Page 197 - The Geology and Ore Deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico - Bulletin 10

194 GEOLOGY AND ORE DEPOSITS OF SIERRA CO., N. M.
cut into the Magdalena limestone, but in no place, so far as known, have they reached the underlying Mississippian strata. The block is surrounded on all sides by nearly horizontal beds of sediments considered to be of Santa Fe age, which make up the terraces bordering the flood plain of the Rio Grande. These beds consist largely of pink to buff-colored layers of moderately con- solidated gravel, sand and silt. Overlying the Santa Fe beds and concealing them except where the terraces have been truncated by the eroding action of the river and its tributaries, is the Palo- mas gravel of Quaternary age. This formation consists of loose to partly consolidated somewhat-rounded boulders, in places rudely stratified with layers of gravel and sand, and having a predominating gray color which grades into buff in the finer parts.
MINE DESCRIPTIONS EQUATOR AND IRON REEF GROUP
This group of claims is located on the southwest face of the Mud Springs Mountains, about 6 miles by road from Hot Springs. It is the property of the Fannie G. Villard Estate. Mr. E. Titt- man, an attorney in Hillsboro who is handling the affairs of this estate, estimates that ore having a value of about $40,000 in horn silver (cerargyrite) has been shipped from these two claims, and that there is ore on the deeper levels, which after hand sort- ing will average 35 per cent copper, with small amounts of silver.
MANGANESE (ELLIS CLAIMS)
Northwest of the town of Hot Springs and within a mile of the city limits, manganese oxides occur in nearly horizontal beds of sandstone considered by the writer to be of Santa Fe age. According to Wells, 63 who describes these deposits in detail, the manganese minerals were deposited by spring waters. The bulletin by Wells should be consulted for further details of these deposits.
FRA CRISTOBAL RANGE
ARMENDARIS GRANT
GEOGRAPHY
The Fra Cristobal Range is in the eastern part of Sierra County and east of the Elephant Butte reservoir. The maximum elevation is about 6,600 feet. The Jornada del Muerto bounds the range on the east, and the Albuquerque-El Paso line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway traverses this valley.
The Fra Cristobal Range is within the boundaries of the Armendaris land grant. It is said that this grant from Spain gave the original owners all surface and mineral rights, except- ing only gold, silver and mercury, these being reserved by the
63We11s, E. H., Manganese in New Mexico: N. Mex. Sch. of Mines, Min. Res. Survey Bull. 2, pp. 61-63, 1918.