Old Bookaroo
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- Dec 4, 2008
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Part II.
The mine itself has long since caved in and landslides have covered it. The unused trails have long since been grown over and no sign of them remain and forests have grown and passed away to be replaced by others on the site of the former workings. The whole face of the country has changed, the canyon in which it is located is no doubt completely changed while the names of the mountains and rivers and canyons in that section have been changed time and again. Yet away out there in the rugged fastnesses of the mountains of southwestern Chihuahua somewhere lies the Tyopa mine.
No doubt its location is known to the Indians, that in tradition the story of the lost Tyopa has been handed down by word of mouth for many generations. But the Indian superstition that if he betrays the secret of the mountains, the location of a lost mine, that he will come under the wrath of the God of the mountains and be subjected to His particular attention both here and in the Hereafter, has sealed the Indians' lips with a power stronger than the white man's gifts and while the strongest temptations have been offered them, they refuse to give any information that will lead to its discovery.
One prospector told me of his search for the lost Tyopa and the hardships encountered in that rock locked land. On his first visit he discovered a wide and deep canyon into which he was unable to effect an entrance after eight days of constant search. On a subsequent visit he was more successful, as it was in the winter and the country more open. He found an opening in the canyon and on entering found, among other things, a high peak upon the top of which he discovered, by the aid of his field glasses, a stone wall. His curiosity being excited he climbed to the top, up a path that only a mountaineer or a goat could climb and found that the stone wall seen from below was the ruins of an old fort constructed along the side of the mountain.
It was plainly evident that it had been placed there for purposes of defending the mountain against outside attack as a few men with rocks could defend the trail against an army. That was all. There were no other evidences of human occupation, no houses, no ruins of any kind, nothing except this old fort. Who built it? Who defended it and against whom, and what became of the defenders? These questions may be answered when the old lost mine of Tyopa is found.
The grim Sierras hold many secrets but the lust of man for gold and the red blood of adventure will in the end draw from them their most hidden secrets and one day the lost Tyopa will be found. But to come back to present things and treasures already found. The Mines of Mexico Co. is the name of the company now operating the mines at Los Otates which, until recently, were owned by Ben Bourne and Wm. Denton, who settled there twenty years ago and have been working the mines in a superficial manner since that time. The values are in gold and silver and the mines are now being opened up in a systematic manner under the superintendency of R. E. Cowden. After sufficient development work has been done to warrant the erection of a plant one will be installed, its character and capacity depending on the results of development. This is a Denver company with offices at 239 Symes Bldg. and is under the general management of W. B. Boyle, of that city.
Further up the mountain a San Francisco concern is operating Los Otates mines under the title of Los Otates Mining Co. R. B. Harper is manager in charge with W. R. Harper as superintendent. The company's headquarters are at 417 Montgomery St., San Francisco. These mines were first located in 1884, but were abandoned about four or five years ago until the present company took them over about a year ago. The ore is gold and silver and runs from 600 oz. silver down to 20 oz. The Santa Ana mine carries from 1 to 4 oz. gold. The property is equipped with a 10-stamp mill, hoists and pumps. There is said to be enough ore now in sight to run a 20-stamp mill for two years and it is the intention of the company to increase its mill capacity to twenty stamps.
From Los Otates to the Arechuyvo camp is but a couple of hour's ride on a good mule but as we were equipped with an elderly widowed saddle mule that apparently was constantly ruminating on the joys of departed days and the general whats-the-useness of present effort, and were convoyed by a sympathetic gentleman contemporary mule as pack animal and commissary department, who gallantly was averse to leaving the bereaved one to her Sorrows and solitude, our travel was slow and dignified as it should be under such circumstances, and we did not arrive in Arechuyvo until high noon.
Arechuyvo is on the map because of its being the nearest town to the $12,000,000, gold, mines of the Mary Mining Co. Here we met up again with Ed. McLean, former assistant manager of transportation and erstwhile gun man for the ill starred Greene Gold-Silver Co. Ed. McLean's hotel register is from "Everywhere" and he has been everywhere and done everything in the development of the big out doors country of Western Chihuahua. He is now superintendent of the Mary Mining Co. and if vim and energy and intelligent effort prevail, as do the prayers of the righteous, the Mary company is bound to forge to the front. It is told of McLean that once during the troublous days of the Greene Gold-Silver, following the shut down of the mines, a clerk in the mine office wired him to come to Concheño at once with a force of men to stop a riot at the mines. He arrived alone and when asked where his men were, said : "Hell, aint I enough? There aint but one riot."
~The Mexican Mining Journal [“An independent exponent of the mining industry of the Spanish -American countries ; Mexico, Central and South America. Published monthly in English and Spanish – The Only Mining Journal Published In Mexico”] December 1908 (Vol. VII No. 6)
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
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