Santa Fe County; The Heart of New Mexico Rich in History and Resources

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906. Excerpt: ... MINING. Santa Fe County can truthfully claim to be the section in the United States where mining was first prosecuted by the white man. The fame of the county's turquoise and gold mines had probably more to do in bringing the Spaniards up the Rio Grande and Santa Fe Valleys before even the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock than any other cause. Two hundred years before gold was discovered in California, gold nuggets were picked up by white men in southern Santa Fe County. In the winter of 1542 Coronado and his Conquistadores, so the old chroniclers say, secured turquoise and gold in this part of New Mexico. The Mina del Tierra and the turquoise mines near Cerrillos were the first lode mines systematically worked in the Southwest and the only mines in New Mexico of which there exists any evidence of their existence before the year 1800, excepting, perhaps, the turquoise mines in the Burro Mountains in. Grant County. But it was the placer mines in southern Santa Fe County that produced most of the gold of the period of the Spanish occupation. The Pueblo Indians, prior to the advent of the Spaniards, took gold from the superficial gravel beds south of the Ortiz Mountains. However, it is only since 1828, that the extensive areas of auriferous sands and gravels which surround the basal slope of the Ortiz Mountains have been worked continuously, and it was eleven years later that the New Placers at Golden were rediscovered by white men. The following account of Santa Fe County's mines is principally from the pen of Professor F. A. Jones of the United States Geological Survey, and is, therefore, authentic and accurate: The New Placers. The new placers or Silver Butte District lies to the south of Cerrillos, a town on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe...