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Show PeUrb .Alvardo' Ded Left Fortune Estimated at 70000,000. v '. a (Washington Star.) - A dispatch Irom Chihuahua, Mex., savs: Private dispatches received here from Parral confirm .the report oi the sudden death of Pedro Alvarado. the mining man" who was -known; throughout Mexico and the United States. I . He leaves a fortune amounting to about $70,000,000, according to reliable estimates by those who have been handling the ore from his mine during the past six vears. The value of;the Pamilla mine, which 1 he owned and which he discovered a few years ago when he was a peon working in a mine at 39 rents a day. is not known as Alvarado persistently refused to admit ad-mit mining experts to Its workings. It is. I however, one of the richest silver proper- I ties rin the world. - . I Of the $70,000,000 worth of ore which AI-varadov AI-varadov tooK out of the mine since its dis- eovery, it-is said that there is more than $60,000,000, worth in silver bars locked in a steel cage at the residence of the late owner. This cage is guarded night and day by a strong force of armed men. ' Alvarado recently , acquired . additional I notoriety by offering to pay the pubHc . debt of Mexico. He also offered' "io buy all of the mining properties and smelters of the American Smelting & Refining company in Mexico. He gave many; hundreds of thousands of dolars to the tpoor and erected costly j Catholic cathedrals at Parral and in this city. He leaves a widow, to whom bis estate will go. . Romance of Alvarado. -If the history of mining operations in the vicinity of Parral were to be written there could be woven one of the greatest romances ever conceived, Ujr the .truth in regard to some of the bonanza mines and bonanza, kings of Parral is stranger than any fiction that was ever the fruit of an imaginative mind: and of all these there is none more impressive than the stroy of San Pedro Alvarado. the med-ern med-ern Croesus or Mexico's "Monte Cristo." as he was frequently called, owner of the-fabulously the-fabulously rich and justly famous "ra Palmilla mine." located on l,a Palmilla hill, about four miles slightly north of. west of ParaJ and immediately adjoining' the property of Ia Palmilla hill Mining, company, whosv properties are co-exterr-' sive with and upon the same mineral zone as La Palmilla mine Itself, each. containing contain-ing about four "pertenances" or claims, making ten acres for each property. The very, early and subsequent mining operations in the Parral district were confined to the immediate vicinity of the town. Then skipping a supposedly barren bar-ren interval of six miles, mining operations opera-tions were conducted with great success in the now famous camp of Minas Nue-vas. Nue-vas. six miles north of west of Parral. The intermediate territory attracted no attention of consequence until within the last half of the nineteenth century. This i was particularly the e;ise with La Palmilla Pal-milla hill, where the father of Senor Pedro Pe-dro Alvarado began prospecting on what is now the most famous bonanza ground in Mexico. ' " : To obtain sufficient cash with which to live and pay the annual government tax of $10" per claim on four claims was as much as this old Indian prospector could manage, and it is therefore easily understood under-stood why he did not take up and hold more ground than he did. ' ; Encountered Many Difficulties. Mining in those. 4ays, before any raiU roads were builf'in Mexico, or at' lea within many hundreds of miles of his mine, was a very difficult proposition, except where it was possible to mine in 1 the most primitive way ore that carried large quantities of gold or silver which could bo extracted cheaply by the simple methods in vogue and. carried in,the com-pa'ct com-pa'ct fprmof dupt or bullion to the City of Mexico, or tot the ; United States, over difficult roads and tiresome journeys, only to be exchanged at the point of destination des-tination for provisions and other supplies with which to carry on operations until another shipment could be gotten together, togeth-er, when the process . would be-repeated. Naturally, the profits of such operations were reduced to a minimum. The ambitious old" Indian never lost -faith in the uTtinia;te outcome of his mine, but hung tenaciously to it through all sorts of difficulties and adversities. Working along; as a. boy, and then as a young mart, with his father in the mine, and enduring the 1 hardships and privations priva-tions of long, tiresome trips with pack-trains pack-trains of burroa carrying only a couple of hundred pounds each of ore. to be traded to the merchants or buyers at the railroad station sixty miles away for provisions pro-visions and supplies at ruinously exorbitant exorbi-tant prices, young Pedro Alvarado partook par-took of his father's energy and perseverance persever-ance and unfaltering faith in -a possible grand bonanza ,from their intermittent prospect. Hade Slow 'Progress. Patiently and faithfully the old pros pector and his boy, and occasionally the few other Indian laborers or "peons" they were enabled from time to time to hire, dug away at thcniine. making slow prog-, ress with their primitive methods in sinking sink-ing to where they believed the great wealth awaited them. As. They sunk deeper and deeper the difficulty of mining and removing the ore became greater and greater, as everything every-thing had to be carried on the backs of men, who climbed several hundred feet upon notched poles, or "chicken ladders' as they are termed. Conditions and embarrassments which would have baffled and completely, halted almost any other? person than this persevering perse-vering old "peon" were bravely met and conquered. But, alas for life's limitation, limita-tion, the old man never lived to see his dream of wealth realized. He, however, left in his son Pedro a worthy successor to take up the battle afresh. With a filial zeal begot by the ringing in his ears of his father's dying admonition to finish his incomplete, task, young Alvarado worked with even more vigor than had his father, whose worthy son he showed himself to be. Confronted Troubles. Troubles, however, with which the old prospector was never beset, confronted the young man! There were other heirs than himself who inherited interests - in this family burden, and they and their husbands. or wive3, soon tiring of the drudgery and ?ver increasing load, re fused to bear their part and insisted with persuasion and threats of coercion to compel a sale of the property if that could b.e effected, or even an abandonment abandon-ment of it. . . When all chance of Success, and all hope of realization of his father's and his own-life dream seemed' lost, Pedro Alvarado had his hopes brightened by the sight of a small quantity of ore of-exceeding of-exceeding richness. Elated with .what be believed meant early success, he besought his relatives to continue with him in his work. They, however, persistently refused, saying they had seen those evidences and conditions con-ditions before, only to find that they were short lived. Undaunted, Pedro s.icc-eeded in attracting attract-ing the attention of the strongest banking bank-ing house in Parral. and after persevering persever-ing efforts succeeded in inducing the bank to advance him a sufficient sum to buy out his relatives and prevent the sale of the mine. The bank also loaned him sufficient money to clear up some-debts and pay off unpaid laborers, and work the -mine regularly and more rapidly.' No elaborate elabor-ate machinery was installed and practically prac-tically the same primitive appliances were used until one day Jess than three years ago, at a depth of 550 feet, Pedro Alvarado Alva-rado had ' the indescribable pleasure of feasting his eyes upon a mass of ore that meant to him the full realization of the-fondest dreams he or his father had ever 4known. Became a Veritable -"Croesus. There before him was a bonanza ore body which yielded in gold $1,740 per ton, and in silver 9,450 ounces, worth $4,725 per on, or a total value of $5,445 per ton in gold coin. Within thirty days after he overtook good fortune, or good fortune overtook him, preferably the former in this case, he had repaid the bank its $200,000 and had on deposit $150,000, a total of $350,000 added to his wealth in thirty days, or at the late of $12,000 per day. Some carloads of his ore ran as hlsrh as $00,000, and from that time until the present his good fortune has never fal; tered. : His mine never failed in its production pro-duction of fabulous wealth, but month after month poured monev into his lap with a lavlshness probably never equaled even in Mexico, the home of bonanza mines. With scarcely more improved machinery br increased facilities than he had at the time -he struck his great bonanza. Pedro Alvarado. continued- to operate his . mine, and each year since is understood to have made not less than $2,50C.ooo. With each succeeding stage of development develop-ment a. new era for his mine seemed to dawn, and Hhe immensity and marvelous richness of this great bonanza seemed to grow with each succeeding, day until in the deepest workings, which are only 720 eet. deep, vertically Xrpr.rthe surfact. he bad - an ore. body5' fourteen.' meter .45.92 feet) wiJe and averaging for the-vhole bodv 12 kilos (420 ounces "silver, worth . $t6 .or a -total of $31 (gold), for the full widtii oi forty-six feet. A Jarre amount of this ore was sorted us first-class ore, which carried SSti.'iO. go! '. value in silver, and $168. ti6 in iolcl, "making a total of $723.16 per ton of ore. The mine output today is restricted by its equipment, or rather lack of equipment, equip-ment, to daily shipments of sixty tons of ore, which at an average of $2ii per ton is equivalent to S17.4S0 per day. $543.X) per month, or S'J.Sl'o.sOO per vear, of which latter sum the $S,MK),U0 would about represent rep-resent hi.-i profit. Former Senator John P. .lonen of Nevada, Ne-vada, who paid a visit to Paral. Mexico, a few weeks aoro. called upon Pedro Alvarado" Al-varado" at the Iatters home. Alvarado was greatly pleased that the veteran miner-statesman of the United States should call. Through an imerpreter they discussed mining in all Us details. I Senator Jones told of his experiences in ! the old days with the Comstoek and other I mines in the far west, and Alvarado evinced the greatest interest. When Jones told him of his new inlertsts adjoining those of Alvarado's at Paral, the young Croesus expressed the desire ..that they should ever be friends. Alvarado cou-templated cou-templated for a considerable tit.ie a visit j to Washington. |