The history of mining in Arizona is, practically, the history of Arizona. When the Spaniards started across the deserts north of Culiacan through Pimeria and Apacheria, hunting for the Seven Cities of Cibola, they sought the spread of the Holy Faith and of the domain of their sovereign king, but their immediate reward was to be the gold in treasure houses, later found to be mud-built pueblos. Since that time the mountains of the Southwest have been searched most thoroughly. The Spaniard of old and his Mexican successor were the best prospectors and the closest judges of ore ever known. But, necessarily, they could mine only the richer and freer veins of the metal that they found. They hunted for native gold and for silver ore. The latter they smelted in rude adobe furnaces, from which came, for hundreds of years, much of the wealth that sustained the then dominant kingdom of Spain. Along the southern border of what is now Arizona, they established towns, clustered around churches, and dug in mines of wonderful richness, mines which today are known only by name, for their shafts were filled and the landmarks obliterated by an Indian uprising against the taskmasters.
Prom the time of the Spaniard to the time of the American miner was a long step. The first American mining followed in the pathways made by the Spaniards, along the southern border, where ore was taken out that was almost pure silver or copper and shipped by mule team to the Colorado, and thence to civilization. But the latter-day miner was not content, and his scouts spread northward, at first along the Colorado River, and then eastwardly into the jagged mountains where the Apaches dealt death. By these pioneers were discovered the great Vulture mine and the celebrated "Weaver diggings. The great Silver King in what is now the northern portion of Pinal county, was an accidental discovery, with its enormous pillar of silver, so rich that it was passed over for several years as being nothing but lead. The mines at Globe were located for silver, and there are remains still of silver mills, where veins are worked around the Miami valley, and McMillan at Pioneer and in Richmond basin.
Discovery was made of the riches of northwestern Arizona, where mines that wore found more than fifty years ago still are being worked, all the way from White Hills to Signal. Around Prescott hundreds of claims were worked in the early sixties, when the miner needed a guard of riflemen as protection for his life and property against the Apache. This pluck, or foolhardiness, if you choose, eventually wore out the Indian and pacified Arizona, the miner possibly contributing to as large a degree as the soldier in making Arizona the peaceful land it now is.
THE RICH MINES OF ARIZONA
After the Pimeria revolt of 1751 it is doubtful if Indian labor was employed
to any great extent in the mines of northern Sonora, where the number of
missions decreased and where the population hung close to the presidios or
church enclosures that gave relative security against the Apache. This was
the condition known as late as 1827, when a rather close inspection of the
mines of northern Sonora was made by Lieut. R. W. H. Hardy of the English
navy, who had little patience with the natives, or with their careless
mining methods. He referred to three notable silver fields, "Creaderos de
Plata," namely, Arizona, Tepustetes, and Las Cruces, near the presidio of
Frouteras. Concerning the Arizona, he stated, "A great deal has been said in
Mexico, and in Las Cartas de las Jesuitas is
an account of a ball of silver having there been discovered by a poor man
which weighed 400 arrobas—10,000 pounds! (Another account gives 149
arrobas—Editor.) It afterwards became the subject of litigation, add these
learned fathers, between the discoverer and the King of Spain, which ended
in His Majesty's declaring the hill where such an extraordinary treasure was
found, his royal patrimony; and when Iturbide was hard pressed for money it
is said that he also declared Arizona his imperial patrimony; but that his
premature fall prevented him from sending troops to take possession of the
hill. Certain it is that in the city more is thought of the Arizona mine
than is believed in Sonora." The mines had been abandoned for many years,
owing to the hostility of the Coyotero Apaches (so-called because they were
believed to feed on the flesh of the jackal), till about fifteen years
before Hardy's coming, when a strong party of Mexicans, led by Manuel
Morales of Arizpe and Ignacio Tiburcio de Samaniego of Bavispe, entered the
forbidden country and found much more of the silver.
Hardy declared that most of the mines of Sonora had "Y" veins, that diminish in width and value with depth. Also, some of the largest fortunes which have been gained in Sonora have arisen from the extraction of copper ore. Referring to the loose habits of the gold miners, who threw away their gleanings of the precious metal. Hardy in novel philosophy concluded that the mining of copper appears to debase the mind less than native gold. The same distinction I draw between copper-mine speculators and gold diggers ; in the former, with tolerable care, economy and industry, success is generally the result, in Sonora at least; in the latter enterprise much money is to be made, but it is seldom retained or used wisely or judiciously. These observations, however, have reference only to the inhabitants of Sonora, who are equally ignorant of the true value of wealth or education or liberty.
Of the mines of "Arizona," one of the most glowing accounts is that of Judge R. A. Wilson of California, who had delved rather deeply into the subject in connection with the traffic that was expected for a projected Pacific railway on the Gila route, early in the sixties, and who personally visited the northern sections of Mexico. After passing through Sonora, he wrote that, "Proceeding northward, we came to a spot, the most famous in the world for its product of silver, the mine of Arazuma. For nearly a century the accounts of the wealth of this mine were considered fabulous; but their literal truth is confirmed by the testimony of the English ambassador. After examining the old records which I have quoted, I have no doubt the facts surpassed the astonishing report for in Mexico the propensity has ever been to conceal, rather than overestimate, the quantity of silver, on account of the King's fifth, yet it is the King's fifth, actually paid, on which all the estimates of the production of Sonora silver mines are based. Arazuma, which in the report of the Minera that I have translated for this volume appears to be set down as Arizpa (Arizpe?), was for a hundred years the world's wonder, and so continued until the breaking out of the great Apache war a few years afterward, when seemed to run mad at the sight of such immense masses of native silver, and for a time it seemed as if silver was about to lose its value. In the midst of the excitement a royal ordinance appeared, declaring Arazuma a Creaderos de Plata and appropriating it to the King's use. This put a stop to private enterprise; and after the Indian war set in Arazuma became almost a forgotten locality ; and in a generation or two afterwards the accounts of the mineral riches began to be discredited."
Undoubtedly the richest of the copper mines worked in the Southwest by the Mexicans was the Santa Rita del Cobre, not far from the present Silver City. Its native copper was used by the prehistoric Indians, who, with their stone implements, pounded the soft metal into rude ornaments and small bells. It was worked by white men as early as 1804. Copper, smelted in little adobe furnaces, was sent to the Mexican mint in Chihuahua, to be stamped into coins. Some of it was delivered in the City of Mexico, though at a cost of 65 cents a pound. Later some of the bar copper was shipped to New York through the Texan port of La Vaca. The mines were abandoned in 1838, probably because the native copper no longer was found, though Cremony, whose tale on the subject is to be found elsewhere in this work, blamed the stoppage on the Apaches. In 1851, Jose Antonio Acuiia, a Mexican who had lived among the Apaches, returned to Sonora with a tale that somewhere near the Rio Salado there was a large deposit of pure silver, which the Indians thought merely a form of lead, and , from it had moulded bullets. An organization of 500 men was effected to invade the country, but was delayed by the death of its first leader, Carrasco, whose place was taken by one Tapia. The party reached a point on the Gila River not far from where Acuiia said the silver was to be found, but was met in force by the Apaches and thought it the part of discretion to retreat. Two deposits of almost pure silver thereafter were found by the Americans in the country penetrated, in Richmond Basin near Globe and at Silver King, both points not very far from Salt River.
One of the noted mines of the Spanish era in the hills that flanked the Santa Cruz Valley was the Salero. a Spanish word meaning "saltcellar." There are a number of stories concerning the origin of the name. Possibly that told by J. Ross Browne is as good as any. The parish priest at Tumaeacori was mortified at a time of visitation by a superior priest to find that he had no saltcellar. So Indians forthwith were dispatched to the mine to dig out and smelt some silver ore. The next day at dinner a mass of silver fashioned in the shape of a saltcellar was presented to the reverend visitor as a memento of his trip.
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