starman, Chris Hardaker,
Personally, if I had the resources and the time, I would research the Mowrey claims. They are the most logical source for the material used to cast the Tucson "Artifacts" and what happened to Mowrey there is just too coincidental to ignore IMO.
I hope this inspires you to look...
"It was discovered in 1857 by a Mexican herder, who sold it to Captain Ewell (afterwards General Ewell of the Confederate Army) and Messrs. Brevoort (an error?), Douglass, and Johnson, who gave the Mexican a pony and some other traps for the location."
"The first owners were Colonel J.W. Douglass, Captain R.S. Ewell, Lieutenants J.N. More, Mr. Randal, Mr. Lord, and Mr. Doss - all belonging to the United States Army excepting the last named individual and Colonel Douglass."
"The Patigonia Mining Company,
Col. Douglass Superintendent, are progressing with fine success. They have a deep shaft sunk, and over one hundred tons of ore out of the ground."
The Weekly Arizonian., 03 March, 1859
Douglass replaced?
"The Patagonia Mine - At this establishment under the
superintendence of
Mr. William Godfroy, from five to eight hundred pounds of ore per day is being smelted with one furnace of limited capacity."
The Weekly Arizonian., 28 April, 1859
The Patagonia Mine was located close to a well-worn trail used by the Apache who, in 1859, chased off Mexican workers on several occasions. This is a great article:
"APACHES - The country in the vicinity of the Patagonia mine is literally full of Apaches, chiefly Coyoteros. A party of thirty called at the Patagonia mine a few days since demanding provisions. Being interrogated as to where they were going, they coolly answered they
"were traveling for their health!" Towards the whites they manifest no hostility, but did not conceal their hatred against Mexicans."
The Weekly Arizonian 05 May., 1859
Apache harrasment continued and the production at the Patigonia began to slip. This ad ran until November of 1859. That same year, Lord and Doss sold their interest in the Patagonia to E. Brevoort (postmaster at Fort Buchanan) who essentially mismanaged the mine. Brevoot's mismanagement resulted in a rift between the remaining owners. Ewell and his partners sold out to Brevoort who, almost immediately, sold out to H.T. Titus.
Conditions at the Patagonia did not improve and the mine was sold to Lieutenant Silvester Mowrey in the spring of 1860 for $25,000 cash. Later Mowrey sold one fifth of the mine to "a wealthy capitalist in the East". This is when the mine was renamed the Mowrey Mine.
