Chapter 3 THE PATAGONIA AREA MINING DISTRICTS, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, 1539-1930 © 1998 Robert Lenon The Patagonia Mining Districts, for purposes of this worked by Indians because of the number of worn­ article are defined as the area lying within 20 miles out or broken stone hammers found at the site. of the Town of Patagonia and within what is now Similar evidence exists in the Salero-Alto vicinity Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Local custom and in the Tyndall District. The author has also observed usage has divided this region into eight mining dis­ an irregular shallow pit in the extreme southeast tricts: The Santa Rita Mountains and its foothills comer of Pima County, excavating a narrow veinlet are included within the Greaterville, Tyndall, Aztec of azurite-chrysocolla that appeared to have been and Wrightson Mining Districts, and then, begin­ explored by primitive means. This inference was ning with the Nogales District encompassing the strengthened, although not necessarily confirmed, area around Mt. Benedict northeast of Nogales, by the presence of a lone flint arrowhead found in a Arizona, and proceeding east, one then finds the dump alongside the pit. Patagonia, Harshaw and Red Rock Mining Districts. All but the Nogales District have been for­ The earliest European traveler was probably the mally organized (mostly during the 1870s) follow­ Franciscan monk, Marcos de Niza, who traversed ing the procedures permitted under the federal min­ the San Pedro Valley twice in 1539 and then guided ing laws. the party of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado north­ ward along the San Pedro, which they called the The Town of Patagonia lies barely inside the "Nexpa," in search of the fabled Seven Cities of northerly limits of the Harshaw District, some Clbola in the spring of 1540. During this entrada seven miles from the mining district from which the the first mineral values were noted when small town took its name. The mine actually called the amounts of placer gold were found at a place the "Patagonia" has also borne the name "Mowry members of the expedition were told was called Silver Mine" since the late 1850s and was probably "Suya," probably near the junction of Babocomari called the "Plomosa" (for plomo, "lead" in Spanish) Creek with the San Pedro River northeast of present in missionary times. The mine was known as the Fairbank, Arizona, and named Santa Cruz de "Patagonia" as early as 1854 and gave the name to Gaybanipitea. the Patagonia Mountains about the same time. A post office was established at the mine during 1866- The Jesuit Period: 1691 to 1767 67 using "Patagonia" about the time the mining dis­ The so-called Jesuit Period began in 1691 when two trict acquired its name. missionaries of the Society of Jesus, Juan Marfa de Earliest Times: Prior to 1640 Salvatierra and Eusebio Francisco Kino, while vis­ iting the small mission community of Saric, 35 Because the Patagonia district is flanked on the miles southwest of present-day Nogales, Arizona, west and east by natural north-south "water-level were invited by a delegation of Indians from the routes," the valleys of the San Miguel, Sonora and Tumacacori settlement to establish a mission or Santa Cruz Rivers were the home to many genera­ visita in their neighborhood. The fathers accepted tions of different aboriginal tribes. These peoples the invitation and were so pleased with what they would have been the first prospectors and miners of saw they decided to formally establish the the region to meet the needs for tools and weapons Tumacacori visita. On their return, Salvatierra and (flint), pottery (clay), dyeing and body paint Kino traveled to Dolores Mission (some 60 miles (ocher), and personal adornment (turquoise, mala­ south and east of modem Nogales) by way of San chite, chrysocolla and jasper). The old-timers Antonio Pass and a nearby village they called reported that portions of the iron-red outcroppings "Santa Maria de Suamca" near the source of a of the Trench Mine, lying about a mile to the north­ stream which thus became known as the Rio Santa west of what is now Harshaw, must have been Maria. By custom, streams in northern Sonora bear 53 54 Robert Lenon the names of the principal settlements nearest their The troops at Tubac, like those in all of the pre­ source, and therefore, when this settlement's name sidios, were woefully underpaid and were also was changed to "Santa Cruz," the name of the river poorly armed and mounted. They were therefore flowing northward through Tucson was "automati­ unable to respond to the guerrilla warfare being cally" also changed to "Santa Cruz." waged by the Apache. Only the communities of Tucson (the troops at Tubac had been transferred Father Kino's interests, unfortunately for mmmg there in 1777), Tumacacori and Guevavi were rela­ historians, did not include mineral development and tively safe although livestock was frequently stam­ therefore his diaries are limited to brief mentions of peded away and fields burned in raids. The small rumors of a quicksilver (mercury) deposit said to lie farming and mining community of Aribac (Arivaca) some "five days west" of the Cas a Grande ruins and seemed to have been far enough off the raiding a silver deposit that had been found "several days trails of the time and the value of the silver ores at travel" west of San Xavier del Bac. Other Jesuits its Longorena mine high enough to justify the risk following Kino seemed more interested in minerals. to life and limb to engage in mining efforts during Fr. Joseph Och, at the village of San Jose de lmuris periods of apparent calm. wrote of mines and smelting in the 1750s and of a deposit of native copper "a day and a half journey Very little has been reported on activities in the dis­ toward the northwest from my Mission of San trict during this time although a somewhat suspect Ignacio [de Caborica]." This would probably place account was published in the (Yuma) Arizona the site near Cobre (Copper) Ridge, adjacent to pre­ Sentinel on Aprill3, 1878, purporting to be a trans­ sent-day Ruby, Arizona. Fr. Ignaz Pfefferkorn, of lation of a petition written by Francisco Castro and San Francisco de Atf, wrote of 11 active gold and Antonio Romero to Don Manuel Baragua (the silver mines during his service there. This would reporter misread this as "Barragan") dated have included only two mines within the Patagonia November 21 , 1777, requesting the restoration of District, at Buena Vista and San Antonio, both fortifications at Tubac. This letter reported the pres­ located only a few miles to the north of the present ence of many mines at Aribac that yielded international border and 10 and 14 miles, respec­ sopotable (tolerable) grades of silver and that a fine tively, to the east of Nogales. Fr. Juan Nentvig, at gold placer in the Bavoquivari Valley existed. Silver Guasavas in 1762, found time to write of dozens of mines in the Santa Ritas were also noted, but that mines and ranches in Northern Sonora, the majori­ they couldn't be worked because of the Apaches at ty of which were abandoned at the time because of Agua Caliente (which site still bears this name incursions of the Seri and Apache Indians. In fact, today). the main attention at the time was to the south of the district, in and around Arizona, where a purported The land in the VICinity of Agua Caliente was native silver deposit called the planchas de plata known to be well mineralized and several indepen­ was discovered in 1736 and resulted in a minor rush dent sources dating from the 1770s report a silver of the miners into the area.' deposit that picked up the name of "Salero" some­ time in the 1830s, when the area was under The prospecting activities during the time were Mexican colonial occupation. doubtless given a boost during this time by the establishment of military presidios a day or two's In 1781, Teodoro de Croix (1730-1791 ), the com­ ride apart roughly following the present Arizona­ mander of the presidio at Fronteras, reported on the Sonora border. This protection, modest as it was, conditions in the area and suggested the creation of a new presidio at "Ia Estancia de Buenavista." This did not offer much help for those to the north of the present international border in Santa Cruz County, was to be a mile or two south of the present inter­ Arizona. These garrisons included Fronteras national border, about seven miles east of Nogales (1701), Terrenate (1741), Tubac (1752), and Altar "on a large mesa, along the base of which flows the (1752). Rio de Santa Maria." He noted that "four [leagues] to the northwest is the Sierra de Ia Chihuahuilla, The Franciscan Period: 1768 to second in riches and known minerals," and also 1820 mentions the "pass of Ia Plomosa." "Chihuahuilla" would likely be Mount Benedict and Plomosa, as The expulsion of the Jesuit Order by the King of noted previously, would be the Mowry Mine. Spain in 1767 created a spiritual vacuum in the Patagonia Districts for more then a year until their The real colonialization of the Patagonia Districts Franciscan replacements began to arrive to take over. began in the later stages of the Spanish colonial era The Patagonia Area Mining Districts 55 with the issuance of land grants by the Spanish ing less-desirable cuts of meat when butchering and crown. The first grants of the district included the "overlooking" the killing of occasional livestock. Nogales de Elias Grant, initiated in 1741, which The Spanish presidio system had finally taken hold extended into the United States for three miles;2 the in the late 1790s and groups of Indians who were San Jose de Sonoita Grant, initiated in 1754, some not at peace with the settlers were targeted for mil­ nine miles long and a mile wide along the Sonoita itary action; once peace was sued for, these groups Creek, and the Otero Grants at Tubac initiated in were relocated to settlements near the established 1789.