Show lost mi mines nes of old mex mexico aco I 1 NEW drw YORK SUN if legends and well authenticated stories are to be believed there are more lost mines of vast richness in mexico than in any other country in the world conditions since the earlier history of that country have contributed to efface the location of mines as well as of buried treasure tradition locates most of the lost mines or minas rapadas in northern chihuahua and sonora in the sierra madre this area was until twenty five years ago subject to periodical raids from apaches and miners were often forced to fly for their lives to the interior and shafts and tunnels were concealed and frequently all surface improvements prove ments destroyed by the miners themselves to prevent discovery until they could safely return that many never returned and that many mines are still no one acquainted with the history of mining in mexico can doubt in many instances the trails leading to old mines have been totally destroyed during the rainy seasons when the face of nature is sometimes altered beyond recognition by storms at any peon jacal one hears stories of lost mines incalculably rich in gold ore or bullion and fiction is so interwoven with fact that the most logical mind finds it difficult to tell where one leaves off and the other begins it is no exaggeration to say that millions of dollars have been spent in pumping out old shafts and removing debris from ancient tunnels many of which no doubt were abandoned by the spaniards themselves as worthless A few old mines have proved rich a few more of sufficient value to work at a fair profit but 90 per cent of them are said to be worthless under present conditions and none of them contained buried treasure in bullion though considering the remoteness of the mines and the fact that shipments of bullion were made to the ports only once or twice a year it may well be that much metal was left buried when a hegira took place before the ferocious apaches the spaniards obtained vast amounts of silver in mexico but little gold outside the ancient temples the patient indians content to work for a few ce a day never disclosed the location of the supposedly rich placers from which they obtained the gold that adorned the temples or the few grains they traded for food and clothing bribes and tortures were equally unavailing to disclose the source of the coveted metal except where it was found in small quantities the indians insisted that the gold images were the accumulation of ages and time has proved this true for no large gold nuggets nor any rich placers compared with california south africa australia or the klondike have ever been found in mexico the largest gold nugget was found in guerrero about twenty years ago by an indian wh chopp opp ld it for about half its value 4 A beautiful nugget was found in sonora that so strikingly resembled the sacred picture of our lady of guadalupe as to inspire great awe among the pima and yaqui indians another smaller but equally beautiful resembles a tiny cluster of grapes so perfectly that one can scarcely believe that nature was the sole artificer some of the most beautiful wire silver in the world comes from the famous bato pilas mines which were worked by the early spaniards and recently rehabilitated by the noted boss shepherd once mayor of washington D C at zacatecas Zacate cas in the great veta madre wire silver with ruby stain is taken out in great masses and virgin purity so beautiful and fascinating that it is small wonder vonder much of it is stolen by the miners despite the closest vigilance there are many enticing stories of lost treasure open to any one who can find the hidden key but none of these offers such temptations as the story of the bollas bellas del plata mines the truth of this is borne out by documentary evidence to be found in certain old records of the ancient mexican custom house in operation a century and three quarters ago somewhere between the years 1736 and 1741 when arizona was in spanish territory don diego armendi a wandering mexican miner reached a settlement of the papago indians situated almost upon the present boundary line between arizona and sonora mexico the Pap agoes who still cover this area called their settlement arizonan Arizo nac don diego armendi by some chance came across a hidden deposit of silver and astonished the mexicans by returning with what was probably the largest virgin lump of the precious white metal before or since found in the world it contained no less than 2700 pounds of pure silver armendi armend had another virgin lump of pounds while the aggregate weight of several other nuggets was pounds according to the spanish policy of exorbitant i or revenue assessment these tre tremendous mend nuggets were unreasonably taxed by the mexican custom house officer of those early times when don diegas find became known A dispute arose between the officer and the finder of the silver and the matter was appealed to the viceroy of mexico who decided that the controversy involving as it did the largest silver nugget found in the world was beyond his responsibility and that it would have to be referred to the king of spain himself the king taking the viceroys vice roys hint promptly ruled that a nugget weighing 2700 pounds must be regarded as a curiosity and that all natural curiosities of great value found in the colonies must by courtesy be regarded as the property of the crown armendi was naturally heartbroken at this loss of his priceless nugget it is said that he left mexico in disgust without revealing the precise locality of the wonderful mine it was however known beyond doubt that the lumps of silver were found in or near the papago settlement of ari donac which grew to be known as the bollas bollag del oliata which in spanish means balls of plate the old name arizonan Arizo nac thereupon became widely applied to this region and as very few people know when the present state of arizona was carved out of mexico its name naine was directly derived from this same papago village somewhere near which the abandoned mine of armendi still remains undeveloped the monster nugget was sent to mexico and coined in the mint there for the spanish king soon after the misadventure of don diego the place became abandoned and lost sight of and the ardor of some unskillful miners who attempted to recover the deserted wealth became cooled the nuggets were found on or near the surface and discouragement coura gement doubtless overcame the followers of armendi because they failed to pick up more surface deposits in those days they had no facilities for deep mining at piedras azules amules in the heart of the mountains a prospecting party stopped one day tor for lunch in searching for a lost knife one of the party found a rock weighing about two tons from which native silver protruded it yielded more than when broken up and washed in the arroya the prospectors went out organized a company with a capital of and returned they prospected for months without discovering a particle of metal and left the mountains penniless it is believed the rock from which the silver was obtained was carried down by the water in the arroya from a mining camp about forty five miles distant a solitary piece of float that cost the prospectors dearly but the lost mine about which tradition gathers thickest is supposed to be located in the sahuaripa aripa district in sonora little documentary evidence exists to prove a reality and that has evidently been manufactured by unscrupulous manipulators A wealthy mexican made a trip to madrid several years ago and after minute search at great expense found absolutely no data to show that such a mine was ever worked for the crown of spain and no reliable data in the mexican archives or elsewhere prove such a mine was ever known but quite as trustworthy as most written documents are the traditions gathered from the pima indians they stoutly maintain that lalopa exists and a few claim to know it its s locality small quantities of very rich ore are occasionally sold at the mountain mining camps and all attempts to fol low the indians to the spot where it is found or balb them to reveal it have failed wanting but little in addition to the corn they grow they are imbued with a superstition that if they reveal the locality of a mine they will instantly drop dead to one unacquainted with the indian character this statement may seem incredible but any prospector or miner in the sierra madre will affirm its truth large sums of money have been off offered ered to the pimas aimas to tell where the mine tapada capada is they scorn money and the only open sesame is mescal by the liberal use of which the indian may be made to disclose many things but so far he has held inviolate his vow to reveal to no mortal man the famous but the fascinating secret in part has been revealed to a woman all tales of lost mines have for their central figure a grateful indian and this story is in that particular monotonously like the rest the facts so far as known are the following about fifteen years ago 6 an old pima chief fell ill in one of the valley pueblos and was cured by a mexican woman so well known and so estimable that her statement was universally accepted the old indian returned to his tribe and from time tox td time sent her rich bits of ore which assayed thousands of dollars t to the ton all her eff efforts orts to induce him to lead her to the mine were futile he said the great spirit would strike him dead if he did the plucky senora finally went to the mountains and lived among the indians for three months doctoring the sick and giving presents of calico and gay ribbons to the women and small quantities of mescal to the men of the tribe she became convinced beyond doubt that the spot from which the rich ore came was lalopa the chief admitted that it was the mina tapada capada that was worked when he was a boy after much persuasion persua sian and gift of a goodly portion of the liquor they said that she might discover it unaided and save the indians from the penalty of sudden death for revealing it overjoyed at gaining so much she had two burros packed with provisions and mounted on mules she and two indian women set out they traveled mostly at night passing through deep canyons and over lofty mountain passes the fourth night some hours after dark the indian women led her into a deep canyon and paused a short distance from a large rock in the dim moonlight an old was seen and across the canyon was a large ore dump from which opened a tunnel the woman gathered pieces of ore from the dump and but was hurried away by the indians who said they would be killed if they delayed beyond the time given them by the chief they traveled until the moon went down rested a few hours and went on before day light completely baffling the mexican man as to the route by which brought her they hal they arrived at the t at nightfall and having taken four day dayl pueblo an reach the mine t and but 0 one ne to cretu return M i obvious conclusion was that tha t she had ii bee e led about in a vircle a curious method ol 01 0 satisfying the co complex indian conscience despairing of getting more the mexican woman returned to her home A few raban later she returned to search for the elus elusive ite but without success |