines," hyporherical sketch of underground T wentieth century miner wirh relics from Santa Rita's earlier mine works showing miners, ore bags, and ladders nor unlike workings stands on a chicken ladder holding ore bags, June 6, the early Santa Rita del Cobre operations. From William G. 1915. Courresy Museum of New Mexico, Negative No. 52 55. Rirch. Nm Mexico Historical mullndustrial (Santa Fe, 1885) T/Je Stt11tn mttt deL Cobre. New Mexico, The EttriyAmeriCtTn Period 1846-1886 15

era, Santa Rita and its neighbors housed communi­ ties of families. Nearly every household included women and many had children. An excanr Santa Rita payroll sheet from April 1861 lists 93 workers paid $547.37 for rhe month, "peon" wages. Other sources show that an El Paso merchanr, Vicente St. Vrain of the famed frontier rrading family, operated a branch store at Santa Rita, but he was not a residenr. l~ Santa Rita reAecced more an extension of the Mexican mining experience rhan the mining frontier of the American West. The copper industry was la­ bor intensive with as many laborers as miners doing a variety of tasks, such as wood cutting and charcoal malcing, donkey or mule packing, reaming and herd­ ing, and blacksmithing. The simple shaft blast fur­ naces had ro be constantly tended and adjusted. Ex­ perienced furnace hands and assistants were needed to draw off impurities and to cast the molten metal into molds. The blast for hear came from large bel­ lows, powered by a steam engine, which needed tending by an experienced boilermalcer. Besides the mine workers, other members of rbe community cul­ civared gardens and che orchard, hunted game, or raised stock for food. The isolated works were con­ nected to the outside world by mule trains pulling German blasr furnace ca. 1850 from Edward Dyer Pe£ers, the famed Chihuahua wagons capable of hauling The PrincipM of Copper Sm~ltillg (New York: Hill Publish­ 1 ing. !907). 3,000 pounds or more. 3C Young W . W. MiUs worked for Sr. Vrain's store Siqueros' young sons, Leonardo, age 24, and Antonio, age 19. The miners were all born in Mexico or in New Mexico. Nearby was the camp of Hanover, which contained 173 miners, laborers and their fami­ lies as weU as freighters and con­ strucdon workers. All but Sofio Henkel of Hanover and his clerk, Frederick Kohl of Hess Cassel, were born in Mexico or New Mexico. A third camp, Dolores, at the San Jose, had a population of nineteen. Fifty year old Mariano Varela, his wife and six children, and two other families resided there. ln sharp contrast to the male­ Ruins of the blnst furnace builr en. 1860 by Sofio Henkle at the Hauover mine. Ttwas dominated gold camps of the similar w the works- at Santa Ri£a. Courre~y Museum of New MeJCico, Negative No. 9711 . 16 19.99 Mining H/sto1y jo11nud

in El Paso and Santa Rlta. Hls is the only remiois­ ragorda Bay for placemem on chooners bound for cenr account about the tnine around 1860. He world markets. The rich ores and the coupling of the writes; Spanish mining tradition with German metallurgy made the disrrict one of the most productive in the When I rerurned to El Paso .. , [IJ was U. S. in 1860, as previously mcncionedY Shipping employed in the same capacity by St. Vrain & costs, however, were at 12- 15 cents per pound. And Co. merchants. This firm had a branch stoa•e the:: work had dangers. Mill~ ' own brotheJ· was killed at rne Santa R.ira copper mines . .. I made when Apaches attacked his party south of Santa rwo journeys to aJld from that place, the first Rita. ~" time on horseback ahd alone. There was no The high cost of freight and the loss of human habitation berween La Mesilla and Santa life took a toll on the Siqueros operarion. Colonel Rica. . . . The second journey I made as Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, who wirh Indian Agen1 wagonmaster of our rrain laden wirh merchan­ Michael Steele visited the mine in 1859, noted that dise for rhe Santa Rita store, and brought back the Apache and Chihuahuans were "enemies of old a load of copper, which we sent by wagons to standing." He expected conflicts, sooner or later. Jn Port LaVaca, eight hundred miles, and thence May 1860, Apaches atracked a wagon rrain bound to New York by Gulf and sea.J 1 for Santa Rita and killed five Mexicans. Other raids foUowed. At the same time, prospectors working io The Jnine's product, poured Into 150-pound the area made the Southwest's fltst major Anglo­ bars, wa h:nded to rhe Rio Grande where freight American gold strike at Pinos Altos-, 15 miles co the wagons carried the copper bars the resr of the journey northwest. A reported one thousand miners rushed via San Antonio to the Te.-:.as port of LaVaca on Ma- in and, by increasing the competition for game and

The Sama R.ira-Pino Altos~Silvct' Clcy, New Mexico region Silver City QIUulmnglt:, U. S . Geologicrrl Snruel, 19 16·. Tbe Snm11 Ritn del Cobte, New Mexico, Tbe t:ndy Amr:rirnu Period, 1846-1886 17

other food, expanded hostilities between the whites company of your family, whom I send my regardsY and Apache.3 The record is sketchy, but by mid- The letters of James R. Sweet to LaCoste indicate­ 1860 Siqueros was heavily in debt to his San Anto­ a more worrisome period for the operation. Just as nio creditors, who foreclosed on his operation. TJ1e the partners began investing heavily in improvements renewed warfare may have also been a factor in their at Santa Rita, Abraham Lincoln was elected presi­ decision to quit the operation. LaCoste in Chihua­ dent. Impending war news was mixed in with James hua City negotiated with rbe owner's representative Sweet's letters. He complained of Varela's mounting ro take over, rhen rushed to Santa Rir-a. while James debts, especially the use of the firm's money co pay Sweet began managing affairs from San Anronio,35 off old bills incmred by others. In response to Texan interest in the Santa Rita area and south­ Varela's pleas, he sent fifteen wagonloads of goods ern New Mexico had increased. Migration to the from San Antonio ro the mines in hopes that the area was sparked by the development of the Bucter­ wagons would return fuJJ - "I hope the working of fleld Overland stage line, the opening of d1e mines, rhe mines will so progress that no chance for want of the expansion of farming in the Mesilla VaHey, and copper will be lost in sending down [the wagons]." by promotional writings. The ediror of the San Anto­ Fearful of getting further in debt Sweet wrote, "if we nio He Mid, for example, on Janmuy 18, 1860, noted. do not succeed the fault wi ll not be ours, the present the arrival of a Mesilla merchant and wrote: "every state of things no one could have foreseen.'' He day reporrs of the discovery of new silver and copper added, "the frontier is breaking up and raking all mines of the rid1est qualiry, yielding immense prof­ things imo consideration we are in a sad state." In its ... almost induces us to abandon our sanctum March, Texas seceded from the Union.)K and wend our way rhit:her." The Mesilla Miner, later The Confederacy imposed a 25% tariff on goods the Mesilla Times, began publication in 1860, sent tO the north, which closed their New York mar­ chronicling the movements of people, goods, and ket for copper. In April, while Confederate volun­ coppe.r. Texans founded the cown of Birchville at the teers captured the Union troops in San Antonio, Pinos Altos diggings and platted Mowry City on che Sweet was still fighting with Siqueros over past debts fertile Mimbres River, a nascent supply point on the and sought arbitration. He wondered how LaCoste overland trail south of the mines ..l 6 had done with their lease of the mine; he was worried On November 3, l 860, the:: San Antonio newspa­ about lack of fiscal restraint on manager Varela1s per announced that Sweet & LaCoste had received pare; and he prayed for another shipment of copper another twelve tons of Santa Rita copper aboard the to reduce their debts. lnstead, only 11,000 pounds wagon trains of jose deJa Luz Manciz and Jose Mal'ia arrived, which Sweet noted, "had need be silver to Uranje. But the receipt of copper shipments was no gee our advances out of the mine." As war hit Vir­ indication of prosperity. On February 20, 1861, ginia, Sweet went east in July as courier for Texas Sweet & LaCoste's manager at che mine, Mariano Confederates and co retrieve his daughter fi·om

Varela, wrote of problems. Winter smrms and diffi­ scbool. ln his absence1 he sem Alexander Brand, a culty in smelting ores had cut production nearly in rwenty-nine year old Frenchman, surveyor and phy­ half, but he srill hoped to ship 10,000 to 15,000 sician, to the mines to manage more closely Sama pounds of copper per month. Two weeks later, on Ri ta a ffil.i rs, 3~ March 3, Varela appealed for help from Ramon Or­ tiz in El Paso. The miners were nearly out of flour, The Civil Wal' and Aftermath, 1861-1870 beans, and corn. •

Altos-Sanra Rita area. Bur this soon collapsed as Un­ ion forces re-captured New Mexico from the norch and west. The rapid rise and fall of che Confederacy in New Mexico had an immediate impact on the work at Santa Rica. After the March 1862 defeat of General Henry H. Sibley at Glorieta Pass above Santa Fe, the Rebels beat a reueat back to Texas. Brand and others from southern New Mexico es­ caped with them. He dosed the mine May 10, 1862, ten days before General James H. Carleton and his 2,350 soldiers of the California Column took Tuc­ son. When Carleton's rroops reached che Rio Grande valley, they confiscated copper bars, mine supplies, and even a boiler and steam engine at the mines. The firm of Sweet & Lacoste later claimed to have lost 300,000 pounds of copper as well as provisions worth $70,084 co the war. During the remainder of the war LaCoste lived in Matamoras and shipped confederate cotton via Mexican ports. Brand re­ mained in Texas, and James Sweet joined cbe Con­ federacy as a colonel serving along the lower Rio Grande.41 The Santa Rica once again became the domain of Mangas Coloradas and his people. In 1861, he joined with his son-in-law Cochise, who had been cricked by soldiers into a meeting at Apache Pass that General James H. Carle ron, co-claimant of the Sanra Rita, almost cost him his life. In response, according to 1866. Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Negative No. 22938. one report, he "threatened the extermination of all would later reminisce that when he arrived the part­ whites in the limits of his range." On September 27, ners employed 120 miners at the mines and smelter, 1861, the Chiricahua chiefs attacked Pinos Altos, but were hampered by losses to rhe invading Confed­ followed by attacks on the supply trains of Santa erates, who commandeered supplies bound for Santa Rita. They attacked overland immigrants and rhe Rita. 40 The local press praised the operation; the Me­ stage stations and coaches. On July 15, 1862, they silla Times editor wrote on January 1, 1862: "a large bravely confronted the California Volunteers at train left this place last week, with provisions for the Apache Pass, Arizona. The attack wrought General Copper Mines of Santa Rita. We are pleased to see James Carleton's animosity. Six months later, in an char these mines are l{ept going in spite of war evils act of treachery, his troops rem peed Mangas Colo­ and conri_nually occurring Indian depredations." radas imo council, arrested him, and then shot him Later in the spring of 1862, the mine shipped while he was allegedly crying to escape. The conflict copper via Mexico to the mouth of the Rio Grande, between the North and South became one pitting where LaCoste had become a broker of Confederate the California Volunteers against the Indians of New cotton and other contraband bound for Brirain. The Mexico.H lack of supplies, powder and charcoal for smelting Few adventurers visited Santa Rita during che would bring the operation co a standstill. Confound­ war. ln October 1864, two experienced geologists ing Brand, again, was an increasing boldness by made the first professional inspection of Pinos Altos Apache raiding parties. 41 and Santa Rica, which they found abandoned and The Confederates organized volunteers, the desolate. Richard E. Owen, professor at Indiana "Arizona Guards," to protect settlements in the Pinos State University, and E. T. Cox, his assistant, pub- The Stluttt Ritfl del Cobre, NetiJ Me.\'ico, The Early Americau Period, 1846-1886 19

lished an account tided Report on the Mi11es ofNetv Mexico. Protected by Union troops, they inspected the Santa Rita; which, they ob­ 1 served, had "large quantities of Na­ I tive copper, as pure as that ofLake 1 Superior." Another nearly contem­ porary visitor described rhe smelter: I ' "We found works oF considerable c:J?~udtd4:?~ · ~ ~ · magnitude; I counted twelve bel­ lows, in a kind oF hall, that must I have been sixty feet high, but the ' rafters and beams overhead had rot- ted and the weight of the mud ... bad borne down the roof, and half covered an enormous wheel, some forty feet in diameter. Every thing about this wheel that was not wood was copper." Owen and Cox ob­ served piles of ore and the furnaces ready for work, but, giving the standard tale of rhe day, u the work­ men were driven off by the re­ peated murderous attacks of the Apache." Nothing was mentioned of the California Column's removal of a steam boiler, machinery or ')'-;,._.. other destructive acrions.44 Owen and Cox's report arrived in the hands of New Mexicans just as the war was coming to an end. The mid-1860s was a time of ram­ pant mine speculation in the Rocky Mountain territories, and General Carleton and territorial officials maneuvered tO take advantage of eager Eastern investors as well as . ~ ...._,______+__.:______the absence of the Texans. In the summer of 1866, under the protec­ ..... tion of troops at recently estab­ 1869 plat map of the Santa Rica Mining Association's daim. Counesy Sama Rita grant lished Fort Bayard, five miles due file. Nev1 Mexico State Library andArchi~s, Santa Fe. west fj·om che mine, Carleton with Robert Mitchell, the new governor and a former Un­ Santa Rita in June 1866, a greedy act by the gover­ ion general, John Pratt, new U. S. Marshall, chief nor, general, and the rest of the party of influential quartermaster Captain Herbert Enos, Carleton's In­ men, the military and civil government hierarchy of spector General Nelson Davis, territorial Attorney the territory. They ignored the efforts of Sweet & General Chades Clever, and others "discovered" the LaCoste and the earlier Spanish and Mexican Santa Rica mine. They filed mining claims to the claims.-45 20 1399 Miniug Hist01y jourwtl

Governor Mitdlell, Gener<1l CarJeron and their ing to secede from New Mexico and join the new Sanra F<:; partners were the leaders of the strong Un­ territory of Arizona, organized in 1863 out of the ionist politic-al faction that controlled the territory westel'n half of New Me.'Cico Territory. 4 ~ and symbolized the continuation of rhe war, if nor in In 1869, Brand formed a partnership with miner violence at least through parronage and spoils. They James Fresh, who became superintendent, and hit·ed formed the Santa Rita Minjng Associadoo to reap two dozen miners. The gambusinos or miners of more benefits. ln autumn, rhe governor left for the Santa Rita worked on their own as sublessees of cer­ east on official business as weU as to promote the tain pans of the mine. James Fresh described the

Santa Rita and Pinos Altos mines. Over the winter work: "The men worked in rhe simplest way1 pidcing 1866-7. from November co March, the partners the rock to pieces in the mine, and carrying it on hired a handful of miners to reside at Santa Rita, re­ their backs up rhe almost perpendicular ladders. pair a house, and open the mine, all under the They were obliged, for one cent per pound of the ore watchful protection of troops at Ft. Bayard.~ r. they produced, to bring it to the surface of chc Meanwhile, AJexander Brand arrived back on the ground, as well as remove all refuse rock from the scene. Trying ro rebuild his fortunes after the war, mine, and dump it at places designated. Two men James R. Sweet gave Brand a power of attorney to usuaJly worked in company, one to excavate the rock reopen the mines and manage hi~ other interests at and one to carry it out The two would tal

Texans to close down. The file shows rhat previously. Given the conAicting and confusing evidence - on April 18, 1867, Governor MitcheU, General Car­ Sweet's, the Santa Rita Mining Association's, and leton, and their partners ftJed for a mineral land pat­ MacWillie's - the case was carefLdJy reviewed by che ent - the method for acquiring fee title - to the U. S. Land Commissioner, Joseph S. Wilson. On Santa Rita under the Federal 1866 mining law. April 22, 1870 he i.>sued his opinion. The petitioners When Brand learned of this maneuver, he notilied for patent repre.~ented by Marshall Pratt and attorney James R. Sweet, who filed a protest to the patent ap­ Elkins were chastised by Wilson, who saw through plication. The Texans began a legal feud with the their bogus claim. They had claimed a new locarion, Santa Rica Mining Association - Mitchell, Carleton, but, wrote WiJson, the old mine "has been operated and parrners. Shifts in power in the territorial capital for many years: one that has been referred to on ac­ brought about rhe downfall of Carlecon and count of the richness of irs ores by nearly every writer Mitchell; the carpet-bag governor had proved ineffec­ on New Mexico for the last fifry years - a mine fur­ tive due to fights wirh local politicos and the removal nishing copper of such great puriry that norwich­ of General Carleton as military commander in Santa standing its out of rhe way locality Dr. Wislizenus Fe weakened both. However, they were ably replaced reports that a Frenchman from 1828 ro, 1835 [sic] by U. S. Marshall Pratt and territorial Arrorney Gen­ cleared half a million dollars by working it .. . The eral Stephen Elkins as the driving forces behind the Santa Rita del Cobre is therefore of the kind of prop­ Santa Rita Mining Association. Pratt and Elkins en­ en:y which in the 7th section of the territorial mining sured that digging of a tWenty foot shaft, repairing a actof]anuaq 18,1865 is classed as 'mine and min­ building as residence and other req uiremenrs of the eraJ ground heretofore occupied in this territozy' and Federal Mining Law of 1866 were met, including a is subject to relocation only afrer minJng has ceased government survey as initial step for patenting and to be prosecuted for a period of ten years or more." receiving title to the land. In July 1869, mineral sur­ The mine could not be relocated nor, for chat matter, veyor R. B. Willison arrived to survey the Santa R1ta could a patent be given to the Santa Rira Mining As­ claim for the Santa Feans. The surveyor compiled a sociation. And, Wilson added, "Sweet and LaCoste, dossier of information, retained in the grant file. occupied under a lease from the widow of de Alguea Willison reponed that the association had made im­ [Eiguea), which only expired in 1865 and conse­ provements in compliance with che Law, bur also quently are as little qualified to relocate the mine as pointed out the substantial operation of Alexander the applicants." MacWillie had won the case .for the Brand on the same ground. He also noted a pre­ heirs. 53 existing Spanish m.ineral grant.Arizona Territory, C. S. A., got from pro­ Hams and William Pierson of El Paso, needed to find testing the claim of General James H . Carleton, et. proof of the original grant - some people doubted it al.n had ever existed. The trio faced setbacks. On Decem- 22 1933 Mining HistoJy ]oumn/

ber 7, 1870, B. F. Williams was shot and killed in in the Union Congress while MacWillie served in the the meers of El Paso, the Jesuit of a polirical feud. Confederate one. More importantly, Watts had suc­ Then, Maria Antonia Elguea y Medina y Guero, cessfully won several major land grant cases. On No­ Don Francisco Elguea's widow, died without for­ vember 18, 1872, he submitted a well prepared state­ warding a copy of the grant. On March 20, 1872, ment of the Elguea heirs' claim. The heirs were Jose MacWillie filed a record of the claim in the Grant Guero of Bilbao, son of Maria Antonia Elguea y Counry court house, but without a true copy of the Medina y Guero by her second marriage with Pablo original grant papers. U. S. Mineral Commissioner Guero, deceased, and Dolores Elguea of Chihuahua, Rossiter Raymond, though incorrectly naming the ''Spanish lady's" granddaughter. Dolores was the MacWillie ''Willey" in his report for 1872, observed iUegitimare daughter of rrader and freighter Francisco "Mr. Willey, a lawyer, claims to have searched out Elguea, also deceased; she had been raised by Edward this old title, and to have bought the mine of the Macmanus of Chihuahua City. They petitioned for heirs of the Spanish lady. He is making efforts to ob­ the confirmation of their grant of four square tain a United States tide, and is said to intend work­ leagues, approximately six miles by six miles of min­ ing the mine." ~~ eralized land. ~7 In the midst of ftlings and legal work, MacWillie judge Watts also informed the local miners char was overrun by new contestants. With the 1870-71 they had no right to the land. He wrote articles fur rush to the silver strike at Silver City, 15 miles due the press and threatened lawsuits. After explaining west of Santa Rita, veteran Rocky Mountain miners the merits of the hdrs' gram in the Santa Fe Union, entered the region. Several men decided d1at the he declared that "ir is impossible for our government Santa Rita claim was invalid - MacWillie's failure to to grant a title to any others than the old Spanish file a copy of the grant papers spurred the question­ claimants." The grant would be proved valid. How­ ing - and began staking claims under the Federal ever, the editor of the Las Cruces The Borderer gave Mining Law of 1872. Among the sralcers was James the local view: "a perfect hegira took place in the di­ Fresh, Brand's former superintendent, who named rection of the Santa Rita. The best portion of rbese his claim rhe Chino, a Spanish mineralogical term valuable copper deposits has now been located by for the iron pyrites common here. James Fresh with a various parties and although a lawsuit may result, new partner, Washingtonian John Magruder, began there is not much question of rhe superiority of the minjng again Jess than a mile from the Santa Rita, last locarors. '' 5~ withjn the purported Elguea grant. Other miners Into this tangle of affairs came Martin B. "Matt" soon followed. Ringleader of the new claimants was Hayes, a man familiar with the machinations of the attorney Henry O'Neil. He caused a rush to stake Rocky Mountain mining frontier. Hayes, a New claims in October 1872, which may have been are­ Yorker and Midwest businessman, went wesr during sult of the opening of the District Court session at the CoLorado gold tush. There he helped form the Silver City and its issuance of numerous gratis, bar Gregory Consolidated Mining Company of Central room legal opinions. The publication in the local City, one of the most productive of the 1860s. He newspaper of the mining law of 1872 probably also managed the nearby James E. Lyon & Co. helped spark the stampede as well. Whatever the smelter, the first in Colorado. He joined Jerome cause, (he Santa Rita valley was staked from one end Chaffee and David Moffat, bankers and wealthy to the ocher. 56 mining men, in speculative silver mining ventures at During this crisis, the Chihuahua agenc for the Georgetown, Colorado. In late 1872, his partners, Elguea heirs, Jose M. Horcasitas y Campos, removed aware that the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad MacWillie and sought assistance elsewhere. He planned to extend irs line into Mexico, sent Hayes turned to John S. Watts, the best land gram lawyer south to look for a copper mine.}9 in Santa Fe. During the 1850s, MacWillie and Watrs At Santa Fe, Hayes met Stephen B. Ellcins. El­ had both served as attorneys in New Mexico and, kins, Jerome Chaffee, Marshall John Pratt of the oddly, in the 1860s both men served as delegates to Santa Rita Mining Association, and others had just Congress for pares ofNew Mexico, bur Warts served negotiated the sale of the gigantic Maxwell land The Santa Ritn del Cobre, New Me:dco, The Enrly Americnn Period, 1846-1886 23

recorded the transfer of the Elguea gram at the Gram County Courthouse in Silver City on November 10, 1873. Simultaneously, the mining ground was staked under U. S . law, just in case problems might adse.60 A fragmentary record from the National Bank of Sanra Fe suggests rbar the bank's presidenr, Stephen B. Elkins, and the Santa Fe Ring brought the various factions together. EJkjns, through Francisco Macmanus of Chihuahua, helped transfer rhe claim of the Elguea heirs to Hayes for a $15,000 promis­ sory note, payable upon receipt of title. 1 he Santa Rita Mining Association claim drops from the scene, probably thwugh some arrangement brought about by Elkins for Hayes. William Pierson, Williams & MacWillie's old associate, aided Hayes by preparing a dossier history. The O'Neil claims of 1872, either through intimidation by Judge Wans or the appear~ ance of Pierson at the mines, were not pressed. Their case was weakened, anyway, by the land office's 1873 dismissal of attorney Elkins' Santa Rita Mining Asso­ ciation case in favor of the grant holders. By the end of 1873, Hayes held the mine. Returning to Denver he mer with Chaffee and Moffat, and formed a part­ nership to rework the Santa Rita with the latter to 1 1 advance operating funds. ' When Hayes arrived in the Santa Rita valley in Senaror Jerome B. Chaffee, mining man :Uld friend of rhc Sanra Fe Ring helped gain ride for chc Colorado crowd. Courcesy 1874 he found conditions far different than what Wesct:rn Hisrory Dcparcmenr, Denver Public Library. Brand had left only four years before. Silver City had become a respectable village and county seat, with grant, from which they reaped a fortune. An ally of merchants and other suppliers readily able to fill his Judge Watts, Stephen B. "Smooth Steve" Elkins be­ needs for flour, corn, and beans. The Apaches, after came the attorney for the Santa Rica Mining Associa­ years of assault by rhe military, were pressed into ac­ tion and carried on their case. His cohort and long­ ceptance of the "peace policy" of President U. S. rime parcner was Thomas Carron, the ex-confederate Grant, which had them removed co a reservation. and agent at the Mesilla land office who witnessed Though occasional attacks and guerrilla warfare in Alexander Brand's claims in the Santa Rita discrict in rhe surrounding countryside would cominue, the 1867. Carron also staked claims for himself, some of Santa Rita valley had seen its last raid. Hayes found which led to his acquisition of rhe productive railroads still were far from New Mexico's borders Hanover mine. He was well informed about the and, rhus, transportation remained costly, bur the Santa Rita region. Wares, Elkins, Catron, and Pratt Denver & Rio Grande was building south from were major players in the powerful political faction Pueblo, 500 miles distant. 62 known as the "Santa Fe Ring." The fat file of Santa Hayes took charge of the operation himself. He Rita mine claims and counter claims in the U. S. brought miners from Denver, opened new veins on Surveyor General's record became strangely silent af­ Romero Hjjl and sunk a 248-foot shaft to exuact the ter rhe Ring became involved - 1'case dismissed with­ layers of copper ores. The Silver City Mining Life re­ our prejudice," reads the April 15, 1873, land office ported rhe mines were being ''reopened in a solid decision. Obviously, a deal had been cur. Mart Colorado-like way." Hayes directed the consuuction Hayes had become the owner of the Santa Rita. He of a new smelter, abandoning the old Mexican-style 24 1999 Mini11g Hh·to1y )ournnl

J

An early twentieth centUI:y view of the Santa Rita works show the smelter of Mart Hayes at center witl1 high smokestack. To the left are the old loug adobe headquarters and home of William Pierson and directly on rhe slope below is the lone rower remaining from rhe triangular forr. The view is raken from the same vantage poinr as Bartlett's 1851 sketch. L. C. Graton phorograph ca. 1905, councsy U. S. Geological Survey, Denver. adobe shaft furnace for one designed after rhe rever­ opened the old Hanover mine and had a smelter beratories of the great copper works at Swansea, pouring forth the red metal by late 1875. James Wales, and like the one he previously managed ar Fresh, Brand's old partne1·, with James Magruder, Black Hawk, Colorado. The smelter poured its first who had "a little money from his mother," opened copper in the spring of 1875 and Hayes shipped the old San Jose and a group of claims adjacent to metal out to the Rio Grande, then north up the well the Santa Rita, named the Chino, Guadalupe, and traveled trail co over Raton Pass and to Colorado rail­ Yosemite. They built their own smelter and were heads. The copper matte then went by train to the shipping by summer 1874 too- the Hrst wagon train Baltimore Copper Works in Maryland.6J hauled 40,000 pounds of copper to the railhead. Be­ Near the Santa Rita a small community arose, tween June 1875 and June 1876 they produced wi tb. a halfway house and restaurant to serve travelers 208,000 pounds of copper, a respectable amount for and the nearby mines. Merchant B . Rosenthal such an isolated operation. Their Mimbres Mining The Santa Rita deL Cobre, New Mexico, The Early American Period, 1846-1886 25

/ . ;, . ,.-...... -.-· . . .·. ··.· :-.,·, . :.; . -~ i :. ',: ~- . '··

' .:I

. ~.,:_

Chino-Yoscmitc-Guadelupe mines, site ofJames Fresh and John Magruder's operation in the Santa Rita Basin. L. C. Graton, ca. 1905, courtesy U.S. Geological Survey, Denver.

& Reduction Company became one of the major arrival of the long anticipated southern transconti­ producers in the county, with mines in the Santa nental railroad. Returning to Denver, Hayes contin­ Rita and Georgetown districts and a smelter on the ued to manage his New Mexico properties from Mimbres River. At the same time, they gained as afar. 65 partners the Hendricks family of New York, long­ William Pierson remained at the mines, its sole rime copper refiners and manufacturers.64 resident among the silent heaps of tailings. Visitors During 1875, Hayes and his partners produced might visit and note the scenery more than the quiet approximately 1,000,000 pounds of copper, all of it mines. He occasionally rented out an adobe house, shipped east at six to twelve cents per pound. Copper but maintained possessory claim to the Santa Rita. A sold for over twenty cents a pound, then the market Kansas family moved in, with Pierson's permission, price dropped, which caused Hayes and partners' their eligible daughter becoming an attraction. hoped for profits to disappear. They decided to close Theora Ailman later reminisced, "we made ourselves the Santa Rita to await a market price rise and the as comfortable as possible . . . got a very good 26 1999 Mining Histo1y }otlmnl

house. " "Just then,'' she added, "there was only a future land commission reversals. Of colll'se, no one caretaker there. He was glad to rent us a house for paid the Apaches. 6~ the company. After we lived there for a year, I was Hayes and his partners, Moffat and Chaffee, had married [to a local mjner]." Another renter, a Mrs. learned early thar the real money in frontier mining Robert Carrer, had "Judge" Pierson arrested under came nor fi·om working the mines, but from selling undisclosed charges. He was acquitted, bur Mrs. them. The end of the 1870s brought a new surge in Carter provided the disttict with a scandal when she investments in Western mines. The long anticipated was arrested for poisoning her husband.&• rush to the Southwest was underway. Also, the bur­ While Pierson and renters maintained a presence dens of rugh transporracion costs declined as the for Hayes at the mines, Hayes became concerned Southern Pacific began building across Arizona in about the validity of hjs cide as well. Rights to the 1879, and the Boston-financed Atchison, Topeka & Santa Rita grant were indeed transferred from the Santa Fe pushed into New Mexico the same year. Elguea heirs to him, but he still lacked a copy of the On March 8, 1881, the two lines met at Deming, original Spanish grant. (He undoubtedly wondered if thirty-five miles south of Santa Rita. A month later, such a document existed.) In the summer of 1877 he Moffat, Chaffee, and Hayes unloaded their Sanra ventured co the archives in Spajn, again, seeking a Rita interests for $350,000.711 copy of the grant. He failed in his search. Upon his return, one local news editor observed that the grant was pUJe mythY At the same time, Hayes slowly acqwred the last contested, adjacent mining claims. Tn 1879, he sold the DunderbeJg mine in Colorado's Georgetown dis­ ttict for a reponed $600,000. This gave him cash to push for the consolidation of all the potential copper ground around the Santa Rita. He bought our Ma­ gruder and Fresh's operation at Chino, Guadalupe and Yosemite. Hayes, Moffat, and Chaffee, now aU. S. Senator, hedged their bets. Pierson was &rected to pay for U. S. mineral surveys of the mining claims as another step in the patent process under the 1872 mining law, again, just in case the grant proved inva­ lid. On May 5, 1883, the Secretary of Interior con­ veyed tide to some sixty claims totalling 1200 acres; the Santa Rita del Cobre was now in private hands.6H Hayes also hired a Washington, D. C., lawyer co re-open the Spanish gram case file. He took an odd tack, asking the government if they had proof of a Spanish grant for the Santa Rita. They did not. In­ deed, the land commissioner stated that land tide to a Spanish mineral grant could not be conveyed since under the Spanish Mining Code of 1783 fee dde was never granted by the crown, only rights for worlcing and use. The Santa Rita del Cobre grant, if jt ever existed, never conveyed ticle to the mine to Don Francisco Elguea. It only gave him tbe right to work and profit from the mine. Nevertheless, Hayes paid Joel Parker Whimey, sportsman and Santa Rita promoter, off the $15,000 promissory note to tbe Elguea heirs, in h1rcr years. Courresy Western History Deparunem, Den­ thus euminacing the possibility of any embarrassing ver Public Library. Tbe Sr111tr1 Ritfl del Cohn:, NeUJ Jvftxico, Tbe EnrlyAmericn-11 Period, 1846-1886 27

New Mexico Copper and Hayes had mer Whimey in New York and sug­ Boston Dollars, 1880~ 1886 gested rhe side trip. Whitney had already had busi­ ness dealings with the Chaffee-Moffur crowd in During 1879-1880, Victoria, heir ro Mangas Leadville. ln March 1880, Whitney organized the Coloradas and a great war chief of d1e Mimbres Bonanza Development Company to act as an um­ Apache, escaped from rhc San Carlos reservation and brella company for investments in mines ar Leadville, headed with his band for their homeland in south­ Aspen, and the Gunnison Country, Colorado, as well west New Mexico. After year.s of enduring miserable as the 415,000 acre Estancia land gr-ant east of Albu­ living conditions and poor rations, the Apaches querque, and other purchases, including the Santa sought freedom and a resroration of old ways, bur Rita. ln 1881, he went ro Santa Rita via Deming, the newcomers had taken the best lands. Tbe result­ noting in his reminiscence the fine hunting opporru­ ing warfare spread fear, while ranch hands, miners, n.ities nearby. Captain John Slawson, an experienced soldiers, and Indians died. Ironically, as the starving mining man from the Michigan copper country, Apache scoured the landscape, there arrived on the went along. Slawson praised the property, which scene a self--absorbed Bostonian on an outing for \'V'hitney acquired ft·om Hayes, Moffat, and Chaffee. sport and game. Having heard "glowing accounts of In a letter co the Boston Commcrcinl Bulletin dared antelope, deer, wild rurkeys and bear," Joel Parker April 17, 1881, Whitney wrote "these copper mines Whitney later wrote, he took passage on the Santa Fe will probably eclipse any upon rbis continent except railroad to the end of its track, and then headed into the Calumet & Hecla [of Michigan], and may even the mountain range west of the Rio Grande. With an rival these famous mines." He organized an operat­ arsenaJ of "repeating rifles and side arms," he feasted ing company - the Santa Rita Iron & Copper Com­ on wild game. Soon, however, the hunting parry en­ pany, capitalized at $5,000,000- and quicldy raised coumered two stragglers from Victoria's band and $250,000 in working funds fi·om gullible Bostonj­ beat a hasry, terrified retreat. Whitney, member of a ans.TJ prominent Boston family, had arrived in the South­ Whitney spent the winter of 1881-2 at Santa west. He would be the next major character in Santa Rita. He hired miners and superintendents from tbe Rita's checkered history. The Mimbres Apaches, Keweenaw copper country of Michigan, also under however, would soon disappear from d1e area- Vic­ the control of Boston investors. Captain John Slaw­ coria's biographer would write, "of all the Apaches, son, one-time superintendent of the Cliff mine, the Mimbres perhaps suffered the most from the arrl­ Michigan, and a group of Cornish miners began by vaJ ofwhite settlers in their homeland. "71 reopening rhe Romero Hill workings. A new 500- Whirney was born i.n New England and raised foot double compartment shaft, with steam hoist, nor far from rhe California gold fields. As a young cage$, and all the latest equipment was installed, man be returned East ro enter rbe business world of which replaced rhe. old Mexican system of "chicken Boston, but the lure of the West was strong and, like ladders." Slawson also introduced the classic Cor­ Hayes before him, Whitney followed the rush to nish-style 40 stamp miJI and jigs to concentrate me Colorado. In the 1860's he fu1meled investments ore prior to working in rbe new smelter. Cornwall, from Bosron men into Colorado mines, beginning England, was rhe greatest of early nineteenth centuty his career as promoter. He invested in Calirornia copper regions and its miners and technologies were sheep pastures, vineyards and orange groves before introduced around the world, including the Michi­ turning back ro mining in 1879, during the Lead~ gan copper country and now the Santa Rita del Co­ ville, Colorado, boom. Whitney incorporated a half­ bre of New Mexico. A visitor reviewing the progress dozen companies, promoted then1 in the East, and wrore in The Mining Record on December 24, 1881, made handsome commissions. By 1880, he repon­ chat "Father Time, presrolike, has wrought his edly a millionaire, ready co invest his and his Boston changes here in the land of the Aztec ruins and rel­ friends' surplus capital in Western enterprises. A trip ics. '' 74 to New Mexico for sport and investigation land him Newspaper editoriaJs of the period praised rhe in­ at Santa Rita.72 dustry at Santa Rita. Whitney's mill was considered 28 1999 Mh1ing Histoly.foumal

,, ' '·~

.~ i( \ / \

Coc hise

;: (t~~IH ,p ~!filw )~ fi}uJJJ1!'r!iSf/J({J tfiiJrdlJlllJP f()( ·:. .. MI N I~~s Smu;, /tllu, (/t'lllll f'o. ' \ •. New Mt~ X it:u.

Maps of the claims held by J. P. W hitney's companies, rhe Saora Rica Copper & lron Compru1y and the Bonanza Development Company. Note indica.cions of oJd workings. Whitney Col1ecriou. American Heritage Ccnrer, Univcrsiry of Wyoming. The Santa Rita del Cobrr:, New Mexico, The Early American Period, 1846-1886 29

]. P. Whirney's mine hoist house and concentration mill more adapted tO Michigan conditions than the Santa Rita. Hayes' smelter with rall srack sits idle below d1e mine. ca. 1880s. Rev. R. E. Pierce phowgrapher, Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Negative No. 93771 .

the best - it was the first copper concentrator in the shipped each month to the Detroit & Lake Superior Southwest - and his smelter the model of its kind. mill in Michigan, and it would soon be doubled. The railroads had brought cheaper supplies and The Santa Rita was "making good its early prom­ equipment, as well as coal for the hoccer blast fur­ ise."75 naces. A small community named Santa Rita (which Hints of trouble soon appeared. Construction of received a post office in 1881) arose around the mine the railroad branch to Sanra Rita was postponed. and mill to serve the 400 miners. The camp included Production did not meet expectations. Theodore three saloons, two mercantiles, and a stage line. Un­ Schwarz, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of like the earlier operations, Parker, New Mexico - Technology with experience in copper milJing, was Whitney's name for the camp - was an industrial hired in the early summer of 1882. He declared the island connected by a steel rail umbilical chord to 40-stamp mil1 a waste of capital and renovated it Eastern markets and suppliers. Whitney also joined with new machinery: rolls for crushing the ore, and with Boston backers of the Santa Fe to build the Evans slime tables and Collom jigs to concentrate Deming, Silver City, and Pacific Railroad in 1882-3, it - all the latest of Michigan copper country tech­ a narrow-gauge line running from Deming on the nology. The new smelter stilJ failed to meet expecta­ transcontinental railroad, forty-five miles co Silver tions and was shut down. Concentrate from the mill City. When it was completed on May 12, 1883, would be shipped direct to Detroit for smelting and Whitney announced that his backers would build on refining. Whitney's staff discovered that their ore was to the west, with branches to all the prominent mines an odd mix of complex sulphides and carbonates, not of the area, including Santa Rita. The Boston Herald just native copper like in the Michigan mines. A later appraised the new line to Silver City and Whitney's mining engineer, looking over old assay returns, ob­ mine: 100 tons of copper worth $36,000 was served chat they made "interesting reading, in that 30 1999 Mining HistOJyjoumal

they illustrate the struggles to obtain metallurgical panics on the land and the newcomers. A shoot-out efficiency not only in the mill but also in the at Estancia Springs left two men dead, and James, smelter." This mixture of ores would take all the seriously wounded, was whisked away to dodge mur­ metallurgical slciU of the day - not just imitation of der charges. He was later acquitted, though disfig­ Cornwall or Keweenaw practices - plus some major ured for life. At about the same time, Captain Slaw­ capital investment in rail line and plant to produce son, who had become a scout for new copper proper­ effective economies of scale. By March 1883, ties, was lcilled by Apaches while inspecting a distant $400,000 had already been sunk into the mines, prospect. Geronimo and his band were breaking for physical plant, and operation for a return of a re­ freedom from reservation life, and bringing the last ported 2,000,000 pounds of copper - a respectable Indian-white warfare to the Southwest. On October amount but still not enough to make a profit, let 22, 1886, the Apache wars ended when Geronimo's alone break even/6 captured band was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Before the engineers finished installing new water Florida.7, jacket furnaces and revamping the smelter, Whitney By then Whitney had neither the capital nor the wired from New York to shut down the Santa Rica. desire to continue operating. Mining engineer Arthur He had reportedly begun serious negotiations with Wendt visited the mine and reported in May 1886, British investors for the sale of the mine. He planned "At present, the Santa Rica mines are entirely idle; to float the company in Britain and sell stock in or­ and unless developments in depth on the iron-ore der to fund the railroad branch and new smelter. outcrop should expose a richer and different charac­ British investors had bought the Clifton copper ter of ore from that treated in the stamp-mill, the mines in Arizona for $1,200,000 in 1882 and were property is likely to remain idle for a considerable negotiating for copper mines in the Burro Mountains time, at least until the end of the present era of low­ to the southwest. As in the past, the old promoter priced copper. "xo published a glowing pamphlet about the "Native The operation remained mostly idle for nearly a Copper Mines of Santa Rita" and prepared to unload decade and a half, with an occasional lessee. In 1897, the mine to the British for $6,000,000. A tour of Whitney was able to interest the estate of George New Mexico with several prospective British inves­ Hearst in leasing the property. Finally, late in 1898, tors soon followed. 77 a branch railroad was extended to the mine. In 1899, Unfortunately, 1883 was the beginning of the when the Standard Oil crowd - William Rockefeller, end for the Southwest's first copper boom. Its col­ Heney H. Rogers, Thomas Lawson and others - lapse resulted from a drop in copper market prices formed the Amalgamated Copper Company to ac­ and overspeculation on marginal claims. By 1884, quire all the major copper mines of the United operations near the Santa Rita ground co a halt: the Scates, they purchased the Santa Rita from J. Parker Hanover, the San Jose, and the Ivanhoe all ceased Whitney. The Santa Rita Mining Company, a sub­ production, leaving many investors including John sidiary, began production on a larger scale, bur the Magruder nearly bankrupt. The London Times edi­ elevation of the property to a world class producer torialized about the deluge of copper and the plunge carne only after rhe introduction of open pit mining, in the copper market, which sent a negative message techniques. By 1912, a group of young mining men to cautious British investors. Whitney's anticipated had transformed the Santa Rita, renamed the Chino sale never occurred. Even his Boston backers, many Copper Company, into one of the ten phenomenally of whom had seen other investors make fortunes by profitable porphyty copper mines of the greater investing in the rich Michigan mines, balked at Southwest- on lands ceded by Mexico after the con­ pouring more funds into the Santa Rita.78 quests of General Kearny, Colonel Doniphan, Sur­ Whitney also suffered a personal loss at this time. veyor Gray and others. These mines outproduced the As owner of the Estancia grant, he had hoped to cre­ earlier Michigan, Appalachian and all other copper ate a stock-raising empire east of Albuquerque, and regions. Whitney did not share in this success sent his brother James to manage the operation. In though he may have read about it in his San Fran­ August 1883, however, a feud erupted between His- cisco newspaper. He had recouped a fortune prornot- The Santa Rita del Cobre, New Me.xico, The EarLy America11 Period, 1846-1886 31

ing mines during the Cripple Creek boom of the Santa Rita del Cobre and the mines of New Mexico 1890s. His other investments, like the Estancia produced $400,000 worth of copper that year, a re­ ranch, which proved to be a fraudulent land grant, spectable amount for the time, which suggested a failed him. He died in Monterey, California on Janu­ great future. Individuals who saw the native copper 8 ary 17, 1913. ' and red oxides of Romero Hill in the attractive high Matt Hayes died nearly penniless on November basin universally envisioned a flourishing mine and 8, 1899, in Denver, having invested in another land camp. Instead, the series of operators over the last grant, the Alamillo grant near Socorro, New Mexico, half of the nineteenth century experienced setbacks that proved invalid. 82 Sweet and LaCoste ended their and, ultimately, failure. days as revered pioneer San Antonio businessmen, Many factors impeded the realization of the rosy 81 dying in 1880 and 1887 respectively. · General Car­ future anticipated by the 1860 statistics. Saddest but leton also died in San Anronio, in 1873, watchful of least surprising given the American frontier experi­ his ex-Confederate neighbors. 84 Brand and Fresh ence, was the failure to reach an accommodation be­ roamed about the territory, headed to Mexico and tween the newcomers and the Apaches. Violent con­ South America to work copper mines. In 1890, flict would continue longer here than at any other Brand returned to Silver City, but disappears from Western mining region. The miners and their fami­ the record thereafter. ~s The Siqueros family remained lies who lived at Santa Rita and worked first for prominent in Chihuahua and along the border, and Leanardo Siqueros, James Sweet and Jean Baptist La­ a grandson of Leanardo became editor for the El Paso Coste, and later for Alexander Brand and James 8 Times. (' None of them profited greatly from the Fresh, would pay for the continued violence, but not Santa Rita. as dearly as the Mimbres Apaches. The story of rl1e The report of the 1860 census stated that the Confederate and Union conflict in the West, espe-

Steam shovel work at the beginning of open-pit mining, ca. 1915. One of the rowers of the triangular fort stands at left. Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, negative No. 43202. 32 1999 Mining Histoty]oumal

cially irs impact on territorial economic life, has yet other way had it not been for the California, Colo­ to be rold. The Santa Rita experience, especially the rado, and Nevada hard rock mining experience. In inexcusable, intended property theft by Union offi­ the end, unfortunately, the Mexican heirs received a cers and Yankee territorial officials, especially General pittance compared to that received by the Coloradans Carleton and Governor Mitchell, reveals a wartime and their allies in the Santa Fe Ring: Senator Ste­ and post-war society of the lowest moral character. phen B. Elkins, Senator Jerome B. Chaffee, banker Their push to acquire the mine, under the protec­ David H. Moffat, Jr., and manager Martin "Matt" tion of the military, had the surprising twist of bring­ Hayes. Did the Mexicans sell out so cheap for fear ing forth the heirs of the Spanish grantee. American they would never profit at all? Did the Americans seJI land law eventually failed to validate their claim, not the Santa Rita for twenty times what they paid for it because it lacked legitimacy but because the evolu­ because of their business savvy - or perhaps skull­ tion of American mining law at mid-nineteeth cen­ duggeries? tury did not fully accommodate the traditions of and Joel Parker Whitney's half-cocked effort showed legal foundations of the Spanish mining code - the that he was an inexperi•enced, impractical, overween­ 1850s-60s "possessory" rights of Chihuahua grant ing visionary, not a mine manager, and the Santa holders of a New Mexico mine were ignored, while Rita's reputation suffer·ed because of it. In this, the "possess01y" rights of influential American miners Santa Rita was not unic~ue among some of the great from Colorado were expanded under the 1866 and mines of the West. The problem of how to reduce 1872 laws to allow for tide transfer. During the years the complex ores - once the native copper, rich ox­ under study, legal opinions might have gone the ides, and surface sulphides diminished - should have

Santa Rita del Cobre wday, one of che Southwestern open-pit copper mines. Courtesy Phelps Dodge Mining Company. The Santa Rita del Cobre, New Mexico, The Early American Period, 1846-1886 33

been solved before building a mill, a smelter, new successful gravity concentration, and later flotation, hoists, and a railroad that did not even reach the proved the deposit valuable beyond any of the nine­ mine. The twentieth centu1y era of steam shovel, teenth cenru.y promoters' dreams. But chat, as they open pit economies of scale and the introduction of say, is another sto1y.

Notes

I. Jos. C. G. Kennedy, Preliminary Report on the Eighth Cen­ 3. Joseph G. Dawson, III, Doniphan's Epic March, the 1st suJ, 1860 37th Congress, 2d Sess., House Exec. Doc. #116 Missouri Volunteers in the Mexican War (Lawrence: Univer­ (Washington, D. C.: G. P. 0., 1862), p. 173; During the sity Pres of Kansas, 1999), pp. 142- 162. period May 31, 1859-June l, 1860 production was: Michi­ 4. Frederick A. Wislizenus, Memoir of a Tour to Northem gan $2,292,186 and New Mexico Territory $415,000. Mexico, Connected with Col. Doniphan's Expedition, in Tennessee produced $404,000 and Nonh Carolina 1846 and 1847 (Glorieta, New Mexico: Rio Grande Press, $105,000. For Michigan see William B. Gates, Jr., Michi­ 1969 reprint of 1848 ed.), p. 57; Cobre is Spanish for cop­ gan Copper and Bouon Dollnrs, An Economic History of the per while Santa Rita (1381-1457) "was an Italian nun to Michigan Copper Mining /ndmtry (Cambridge, Mass.: Har­ whom many supernatural events have been auributed," the vard University Press, 1951); Larry Lankton, Cradle to patron sainr of stray members of a flock, see Robert julyas1, Grave, Lift, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper The Plnce Names ofNew Mexico (AJbuquerqut:: University Mines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) ; David ofNew Mexico Press, 1996), p. 326. J. Krause, The Making ofa Mining District, Keweenaw Na­ S. Wislizenus, Tour, p. 58; Jasnes Joseph Webb, Adventures in tive Coppe1~ 1500-1870 (Detroit: Wayne State University Santa Fe Trade 1844-1847, Ralph P. Bieber, ed. (Lincoln: Press, 1992); Arthur W. T urner, Strangers and Sojourners, University of Nebraska Press, 1995 reprint 1931 ed.), Wis­ A HistOI)' of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula (Detroit: lizenus biography p. I 96, foomote 224. Wayne State University, 1994); Larry Lankton, Beyond the 6. K. Jack Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846-1848 (Lincoln: Boundaries, Lift and Landscape at the Lake Superior Copper University of Nebraska Press, 1974), passim; Harvey Lewis Mines, 1840-1875 (New York: Oxford University Press, Carter, 'Dear Old Kit,' The Historical Christopher Carson 1997). For a history of Ducktown, Tennessee see R. E. (Normas1: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968), pp. 42-3, Barclay, Ducktown Bock in Roht's Time (Waynesville, NC: 112-114. Don Mills, I 996 reprint of 1948 ed) 7. Ross Calvin, ed., Lieutenal/t Em01y Reports: A Reprint of 2. Examples of early garbled accounts are Thomas William Lieutennnt W H Em01ys Notes ofn Militmy Reconnnissance Lawson, Report on the Property of the Santa Rita Mining (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1951 reprint of Company (Boston: T . H. Lawson, 1909); John M. Sully, 1848 ed.), pp. 97-9. "The Story of the Santa Rita Copper Mine," Old Santo Fe, 8. George Ames, Jr., "A Doctor Comes to California, the vol. Ill (1916), pp. 133-149; T . A. Rickard, "The Chino Diary of JohnS. Griffith, Assistant Surgeon with Kearny's Emerprise - I, History of the Region and the Beginning Dragoons, 1846-7, California Historical Society Quarterly, of Mining at Santa Rita, "Engineering and Mining}oumal­ v. 3 (September 1942), pp. 193-224; Rex Arrowsmith, Press, vol. 116, No. 18 (November 3, 1923), pp. 753-758; Mines ofthe Old Southwest (Santa Fe: Stage Coach Press, T . A. Rickard, A Hil't01y ofAmericnn Mining (New York: 1963), pp. 35-6 quotes Lr. Emory and Captain Abrahasn McGraw-Hill, 1932), pp. 252-257; Paige W. Christiansen, R. Johnson's official reports; Bernas·d Bailyn, Voyagers to The Sto1y ofMining in New Mexico (Socorro: New Mexico the West, A Passage in the Peopling ofAmerica on the Eve of Bureau of Mines & Mineral Resources, 1974), pp. 19-20; Revolution (New York: Random House, 1986), pp. 248-54 Billy D. Walker, "Copper Genesis: The Early Years of on iron works. Santa Rica del Cobre," New Mexico Historical Review 54: l 9. Emory Reports, p. 99; Edwin R. Sweeney, Mangas Colo­ Qanuary 1979), pp. 5-20 provides a better published ac­ rodos, Chiefof the Chiricahua Apaches (Norman: University count for the pre-1825 period, but contains flaws; as does of Oklahoma Press, 1998), pp. 142-44. "The Santa Rita del Cobre Grant" in J. J. Bowden, Spanish 10. Morris E. Opler, "Chiricahua Apache," in Alfonso Ortiz, and Mexican Land Grants in the Chihuahuan Acquisition ed .. Handbook of North American fndiaw, Volume 10, (EI Paso: Texas Western Press, 1971); also see Terrence M. Southwest (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, Humble, "The Pinder Slip Mining Claim Dispute of Santa 1983), pp. 401-18; Sweeney, Mangas Coloradas, pp. 4-7, Rira, New Mexico 1881-1912," The Mining History jour­ 70-3; Rex W. Strickland, 'The Birth and Dearh of a Leg­ nal vol. 3 (1996), pp. 90-100 for a good review of activity end, the Johnson "Massacre" of 1837," Arizona and the after the period studied here. Wm v. 18 (Autumn 1976), pp. 257-286. 34 1999 Mining Hist01y joumal

I 1. Pauicia A. Etter, To Cnlifomin ou the Sourhem Route 1849, vols. (New York, 1854), vol I, pp. 227-30; "Report of the A Hisr01y nud Annotnud Bibliogrnphy (Spokane: Arthur H. Secretary of the Interior made in Compliance with a Reso­ Clark, 1998), pp. 35-6; Walter T. Durham, Volumeer lurion for Information in Relation to the Commission Ap­ Forty-Niners, Tmnr:sunns nnd the Cnlifomin Gold Rush pointed to Run and Mark the Boundary Berween the (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1997), pp. 46-49; United States and Mexico," Senate Executive Document Ferol Egan, TheEl Domdo Trail, the Story ofthe Gold Rmh I I9, 33d Congress, 1st Session, (Washington, D. C.: G. P. Routes across Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 0., 1852), pp. 5. 256. 1970), pp. 124-130; John 0. Baxter, Lns Cnmmtdns, the 15. Barrlett, PmonaL Narratives, pp. 229-230. Sht!ep Trndt' in N~111 Mtxico (Albuquerque: University of 16. J. D. Whitney, The Metallic Wealtb of tb~ United Statts New Mexico Press, 1987), pp. 112-1 13; Gerald Thomp­ (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., I854), p. 330. son, Edward F. &nk & tht' American West (Albuquerque: 17. Lee Myers, "M ilirary Establishments in Sourhwesrern New University of New Mexico Press, 1983), pp. 33-4; Mary Mexico: Stepping Stones 10 Settlement," New Mexico His­ Lee Spence, ed., Thr E"

Mail, 1851-1881 (College Station: Texas A & M Univer­ 18, 1860, certification, Michael Steck collection, U niver­ sity Press, 1985), pp. 60-9; W. Turrentine Jackson, Wagon sity of New Mexico. Roads \flest, A Study ofFedeml Road Surveys and Constmc­ 27. Hen1y P. Walker, ed., "Colonel Bonneville's Repon, the tion in the Tmns-Mississippi \XIest, 1846-1869 (New Haven, District of New Mexico in 1859" Arizona and the \flest v. Conn.: Yale University Press, 1964), pp. 36-42, 112-8, 20 #4, (Winter 1980), pp. 343-62; 0. W. Williams, Pio­ 218-232, quote p. 244 ; Bailey, ed., The A. B. Gray Rep01t, neer Survt'jor, Frontier Lnwye1; the Pm·onal Narrative of 0. p. 18; Thrapp, Victoria, p. 45. W Williams, 1877-1902 S. D. Myers, ed. (El Paso: Texas 21. Biographical entries on James, Sweet, and LaCoste are in Western Press, 1968), p. 111; Deed Book B, Dona Ana Ron Tyler, er. al ., The New Handbook of Texas (Austin: County, Las Cruces serves as a directory of visitors during The Texas Scare Historical Association, 1996); Vinton Lee the period since many stal

MeJiiltl Times, A Journal of Confederate Arizona," Arizona New Mexico Press, 1982), pp. 46-7; Alta Califomia (San and the West vol 5. no. 4 (Wimer 1963), pp. 337-35 1; Francisco), December 24, 1863; Kelelm, Turmoil, pp. 346, stories on Santa Rita or copper shipments are in various 481; Larry D. Ball, The United States Manbnls of New issues Mesil/11 Time>", 1860-1862. J\1/exico and Arizona Territories, 1846-1912 (Albuquerque: 37. Mariano Varela roD. Juan Bautista Lacosr [LaCoste) , Feb­ University of New Mexico Press, 1978), p. 59; Homer ruary 20, 1861, and Mariano Varela to Ramon Ortiz, Milford, "Santa Rita Mine Leg:tl History 1865-1883," March 3, 1861, J. B. LaCoste collection, translated by unpublished ms. in author's possession; Mining Location Rina Ortiz, Mexico City. Record Book 2, pp. 28, 57, 134-9, 172, 190, 203-7, 369, 38. James R. Sweer ro Dear Sir (LaCoste], March 16, 1861 , Dona Ana County Court House, Las Cruces records the LaCoste collection. activities of the Carleron and parry claims of Augusr­ 39. Jan1es R. Sweet to Dear Sir [LaCoste], March 18, 25, April Ocwber, 1866. 1, 8, 13, 30, May 16, 21, 26, June 11, 19, 1861, July l, 3. 46. Keleher, Turmoil, p. 48 I; Thrapp, Victoria, pp. 94-8; John 1861, L'lCoste collection, quote from May 26; H. B. Ad­ Pratt, secretary Santa Rica Mining Association, application anls to J. B. Lacoste, July 13, 1861, LaCoste collection; of parent over protest of J. R. Sweet, in Jos. S. Wilson, Brig. General Earl Van Dorn, Sm Antonio, to L. P. commissioner, to U. S. Land Office, April 22, 1870, and Walker, Secretary of War, Richmond, August 10, 1861, Jos. S. Wilson, commissioner, to U. S. Land Office, De­ War of the Rebellion (Washingron: G. P. 0., 1880-1901) cember 22, 1869, Santa Rira gram file 107. Series 1, vol. 4, p. 97. 47. Brand deposition, Sama Rita grant file 107; Mining Loca· 40. Mining Lifo (Silver City), July 16, 1873. tion Record Book 2, pp. 364, Dona Ana County Court 41. Brand deposition, Santa Rita grmr file 107; Brand remi­ House, Las Cruces and Grmt County Book of Deeds l , niscence in Silver Ciry Mining Lifo July 16, 1873; Dan L. pp. 363-4, Grmr County Court House, Silver City - the Thrapp. Victoria ttnd the Mimbres Apache (Norman: Uni­ Dona Ana County location book lists Brmd as witness versity of Oklahoma Press, I 974), pp. 75·6; Finch, Confrd· while the Grmr County record has him listed as an owner; e/'dte Pathway, pp. 82-3; Daniel Ellis Conner, joseph Red­ Snnttt Fe Weekly Gazette January 5, 1867 quotes the San deford Walker and the Arizona Adventure, Donald J. Bee­ Antonio Hemld; Vicror Westphall, Thomas Beman Catron throng and Odessa Davenport, eds. (Norman: University and His Em (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1973), pp. of Oklahoma Press, 1956), p. 54; James W. Taylor, Gold 27-9. Mines East of the Rocky Moumnim, House Ex. Doc. 92, 48. Santa Fe Weekly Gazette December 8, 1866 reprimed the 39th Congress, 2d Session, 1867, pp. 3-4. Pinos Altos district miners' code. 42. Mining Lifo (Silver City) July 16, 1873; Silver City Trib­ 49. Rossiter W. Raymond, St11tistics ofMines and Mining in r/Je une, September 6, 1873; Finch, Confedemte Pathway, pas­ States and Territories \.\!'est of the Rocky Mountains sim; Calvin P. Horn and William S. Wallace, Union Army (Washington, D . C.: Government Priming Office, 1874i, Opertttiom in the Southwest, Final Victory fi'Om the Official p. 337; James W. Taylor, Mineml Resources East of the Records (Albuquerque: Horn & Wallace, 1961}; Allen, Rocky Mounttrim, House Ex. Doc. No. 273, 40th Con­ "Pinos Alros,'' p. 304; Thrapp, Victoria, pp. 79-81; Brand gress, 2d Session, 1868, p. 6; The Doily New Mexican deposition, Santa Rita grmt file 107; Brig. Genl. Joseph R (Santa Fe) January 29, 1877 details the use of the sm1e West ro Capt. Benj. C. Curler, December 26, 1862, md technology nearby. Brig. Genl. Joseph R West to Major David Ferguson, De­ 50. Raymond, Mineral Resources, 1874, p. 338; H. B. Ailman, cember 28, 1862, Records U. S. Army Command, Depart· Pioneering in Territorial Silver City, H. B. Ailmnn sRecollec· ment of Pacific Records, Record Group 98, National Ar­ tiom ofSilver City and the Southumt, 1871-1892, Helen J. chives and Record Center microfilm copies in Benjamin Lundwall, cd. (i\Jbuqucrquc: University of New M exico Sacks collection, Arizona Historical Foundation, Arizona Press, 1983), pp. 44, I 55; Thrapp. Victorio, p. 95; Mining State University Library, Tempe discusses confiscated Lifo (Silver City) , July 19, 1873. property. 51. The New Mexican (Santa Fe) Occober 27, 1866, July 6, 43. Sweeney, Mangm Colomdm, pp. 412-3,424-6,463. 1867; Brand deposition, Wilson letter, April 22, 1870, 44. Richard E . Owen and E . T . Cox, Report on the Mines of Willison survey notes, and Protest of J. R. Sweet, June 30, New Mexico (Washington, D . C.: Gideon & Pearson, 1867, Santa Rita grant file 107; Santa Fe Weekly Gazetu, 1865), pp. 20-1, quote p. 45; Josephine Clifford, "An Of­ June 27, 1867; Miller, California Column, p. 47; William ficer's Wife in New Mexico," Overland Monthly voiiV, no. A. Bell, New Tmcks in North America (London: Chapman 2 (1870), pp. 152-160, quote p. 160; the Santa Fe Weekly and Hall, 1870), pp. 258·9 reprints Carleton's visit and Gazette, November 12, 1864 printed a letter from Owen descriptions; the tragedies of the governor Mitchell era are about Sanra Rita. evinced in Gary L. Roberts, Death Comes for the Chiiffm· 45. Aurora Hum, Major Geneml]ttmes Henry Carleton, 1814- tice, the Slough-Rynerson Quarrel and Political Violence in 1873, Westem Frontier Dragoon (Glendale, California: Ar­ New Mexico (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1990) thur H. Clark, 1958), passim; Darlis A. Miller, The Cali­ and Calvin Horn, New Mexico's Troubled Years, the Story of fonlia Column in New Mexico (Albuquerque: University of the early Territorial Govemon· (Albuquerque: Hom & The Santa Rita del Cobre, New Mexico, The Em-lyAmerican Period, 1846-1886 37

Wallace, 1963), pp. 115-1 34. 15, 1873, Santa Rita grant flle 107. 52. MacWillie and WiUiams lerrer March 21, J 870, Juan Hern 61. John Watts to U. S. Surveyor General James I<. Proudfit, y Mandri testimony 1868, and Willison swvey notes, November 28, 1872, Santa Rita grant file 107; M. B. Santa Rira grant file 107; the reference ro Magofftn may Hayes, New York, to Henry M. Atkinson, Surveyor Gen­ suggest he had leased the mine bur, as stared earlier, never eral of New Mexico, December 26, 1882, and Power of operated ir - ar any rare, he died September 27, 1868 in Attorney from Donna Josefa Elguea of Victoria, Spain, San Antonio, see Tyler, New Handbook of Texas, v. 3, p. Don Jose Guerra of Bilbao, Spain and Dolores Elguea of 864. Chihualwa ro Francisco Macmanus, April 17, 1872, copy 53. JosephS. Wilson opinion, April 22, 1870, Santa Rita grant in U.S. Surveyor General Records, Reel 31, file 194 (Santa file 107. Rita copper mine), Microfilm in Bureau of Land Manage­ 54. Book of Deeds 1, p. 165, Grant Counry Court House, ment Stare Office, S:uua Fe; Promissory Note from S. B. Silver City; Brand deposition, Santa Rita grant file I 07; Elkins, President, First National Bank of Santa Fe, ro Mar­ Brand and Fresh are enumerated in the 1870 census at tin B. Hayes, Sept 29, 1873, transferred to Francisco Silver Ciry. Macmanus, October 28, 1873 in collections of Homer 55. MacWillie and Williams letter March 21, 1870, and un­ Milford, Albuquerque; Willian1 M. Pierson, U. S. Vice­ dated clipping ca. 1873, Santa Rita grant file 107; Mills, Consul, Paso del None, Chihual1ua, Mexico ro William Forry Years, pp. 145-8; J. Morgan Broaddus, The LegaL Hunter, 2d Assist:uu Secretary of Stare, Washington, D. Heritage ofEJ Paso (EI Paso: Texas Western College Press, C., December 6, 1873 printed in The Santa Rita Native 1963), pp. 71' 89-90, 93-97' 103-4, 117-8, 168, 226, Copper Mines (Boston: Alfred M udge & Son, [1883]), pp. 228; Book I of Deeds, pp. 86-92, Grant Counry Court 31-33, copy at Huntington Library, San Mareno, Califor­ House, Silver Ciry; Raymond, Mines rmd Mining, 1873, p. ma. 338. 62. Ailman, Silver City, passim; T hrapp, Victorio, pp. 144-9; 56. Book I of Deeds, pp. 125, 68-9, Grant Cow1ry Court Raymond, /Vfinerttl Resources, 1874, pp. 336-9; When in­ House, Silver Ciry; The Borderer (Las Cruces) July 17, 24, corporated the Denver & Rio Grande included a branch to August 14, November 30, 1872; Chino has often been Santa Rita. translated as Chinese, which is not hisrorically accurate, 63. Sully, "Santa Rira, " pp. 139; Mining Life (Silver Ciry) Homer Milford to author February 21, 2000- there are February 7, March 23, May 16, 1874, January 23, 1875; no references ro Chinese in the area at this early dare. lr is Silver Ciry Herttld September 26, 1875, October 24, 1875, uncertain when Chinese labor :u-rived in Grant County, September 30, 1876; "Matt B. Hayes" notes, courtesy Su­ bur, after Silver City merchant Henry Lesinsky incroduced san Berry, Silver Ciry Museum, Si lver Ciry. Chinese labor to his ne:u·by mines at Clifton, Arizona Ter­ 64. Tribune (Silver City) September 6, 1873; Mining Life rirory, the editor of the Arizona Weekly Star proclaimed (Silver City) November 8, 1873, August I, August 8, Oc­ July 17, 1879, that "let it be remembered as a matrer of tober 31, 1874; Herald (Silver Ciry) January 30, October Arizona history that the firsr importation of Chinese cheap 17, December 12, 1875, August 9, 1876, May 19, Febru­ slave labor inro Arizona was made by one H. Lesinsky." ary 17, 1877; Maxwell Whiteman, CopperforAmerica, the 57. Undated clipping ca. 1873 and JohnS. Watts, Santa Fe, to Hendricks Family and a Nationtt! Indusfl)l, 1755-1939 James K. Proudfit, U. S. Surveyor General, November 18, (New Brunswid(, New Jersey: Rutgers Universiry Press, 1872, Santa Rita grant file 107; biographical material on 1971), pp. 214-5,292. Watts as well as land grant discussions are in David Rem­ 65. Herald (S ilver Ciry) August 4, 1877. ley, Bell Ranch, Cattle Ranching in the Southwest, 1824- 66. Mrs. Orsemus Bronson Boyd [Frances Anne Mullen Boyd) 1947 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, Cavalry Lift in Tent and Field Darlis A. Miller, inrro. 1993), pp. 33-52. (Lincoln: Universiry of Nebraska Press, 1982 reprint I 894 58. The Borderer (Las Cruces), December 21, 1872 quotes the ed.), p. 233; Ailman, Silver City, p. Ill; Mrs. Roberr Carr Union, December 28, 1872; John S. Watts petition, No­ nores courtesy Susan Berry, Silver Ciry Museun1, Si lver vember 18, 1872, Santa Rita grant file 107. City. 59. The Denver Times, November 9, 1899, 4:4; Ovando J. 67. Silver Ciry Herald August 4, 1877, December 18, 1880; Hollister, The Mines of Colorado (Springfield, Mass.: Sam­ The Daily New Mexican (Santa Fe), February 10, 1877; uel Bowles & Co., 1867), pp. 149, 357; Bayard Taylor, Ailman, Silver City, pp. 47, 56, 111. Colorado: A Sm11mer Trip (Niwot: Universiry Press of 68. Ibid.; Hayes letter December 26, 1882, Santa Rita grant Colorado, 1989 reprint 1867 ed.), p. 63; Howard Roberts file 194. Lamar, The Far Southwest, 1846-1912, A Territorial His­ 69. U. S. Surveyor General toM. B. Hayes, March 3, 1883, tory (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Universiry Press, 1966), pp. U. S. Surveyor General Records, and W. W. Wilshire, 275-7. Washingron, D. C. to H. M. Atkinson, Surveyor General, 60. The classic study of the Santa Fe ring is Lamar's The Far February 26, 1883, Santa Rita grant file 194. Southwest; on Catron :u1d Elkins see Westphall, Catron, pp. 70. Steven F. Mehls, "Success on the Mining Frontier: David 67, 100, passim; Decision ofU. S. Surveyor General, April H. Moffat and Eben Smith -- A Case Study," Essttys rrnd 38 1999 M ining Hist01y]oumal

Monographs in Cofomdo HistOJy v. 1 (1983), pp.91-106; New Southwest (Silver City) August 5, 1882; Herald quoted David F. Myrick, New Mexico sRailroads, A Historictti Sur­ in Silver City Enterprise March I, 1883. veJ' (Albuquerque: University ofNew Mexico Press, 1990), 76. New Soutlnvest (Silver City), November 5, 1881, April 8, pp. 185-195; Robert L. Spude, "Mineral Frontier in T ran­ 24, October 28, I 882; Southwest Sentinel (Silver City), sition: Copper Mining in Arizona, 1880-1885," New Mex­ September 23, 1883; Emerprise (Silver C ity) March 24, it·o Historical Review, vol 51, no. 1 (1976) 19-34; Mining 1883; Rickard, Americrm Mining, p. 256; Sully, Santa Deeds Book 7, pp. 250-4, Grant County Court House, Rita, p. 141; A. C. Spencer and Sidney Paige, Geology of Silver City. the Snnrn Rim Mining Area, New Mexico, U. S. Geological 71. On October 15, 1880, Vicrorio and his band were massa­ Survey Bulletin 859 (Washington, D. C.: Government cred by Mexican troops at Tres Castillas, Chihuahua, see Printing Office, 1935). Thrapp, Victorio, passim; J. Par·lcer Whimey, Rnnini.rcenr:eJ 77. Silver City Southwe.