Old Bookaroo
Silver Member
- Dec 4, 2008
- 4,473
- 3,783
FOUND AT LAST.
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Ed. Signal:—The rich treasure so long sought has been found.
An old, deaf, crippled Indian, eighty years of age, by name, Carlos Juan, who has for over twenty years been the recipient of many favors at the hands of Hon. A. G. Escandon, of this place, concluded he had but a few days to live, and personally knowing the resting place of the 'traditional treasure', proposed, as a mark of his gratefulness, to show Mr. Escandon the mine, "Although I will lose my life by doing so" says he.
It seems these Indians have a superstitious fear of discovering a mine to a white man, at least they pretend to have. In company with others, E. and the Indian went into the mountains sometime ago and, after much time spent in searching, [found] first the spring, the willows, the old furnace and, finally the tunnel, drills and other mining implements exactly as Carlos Juan had said they would find them.
He says the last time he or any of the tribe were at the place was in 1837. At that time they found two white men at work, an Englishman and a Mexican, and that they were killed by the wild Indians. The entrance to the tunnel seemed to have been concealed, and near it was a large pile of ore. This ore contains silver, carbonate of lead, antimony, sulphur and arsenic. The amount of Silver obtained in an assay was $160 a ton.
The mine is situated in the San Emeidio mountains, at the head of a salt creek; fine springs of water and plenty of wood abound in the vicinity. It is about fifty miles from here, on an airline, north-easterly, but about a hundred and fifty by a wagon road.
The ledge is apparently a solid mass of ore, fifteen or twenty feet wide, and can be traced on the surface of the ground nearly a mile. Two other ledges were discovered on the same mountain, both yielding gold and silver. About eight miles from these lodes a native is, and has been, unknown before to anyone, quietly running an arasta, making liberal wages.
The old Indians say that in these mountains there are rich placer diggings, but refuse to show them. A number have gone out to prospect and locate claims, and should their report be favorable, thousands will flock to the “Silver Mountain,” as it is already named. Carlos Juan promises a fuller account of these old mines and their locality.
Miner
Ventura Signal [San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara Co., California], Volume 1, Number 22, 16 September 1871
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This article has not been edited. The original layout has been broken into paragraphs to avoid the 19th century predilection for block format.
The bibliographic reference to this article was found on the Wikipedia page for “Lost Padre Mine (southern California).”
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
