TNet,
Until a thread on the MATCHBOX is created, I will post what I have about the Coarse Gold mine (originally the Grijalva) here. We know that Gus Hirshfeld and Julius Lieberman were invested in this mine howverer, as far as establishing a connecting the to matchbox, I admit that it is premature. Still, seems like a good place to begin.
Here is some background information of the Grijalva Coarse Gold mine. The article titled "NO END OF GOLD" is, IMO, one of the most fascinating that I have come across and I would appreciate your thoughts on it.
Enjoy!
Hal
YESTERDAY'S RECORD
...A. C. Yrigoyen, the locator of the Oro Fino, one of the most promising claims in the newly discovered gold region in the neighborhood of Fools' Canyon, came to town on Monday night. He says that every day the prospects of that region grow brighter. They are continuing to take out great glittering lumps of virgin gold from the original
Grijalva mine, and there is apparently no limit to its wealth. The average richness or extent of the ledge has not been even approximately determined yet...
AZR 17 October 1894
NO END OF GOLD.
The Wonderful Mine at Fool's Canyon.
A Mexican Tells a Startling Story of the Richness of the Late Find on the Hassayampa. The truth of the marvelous wealth of the Grijalva mine on the Hassayampa is coming out by degrees. The wonderful ledge was discovered by accident less than three months ago and its discovery lay among a lot of Mexicans. They were so jealous that they guarded approaches to it and men armed with shotguns stood off inquisitive visitors.
It was only known that the face of the country had been washed away by a June flood and that wealth hidden perhaps for centuries had been brought to the surface and that Fool's canon was likely to become famous. All the surrounding country was immediately located and most of the claims are supposed to be of great value. But about the first and pivotal one the Grijalva claim an air of mystery has hung. Great nuggets of virgin gold have been brought to the city, and the Grijalvaa have received many tempting offers, one of $50,000 for the mine which some said was only a pocket.
The owners remained silent and unsatisfactory, but kept at work, and prospectors in the vicinity kept guessing and locating. So much guessing was done, though, that the fame of Fools canyon spread abroad and newspaper representatives of eastern and European papers residing in Phoenix were importuned for facts concerning the find. They had none to offer. It is true that visitors were by this time admitted to the
claim, but only to a part of it.
Last night
Jose Peralta came to town and told a story about the mine which has never been told before. He has been working for the Grijalvas but has quit, but he says that mine at Fools' canyon
is the richest mine ever discovered in America, the richest at any rate he has ever seen and he has seen all the big mines on the coast since the first one was discovered by white men. He says that they are working the ore from a four-foot ledge by means of three arrastres and that no ore which does not run $150 a ton is handled. The production is $1,200 a week at an expense of $25. But $150 a ton has really nothing to do with the richness of the ore. Peralta has no idea how rich it is but as an instance of its wealth of gold he relates his experience of a single day. In preparing ore for the arrastra it is necessary to crush it by hand. In the course of crushing sometimes nuggets of gold are thrown out. In one day in this way he discovered nuggets which amounted to more than $200 saying nothing of the rest of the rich ore left for development by the arrastra. There is, Peralta says, no apparent limit to the extent of that wonderful four foot ledge.
A legal contest for the possession of the Grijalva claim is developing. An old prospector named
Flacci has been brought to the surface and he says he was the first man on the ground after the Hassayampa flood swept the debris of centuries away. He says that he let
Pedro Grijalva, the old man, into the secret and that night Grijalva got him drunk and bought his right for the pitiful sum of $200. He is going to try to find out if that drunken transaction "goes."
AZR 28 October, 1894
...
Juan Grijala files proof of labor on the Coarse Gold Mine, Black Rock district....
Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner 20 December, 1899
March 28 -
Pedro and Juan Grijalba to
Goldberg Bros, deed $100;1/2 of Coarse Gold mine...
Arizona Weekly Jounal Miner 04 Apriil, 1900
BLACK ROCK DISTRICT
L.L. White of the White mine in the Black Hock district is in the city for a short stay. He reports work going on continuously at the White mine, a force of eight men employed in the two tunnels, two shofts daily being worked. He says a new strike was reported a few days ago at the Grijalva mine about a mile from the Whlte. He did not know the particulars but it is said that considerable ore was taken out that would average $500 per ton.
AZR 4 April, 1903
...William Scott, J. C. Reed and
Pedro Gonzales have located some claims near the Grijalva mine, and are taking out some very rich ore from a small stringer in one of the ledges....
AZR 9 February, 1909
