| Show in the direction of the sun stin at four in the afternoon STORY OF THE LOST MINE OF TUBAC written by kirby thomas en la direction del sol a las quatro de la tarde en el dia viente uno de junto junio these are the explicit directions transcribed into my notes from the ancient church records after nearly a weeks search for the mine of tubac aubac we are again in the stra straggling g ling Z indian village of the same name as the old mine the spanish antiqua the location of which has been entirely lost through the mutations of time during the two or more centuries since its operation at tubac aubac is a mission a block like affair of mud walls once white with a characteristic arch of unequal arms for a bell and a crumbled portico facing the north on this portico we had stood a few days since and looked in the direction of the sun at four on the day of june as the old record had prescribed to lay our course for a trip to locate the lost mine of tubac aubac the story of our adventure is not an exciting b one but now after our high expectations have ended in doubt doub tto to say the least it seems worthy of being 6 recorded while I 1 was in mexico city several years ago b I 1 received a letter from an old time mining friend in which he asked me to make a search of the archives in the mexican cali libraries for the purpose of finding some information which might enable him to locate a famous lost mine of which traditions were still extant in his licali locality ty the mine was called tubac aubac after a pueblo or village of that name in which there was a church mission not unlike half a hundred others in the southwest the name tubac aubac was reported to mean in the indian language athe the place ot ol water this information was my clue and I 1 was expected to find from the scanty records of the days of the early spanish occupancy data which would lead to the redis re dis covery of this early day bonanza mine searching the archives in the bibliotheca nacional I 1 found the archives of the catholic church from the very earlist days all in in fairly good order and certainly very interesting as human documents in a dusty and yellowed volume bound in in pi pigskin Z askin stiffness of iron I 1 found quaintly hardened by age to the which the scribed ascribed the records of the numerous missions tireless and zealous catholic Cot holic padres had bad founded and sustained in the then far borderland border land of spanish domain the of these told of the state of arizona now a part matters and of founding of the missions of indian massacres the he of the conversion of of trivial but timely import of the rich indians and of the discovery and operation silver church mines products of these mines the of toll liberal the churche churchs s notes of occasionally some andy and was enumerated orderly richness were in included mines and their abir great the comment on mine known as of the mn a description there was silver and of the salero balero blancho Pl ancho de plata P plank lank of of silver fo found und in in the ac mine mine so the plank salt cellar bigas the top ot of being as as designated was described definite te to one of the t table which S is no not t very considered ST abat it was habits or measurement s however t hat it was sent intact to the the kanof find was so important through gratitude or in n I 1 h hope ope of due king of spain sain either eithe I 1 regal reward this contribution to the king was of course in addition to the liberal tithe exacted for the royal exchequer it is not told in these church records but in later secular writings b that the king 6 was so interested in the donation that I 1 he ie ordered the mi mine ne confiscated to the crown finall finally y reference to the mine at tubac aubac was found it was described as muy re quisma very rich and the record set forth its location with reference to the mission as was customary at the time in terms of the sun and almanac further the old scribe told of some sturdy and fruitful pear trees transplanted from far off spain which were growing near the mission no further data or description was to be found tubac aubac located search for mine begins some years later finding myself in the region referred to in this old record and having some time to spare I 1 decided to visit my friend and to inquire of him concerning the mine of tubac aubac it seems that he had not followed the ancient clue partly because as is the wont with miners and desert deseri habitats he did not have the time but chiefly because the locality indicated by the direction was one not considered promising for mines or mineral deposits of any kind however he was still interested in the matter and he was very willing to venture with me in the quest and he promptly offered to provide horses and ample and suitable equipment for for the several days desert trip tubac aubac place of the water tubac aubac today is a cluster of a half score or so of cc adobe huts looking like mounted de freight cars stra straggled on the gray edges of patches and squares of alfalfa and other products vivid green b reen in contrast with the general beneral ab color schemes of the desert region and resulting from the rare perennial springs at this place of the water there was also the mission very old and similar in architectural design to the other and better known missions of the southwest many of which can trace a direct historical record back a couple of hundred years or more to the days when the padres and the intrepid spanish miners first cal came calne ne into the country on their respective quests I 1 soon felt very sure that this was the mission referred to in the old records and that from its portico the mine of tubac aubac had been visible as described taking the course from the portico by compass and nautical almanac we laid our plans for the search A long rocky slope stretched ahead a days travel or more to the crest and beyond that another blue and mysterious ridge flanking the main range which lay to the west out of our line of vision no mine was known in this t 11 is allotted and prescribed segment and our general interpretations of the geological formations and conditions was not very encouraging it was planned to start at dawn and to camp on the near crest the first night this would permit of some general investigate invest investigations igat ions of the country through which we were to ride and of the custom customary ary and comfortable siesta during the hot hours of the day it was decided decide d to take with us the local jefe a squaw man of scandinavian descent and a mexican by the name of pedro muy viejo y muy sabroso sabi oso very old and very knowing according to local report two days were spent in hard hot traversing of the first slope without result and at the end we were camped on the crest still in sight sig ht of our beacon the mission after much wandering steered right pedro who had become stolidly interested in our purposes told us that there was no mine in the area we were investigating but he did not venture any any elucidation of the record nor discussion of the local traditions traditions of the lost mine with which we found he was familiar we decided to advance to the farther ridge and to explore there keeping Z within the limits of the angle of vision and the area of visibility from our basing za point the north of the tubac aubac mission we traversed all the ragged ed and cactus punctured slope and examined every exposed rock and projecting cliff for this was our last hope to find the lost mine of tubac aubac and we still had full faith in the veracity and accuracy of the nameless recorder on whose information we were acting it did not seem within reason to doubt the competency of the record nor did it seem likely that our experienced search had overlooked any possible trace of the ancient mine workings especially one singled out for the favorable comment of a contemporary we had about decided to give up tip the search and return to the village when the silent pedro a good list listener mer though lie he understood our en english lish conversation imperfectly asked permission to speak with the senor capitan meaning me he said that he and his ancestors had bad known by oral tradition of the famous mine of tubac aubac and that they too had searched for it in vain as we had he had believed that it was close to the mission but he did not have the more explicit location and direction that my search of the archives had contributed to the subject and the association of the spear pear trees with the mission and thamine the mine was a new idea he then told me of some very old stumps of trees in a valley several miles to the westward which he believed to be the remains of trees of fruit and that there were indications that the place had once been the site of a pueblo probably very long ago when there was more water than now in the locality lost mine of tubac aubac is found with new hope we journeyed westward f far ar out 0 of f vision of the mission and late at night camped near the place which pedro had described it was as he had said there were stumps of trees not indigenous to the region which we determined to be of the pear tree variety from an ex animation of the wood and bark that there had been a settlement there was evident from the scattered but almost obliterated rows of loose stones and from the small mounds of earth perhaps the last crumbled evidence oi of adobe houses there probably haid had been a mission too but this could not be determined what was more important was the fact that a few miles away was a mine visible from the site of the vanished village and quite exactly in the direction as described in the church archives the mine is today known as the cerro colorado and lias has been worked by the americans since the late there is no modern history to tell whether this mine had been worked bafo before re by the spaniards but presumably so for the red hill the english equivalent of the present presen day name for the mine must have been known to the early mining adventurers who were skilled in prospecting for mineral deposits and who went into the most remote places of this then remote region in their quest for the rich and easily treated silver ores which were often found found in such outcrops outcrop s this is all of the story I 1 do not know whether we found the lost mine of tubac aubac or not pedro thinks we did at any rate the thrill and fascination of the local tradition has t gone crone for all the party perhaps other adventurers may take up the search anew and prove the error of our deductions which are that the tubac aubac of the old records was located at the place of the pear trees and later either because of the cessation of mining or because of climatic changes which affected the necessary water supply the village and the mission were transferred to a new site now recorded on the maps maps by a small black dot for myself I 1 ai am strongly inclined to agree with pedro |
