Page 141 - The Geology and Ore Deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico - Bulletin 10

140 GEOLOGY AND ORE DEPOSITS OF SIERRA CO., N. M.
Placer gold was found in November, 1877, in Rattlesnake and Wicks gulches, and it is reported that during the winter of 1877-78 a miner named George Wells recovered in Wicks Gulch $90,000 in gold dust and nuggets, which he sold in Hillsboro. Placer gold was discovered in the stream beds and the alluvial fans surrounding the mineralized area of the Animas Hills, and hundreds of pits were dug following out the small runs of high- grade material that had accumulated on the first false bedrock. Except for small piles of hand-sorted boulders and an occasional slight depression in the surface of the ground, no evidence re- mains of the great amount of work that was done during these early years, so effectively have the wind and flood waters filled in and leveled off the workings.
Ore was first mined from lodes in the district in 1877. It amounted to about 5 tons and was hauled to the mill on the Mim- bres River. The early production was treated in arrastres that were erected in Hillsboro in 1877. In 1878 the original arrastre in Hillsboro was supplanted by a 10-stamp mill, the foundations of which are still standing.
Work in the camp has been intermittent. Following the first period of important production, which ended in 1893, there was a moderate revival in 1906. Many old properties were opened up and investigated, and some production resulted. Dur- ing the post-war period from 1918 to 1921, the Rattlesnake and the Opportunity mines were reopened and some development work was done, but only small shipments were made. During 1931-1933, activity was more general and more persistent in the camp, and mining or development work was done in the Bonanza, Opportunity, Sherman, Ready Pay and El Oro properties, while nearly all the other properties in the district were examined. During this later period, placer mining was also carried on. Many individuals were panning or rocking gold from the gravels, but most of the richer runs had already been discovered and re- moved, and it was only occasionally that such small-scale opera- tions netted the worker more than a bare subsistence. Large- scale placer operations adapted to desert conditions and suited to the recovery of gold from much lower grade gravels than could possibly be handled by hand methods were tried out in Dutch Gulch by two companies.
From 1911 to 1931 inclusive the Hillsboro district produced approximately 6,506 tons of ore, divided as follows : Gold ores, 836 tons ; gold-silver-copper ores, 5,470 tons ; copper ores, 200
tons. The total value of this ore was approximately $150,000.00. The total production of the camp prior to 1904 has been estimated by F. A. Jones to have a value of $6,750,000. From various local sources the writer gathered information permitting him to make a partial and approximate division of the total pro- duction from 1877 to 1931 inclusive into that coming from vari- ous individual mines and from restricted parts of the district as