Show scold OLD SPANISH MINES evv I 1 people may laugh and jeer at the subject of old spanish mines said a grizzly old prospector to the editor of the mining review the other day but that they exist in this country I 1 am fully satisfied As the veteran miner seemed inclined to I 1 be talkative lie he was given encouragement to continue the subject and while much that he said was evidently true still there were some portions of his narrative which may be ascribed to a vivid imagination ima after the conquest of mexico by cortez the old man said after carefully lighting an old stoma the spaniards scattered out i in n the quest for gold it was the thirst tor for the yellow metal that led to the spanish invasion of the land of the Monte and they would endure elaure anything Z dare anything any thing 1 I and overcome everything to satisfy this craving many portions of mexico were overrun by them in the prosecution of this search and these conquerors formed small parties which eventually worked their way north as far as the wyoming line their trails and paths leading through what is now new mexico exico Al arizona and utah the southern portion of this state proving a prolific field for their investigation and operation as the old archives of mexico will prove for in them are contained old manuscripts descriptive of gold mines and their location in this intermountain region and strange as it may seem these old spaniards were way up in metallurgy and evidently knew how to make mines pay that an american would not look at one reason of their ability to do this being that they made slaves of the original mexicans and compelled them to do the work that is now DOW performed in this country by well paid labor and the spaniards were cruel masters ruling by force and with but little pity for their suffering and abject serfs of course and it is not to be wondered at there are but few people who believe in the existence of old and abandoned spanish mines n the state of utah but I 1 have every reason to believe that they exist the great difficulty in finding them at this day being due to the fact that before leaving them for some unexplainable cause the openings to 10 the underground workings which were usually tunnels were covered over and this was not done to hide them but for the purpose of preserving them from the action of the elements as underground der ground workings when sealed up in this manner will preserve their entirety for an indefinite period whereas were the mines left open it would not be long t owing to the effects of the e elements le ments before timbers would rot and the ground cave in after being abandoned twenty or thirty years but little is left to indicate thea pot where there was once a prolific and paying mine the surface is generally a little sunken sunke n at the former entrance of the tunnel but the dump and surroundings are usually so overgrown with inrush and trees that it would require very keen observation and by an experienced mining man at that to detect detect the location of one of these wealth producers althou although t h 1 I myself have found the remains of old tunnels in which were the remains of ancient and out of late tools formerly used by these forerunners of mining on this continent the old man then went on to relate an experience peri ence of his own several years years acro ago ag o in trying in to find and one of these old S spanish p anish bonanzas 6 at that time he said 1 I met with one of the pioneer residents of fillmore in millard county and he told me that when a young voting man not more than 18 years of age acre 11 he was out in the mountains with a companion looking ing for some stray horses the second day out they found a spring of considerable size which formed the headwaters of quite a strong mountain stream near the spring there was an and piled up by it there were several tons of gold quartz the place seemed deserted but there were plenty of evidences to show that the spot had been occupied and that the primitive reduction works had bein been in use not more than twenty four hours before the boys then found a well worn trail leadin leading cr up into the mountains ins and whoever used the trail had horses the hoof marks of which led away from the spring so they concluded to investigate a little and started up tip the path they had not gone far however before they heard the trampot tramp of horses they withdrew to a copse of thick brush nearby and from their place of hiding soon discerned a small cavalcade made up of spaniards on horseback followed by horses loaded with sacks of ore each horse being lead by mexicans or greasers the spaniards were heavily armed and looked extremely fierce so much so in fact that the lads were glad to leave the locality which they did as soon as they could do so unobserved and from that day they never revisited the spot but they were fully COD convinced vinced that they had discovered the existence and probable locality of a spanish mine mine my informant continued the old man told me that he believed he could lead leadmo ine to the spot discovered b by y him forty years before and so one morning we started out beeach we each had a horse besides pack animals which were well loaded with provisions and supplies for a week we searched the mountains and canyons northeast of fillmore and were at last about to give up the search when we were rewarded by the finding 7 of a spring which my companion said must be the one which he had stumbled onto when but a mere boband boy and upon examination we found some weatherworn quartz upon its brink which when pulverized and panned proved to be rich in its gold contents we then looked for a trail which undoubtedly had been obliterated by bv time but we were able to find a rough u unused n pathway up the mountain side which we followed until we neared the divide here all traces of it were lost and there was no evidence cof of a mine there unless its former existence was indicated by a sunken place in a certain spot and it a hummock nearby both of which were overgrown by brush and graced by trees which were a foot or more in diameter and these I 1 believe were the former entrance to the tunnel and the old dump concluding his story the old man said that he found line fine surface droppings crop pings in the near vicinity of the supposed ancient wealth producer and he is confident that with a little work done in exploration that the old spanish mine will be uncovered |