...about New Mexico, mines, and the
Cerrillos Hills
J. Lyman Hayward, 1880 [Promotional words
from the Cerrillos Mining District during the boom of 1880.]
The cost of living is reasonable. First-class board can be obtained for from six
to seven dollars a week. Common miners' wages are two dollars and a half per day.
Owing to the uniform mildness of the climate, labor can be performed uninterruptedly
throughout the year. There is a growing demand for labor, and the laboring miner
can find no better country in which to live. Constant work at fair wages in a
climate not excelled for healthfulness in the West; in proof of which we give the
following fact: that since the formation of the camp there has been no fatal case
of sickness amoung the people.
To the capitalist, there can be no better section of country in which to invest.
The richness of the mineral will compare favorably with any mining district in
the West. Labor is at a fair rate. Railroad communications are rapidly increasing.
Coal, iron, limestone and fire-clay for smelting purposes are abundant, and large
quantities of lumber that can be delivered at the mines for twenty-five dollars
per thousand. Good mining property can be obtained from many of the locators at
reasonable prices.
THE LOS CERRILLOS MINES AND THEIR MINERAL RESOURCES, J. Lyman
Hayward, J.C. Clark Printing Co, S. Framingham, Mass., 1880
Bennett & Brown, 1880 [More promotional
text from the mining boom of 1880.]
In 1680 a visitor to Los Cerrillos might have seen drudgery and servitude of mining
for poor pay among those who broke the rocks with unwieldy stone hammers, wooden
wedges, and levers. In 1880 he can see numerous new mines upon the sites of old
ones, and elsewhere hear the pick blows, the scrape and ring of shovelful, the
clinking hammer strokes on drills, and the booming of blasts deep in the fissured
hills where work in hopeful earnestness is carried on. The prospectors and miners
of this district are generally well pleased and reasonably expectant of rich
returns for their outlays upon claims, as no silver district heretofore discovered
discloses such a great number of true fissure veins in so limited an area of country.
The ores of this district run from 15 to 1500 ounces of silver to the ton, with
occasionally gold, from a trace to 6 or 8 ounces to the ton; and this from only
what might properly be called surface workings, so that according to all experience
heretofore in silver mining, with a sufficient depth, the mines of this district
may reasonably be expected to surpass in richness anything ever before discovered.
AMONG THE ANCIENT AND INTERESTING SCENERY OF NEW MEXICO, text
on reverse of a stereo photograph, Published by Bennett & Brown at Santa Fe, N.M.,
1880
Fredric M. Endlich, 1889 [Travel writing
from the Far West.]
As we leave the capital [Santa Fe] we soon find that the silver fever of the old
Spaniards has persisted to this day. Holes and shafts and tunnels are dug into
the earth or rock; silver and lead have come out of some, gold and copper out of
others, disappointment out of the majority. The famous turquoise mines, known to
the Spaniards as early as 1536 [sic], are but a short distance off, and the Pueblo
Indians there burrow for their favorite chalchahuitl. We hear tales of wondrous
wealth which Mexicans acquired years ago ... Some of these stories are true, some
are not.
The composition of a mining camp is a curious one. Men from all quarters of
the globe congregate there, in search of a livelihood. The roving prospector
leave his mountains and condescends to dwell in settlements for a while--long
enough, at least, to earn a sum sufficient to carry him through another tour
of exploration. His wants are few; a blanket, some bacon, flour, and tobacco,
a pick, a shovel, and possibly a gold pan. If he is wealthy, he may also
indulge the flesh with liquid comforts. Two typical prospectors agreed to
become "pardners" on a trip. Between them they mustered eighteen dollars.
"Cock-eyed Jim" was to invest this judiciously, in supples, while "Sidling Sam"
undertook to "rustle" tools. As they were cording their packs, just before
starting out, Sam bethought himself to inquire into the nature of the chosen
provisions.
"Two dollars' worth of bacon, a dollar's worth of bread, and fifteen dollar's worth
of whiskey," reported Jim.
"What on earth do you want so much bread and bacon for?" was Sam's indignant
remonstrance.
Three classes of people may be distinguished in this section of New Mexico,
excluding Indians: white men, Mexicans, and "Texans". The members of this latter
are a peculiar set of individuals, not cow-boys, not rustlers, not miners nor
working-men. They become day-laborers sometimes, or small teamsters, live upon
invisible means of support in many instances, and cheerfully but unostentatiously
assist in the abridgment of overgrown stock herds."
Fredric M. Endlich, THE HEART OF NEW MEXICO, Harper's Weekly,
September 7, 1889, New York, (pp.729-732)
John R. Park, 2000 [A modern-day
perspective.]
"New Mexico is one of the most interesting of the major mining States. Because of
a diversity of landscape (reflecting a complex geology), a diversity of materials
have been mined. Because of the dry climate, many operating mines are viewable,
and remains of historic mines are naturally preserved. Unfortunately, Santa Fe
seems to have developed an imported elite of the insipidly politically-correct
and so, there are relatively few visible mines, mining museums, and related sites
in New Mexico (compared to the potential and compared to the other western states)."
This website is maintained by the Cerrillos
Hills Park Coalition
and is dedicated to the creation, enhancement and stewardship
of an historical, recreational, and cultural open space in
the
Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA
