THE ORES OF ARIZONA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3984, 17 July 1915, Page 7

THE ORES OF ARIZONA.

The north-western continuation in Arizona of the great mining region of Mexico, celebrated for centuries for its fabulously rich ores of silver and other metals, is the oldest mining district in the United States. The district has an area of 1400 square miles, situated on the border of Mexico in the middle of that portion of Arizona known as the -Gadsden Purchase. Authentic records show that silver mining was carried on here by the Papago Indian before the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the sixteenth century. Later the lodes were worked from time to time and their ores smelted, under the direction of the Jesuit fathers and the Spanish Government, and remnants of their old mine workings, to which the charm of romance clings, point tho way to wealth possibly not yet exhausted. From 18-53, the date of Gadsden Purchase, to tho present time mining has been carried on by Americans —not, however, without interruptions, especially during the earlier part of this period, in which raids by the bloodthirsty Apaches or Mexican outlaws figured prominently. Although tho fame of this district in the past was due almost exclusively to its rich silver ores, since the American occupation valuable discoveries of copper, load, and other metals have been made.