Jane Bardal - Southwestern New Mexico Mining Towns

Prospectors Dan Dugan and Dave Stitzel discovered gold near Hillsboro in April 1877. Dugan told Stitzel that gold was not found in that type of rock formation, but Stitzel took some samples to the mill at Mimbres anyway. It turned out that the gold values ran $160 per ton of ore. They returned to locate the Ready Pay Mine and the Opportunity Mine.

The Snake Mine (also called the Rattlesnake Mine) was discovered in June 1877 by Dan Dugan and Frank Pitcher, who broke off a chunk of rock and found free gold. They had recently killed a rattlesnake nearby, hence the name. The Snake Mine produced $1.5 million in shipping ore, concentrates, and bullion, according to George Harleys (1934) Geology and Ore Deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico .

This postcard was mailed from Hillsboro on August 27, 1908. The correspondence reads as follows: This is a picture of the mine where Fred and Harold worked last year. No. 1 is the mill and 2 the hoist house where Fred worked. Today only the foundations of the mill and office buildings remain.

This postcard shows the technique of blowing sand away to reveal gold flakes and nuggets. The black sand is magnetite. Gold is originally deposited in lodes, which erode away over millions of years. When the gold is freed from the surrounding rock, it is called placer gold. Both the placer gold and magnetite are heavy and tend to settle together in alluvial deposits. The black sand indicates the potential presence of gold. Encarnacion Silva used this technique to recover placer gold from the Caballo Mountains. Silva had been showing up occasionally in Hillsboro with placer gold. He would not disclose the location of his find until one night in 1903, when he became intoxicated and revealed the information. Men traveled the 20-mile distance from Hillsboro to the Caballo Mountains throughout the night to stake claims. The excitement led to the cancellation of the district court so that people could rush to the new area. Within two weeks 500 people were searching for gold. In 19041905, miners found 3,400 ounces of gold, but after that time, production was insignificant.

This postcard was mailed from Hillsboro in 1908. The sender describes what the town did not have: No noise, no troubles, no carpets, no whist, no style, no clothes (unless you wish them), no lace curtains to wash, no bath tubs, no Laurie (who was the recipient of the postcard). Where the arrow is pointing, with the text reading 4 miles out here, was the area of the Snake Mine.