Page 18 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Zebulon Montgomery Pike
1807: In March 1807, Pike traveled south along the Rio Grande from Santa Fe. On March 14, the party crossed the Rio Grande to the west side of the river (near Fra Cristobal) and travelled through the eastern environs of the Black Range until the 17th. A detail of his map (1810) of this part of his expedition is shown to the left. Note that the Santa Rita Copper Mine is shown prominently. Apparently he did not visit the mine, but his assessment of the mine (from secondary sources) was that it produced 3 to 6 million pounds of ore a year. The ore was concentrated at the mine and shipped south by mule (approximately 20,000 mule-loads per year) to Janos for processing. (Cooke’s Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui - A Focus on United States History in Southwestern New Mexico, p. 21).
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