Twenty years later a special Easter program was given to observe its birthday. Names of the children who appeared in that program and who are still living nearby are Mary Jackson (Shotwell), Helen Hunt Jackson, Dorothy Davidson (Gray), Susie Frantern (Kern), Jennie Frantern (Christian) and Fred Stephenson.
As a concession to the Presbyterians a Christian Endeavor Society, rather than an Epworth League, was organized for the young people at the time the church was built. That and a Sunday School continued for many years. Music was a very important part of every service as there were many fine voices in the community. People lost interest in church affairs when mines closed and so many prominent families moved away. Then, too, the general use of the automobile and popularity of the movies furnished excuses for going to church in Silver City or to seek diversion and entertainment of other sorts.
Mines And Mining
As long as the gulches yielded a fair return in gold there was no so-called hard rock mining. Prospectors wandered over the hills, sampling the surface veins. The Atlantic and the Pacific, east and west of town, were located in 1861, also the Langston, but no development work was done. The next year the Locke lode, later called the Mountain Key, was discovered and years later became one of the richest producers. Surface ores were treated in 75 arrastras during the war years. Crude furnaces were used for the smelting of silver. Pinos Altos gold contains both silver and lead so has never received the highest price, being regarded at 70 per cent fine.
In July of 1866 Virgil Marton brought the first stamp mill by oxen from St. Louis, also a saw mill. Both were kept busy, one crushing the surface ores and the other cutting mining timbers and lumber for buildings from the heavy stand of pine and juniper adjacent to the camp. After transportation and other costs were deducted, he and his associates averaged $10.00 a day each from the investment and labor. Big money in those days. The next mines of importance to be located were the Aztec, Asiatic, Ohio, Mina Grande, Pacific No. 2, all west of town, and the Golden Giant which was practically in town. During ’68 and ’69 the Pacific alone furnished ores for 31 stamps and the product surpassed all expectations. From a geological point of view most of the gold bearing ores belong to the Cambrian period. A porphyritic dyke runs along the Pacific slope and tends to change the direction of the veins of ore. There is much malpais to the north and east but the old-timers believed that gold bearing rock lay underneath. John and Jacob Long found that to be true when they discovered rich veins that had been exposed by erosion. They called their claims the Osceola Group. They opened a shaft 60 feet deep and drifted along the vein for 70 feet, realizing from $50.00 to $400.00 a ton. The Atlantic and the Deep Down which adjoin the Osceola proved that rich ores were underneath the malpais.
The mines were not deep nor were the mining methods legitimate. The lead would be followed, hoping it would join another vein where the richest ore would be found. It was “gophered” out. Under the surface the quartz changed to base or sulphuric ores which could not be successfully treated with stamps. Peter Wagner erected a five-stamp mill and a concentrator, the first which could treat base ores.
Lunger and Company sank a shaft on the Mountain Key to a depth of 90 feet and found very rich ore. They sold the property to General Boyle and a stock company was organized with John Boyle, Jr., as manager. The shaft was deepened to 470 feet, exposing large ore bodies. In 1890 when James Jackson, who later became a well-known figure in mining circles, went to work at the Key, there were three shifts working with 200 men employed on each. The company built its own mill down Bear Creek where adequate water could be piped from Mill Creek. Two dams were built across Mill Creek and besides utilizing the water for the mill, in the winters ice was cut on the ponds and stored in an ice house for summer use by the townspeople. Then, as now, the canyon was a favorite picnic spot.
The Golden Giant, which was known locally as the “Gopher,” was a good producer. It was called the “Old Family Lode” during the ’60’s and ’70’s because it could be depended upon to furnish gold to the populace. Even today, after the rains Chelela, Loretto and Epifanio Cuebas find gold in the vicinity of the dump. Often when easy gold became scarce a claim was abandoned and open to relocation. A seventeen year old boy who had run away from his home in Texas wandered into town one day. He watched the miners washing gold and followed them to the store where the gold was weighed. The storekeeper became interested in the boy and let him have a prospector’s pick and gold pan. Each day the boy brought in a few colors and one day appeared with some fair sized nuggets. Upon investigation it was found that the ground adjoining the Gopher was open to location. The boy filed on the claim and went to work in earnest. One day a stranger came by and after watching him clean up at the end of the day, offered him $8,000.00 for his claim. The boy took it and went home with his fortune.
Boys went to work when they were fourteen. A man with his boys would work a property digging, timbering and hoisting the dirt from the shaft with a windlass and bucket. The ore was carefully sorted and any rock showing free gold was ground in a hand mortar. The results varied. Sometimes they would make but $10.00 a day but at others the man would carry $200.00 worth of gold home in his lunch pail. After a man had taken nearly $300.00 from the surface of the Mountain View he decided that was all and sold the claim for $10.00 to a Mr. Demorest. From his assessment work he realized $390.00 and that justified development work. In a short time he netted $20,000.00 and made more by selling while the showing was good. That was the surest way of making money and many operators followed that principle.
The three Dimmick brothers had homesteaded on Whiskey Creek in the late ’80’s. One day Clint was driving in the cows, he picked up a stone to throw at a laggard. The weight surprised him so he took out his knife to chip at it and found it to be native silver. It took many months to locate its source. Then in 1892 work was begun on the mine which they called the Silver Cell and a smelter was erected nearby. The native silver occurred in “chimneys” and when one was struck it was a bonanza—otherwise the mine yielded little, although it was worked for years.