Old Bookaroo
Silver Member
- Dec 4, 2008
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The Lost Gold Mine Tayopa.
A Party of Four Hope to Find
It in the Chico District.
An Old Tunnel Discovered Hunting a
Better Trail Between Chuichupa and
Guaynopita – Forest Fires Still Raging
Around Chuichupa Lighting Up the
Mountains at Night and Obscuring the
Sun by Day.
-----A Party of Four Hope to Find
It in the Chico District.
An Old Tunnel Discovered Hunting a
Better Trail Between Chuichupa and
Guaynopita – Forest Fires Still Raging
Around Chuichupa Lighting Up the
Mountains at Night and Obscuring the
Sun by Day.
Special Correspondence of the Times.
CHUICHUPA. Via Casas Grandes, Mexico, June 11 – Messrs. J. W. Taylor and A. H. Holmes arrived here yesterday from El Paso, and went on today to Guaynopita, fifteen miles south of Chuichupa. Mr. Taylor is one of the owners of the Guaynopita mine and has spent considerable time there since he became interested in it. His present purpose is look out a route for a better trail between Chuichupa and Guaynopita, with a view to shipping the ore out through here to Casa Grandes and over the Sierra Madre road to El Paso. Heretofore the eastward route from the mine has been followed, leading out by El Valle. But Mr. Taylor is convinced that the Chuichupa route will prove far preferable. The ore will be packed out on burros to Chuichupa. From here it can be hauled in wagons to Casa Grandes, eighty miles over a road good enough so that four horses can take a load of 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. Mr. Holmes is a mining expert who comes to examine and report on the mine.
Messrs. Fowler and Tanby arrived here a few days ago where they were joined by Norris Singleton. The party of four are now over on the Chico, digging through the walls behind which they hope to find a mine, possibly the famous old Tayopa. Whether this will prove to be the site of the great lost gold mine remains to be seen. Mr. Tanby, who is a practical miner, says there are undoubted evidences that some mine has been worked in that vicinity. A day or two ago Singleton discovered the mouth of an old tunnel across the canyon from the discovery, and in a spot now inaccessible on foot. One or more of the party will attempt to reach and explore the tunnel with the aid of a rope.
While some believe that Fowler and Singleton have really found the old Tayopa mine, others think that the famous gold mine must be sought in Hacienda canyon, hear where the Guaynopa trail crosses it and where ruins of reduction works and stone buildings are conspicuous. The ruins at this later place certainly indicate extensive work in some mine nearby. As yet, however, no shaft or tunnel has been discovered there abouts.
Forest fires still rage about Chuichupa, lighting up the mountains with lurid blaze by night and obscuring the sun with smoke by day. The country to the west and northwest of Chuichupa burned over several weeks ago when there was still enough moisture in the ground to start the grass afresh. The Guaynopa country and the Chico valley have burned over more recently and the fires have now reached the very edge of the Chuichupa valley on the south. The only attention which the people here pay to the matter is to set back fires or whip the fires out in the grass with pine boughs whenever it approaches the fences or the plowed fields. There is practically no danger to the town, and there is still plenty of grass in the valley and elsewhere where the ground burned over last month.
The Guaynopa country, however, is entirely bare as far as grass is concerned, and every last prospector has temporarily left, in order to take his animals where they can find feed. A few days ago Messrs. Cox and Trejo of this place and Messrs. Blinn and Oliver of El Paso went down to Guaynopa and had difficulty in getting back before their animals gave out. They found that two burros belonging to the Colorado party, which had played out and been left behind when the party returned to Chuichupa after their outfit was burned several weeks ago had starved to death. And when a burro starves, it is pretty conclusive evidence of scant grazing. At Guaynopa however, there is a large stripe of ground which the fire failed to reach and which is still covered heavily with grass.
El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas) 22 June 1898 – Vol. 18 No. 148.
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
//
Thanks for reminding me el Tropical Sunburn, I mean Senor Don Jose. Here is a pic of me with my glasses on 
( Again ).
