ART. 23 DURANGO MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY — FOSHAG S 



and to make progress and geological study difficult. About the 

 foot of the Cerro are cultivated fields of beans or pasture lands. 



HISTORY OF THE DEPOSIT 



' Shortly after Cortez had conquered Mexico and its environs he 

 dispersed his captains to the outlying provinces of Mexico. One 

 expedition leaving Acapulco invaded California, while others 

 founded towns in Sonora, Sinaloa, and penetrated Zacatecas and New 

 Mexico. All these expeditions brought back tales of the marvelous 

 richness of the country, among which was a report of a mountain 

 carrying abundant silver and gold. In 1552 the Governor of Xcw 

 Galicia (Jalisco) sent Genes Vasquez de Mercado to conquer the 

 valley of Guadiana and investigate the reports of this mountain of 

 silver and gold. Mercado procured the services of an Indian who 

 assured him that he knew the place and after some days spent on the 

 way arrived at the indicated hill, found no gold or silver, but a huge 

 mass of iron ore ; the search proving futile, Mercado began his return, 

 but the band was attacked by hostile Indians, at which time Mer- 

 cado was mortally wounded. In 1563 the town of Durango was 

 established I'y Francisco de Ibarra.^ 



The presence of so much iron ore led many, under the belief that 

 it constituted a gossan, to prospect the hill for gold and silver, while 

 its possibilities as a source of iron remained untouched until 1828, 

 when an English company under the patronage of the Governor of 

 Durango, constructed iron works on the banks of the Tunal River 

 at a spot known as Piedras Azules. Prior to this, planters from the 

 neighboring farms succeeded in smelting the ore from Cerro Mer- 

 cado in simple Catalonian furnaces for the iron that they needed to 

 cultivate their fields.^ 



In 1881 the Iron Mountain Co. was organized and established 

 reduction works at the foot of the hill. In 1885 this company sold 

 its holdings to the Mexican Iron Mountain Manufacturing Co. of 

 Des Moines, and in 1888 it was again sold to the Durango Iron & 

 Steel Co. During this period some iron was smelted with charcoal, 

 but the high costs, especially of transportation, for the nearest rail- 

 road point was Torreon 150 miles to the east, made operations 

 improfitable.^ 



With the advent of the railroad to Durango and the acquisition of 

 (lie iron deposits by the Compania Fundidora de Fierro y Acero de 

 Monterrey, the deposits were actively developed and under the direc- 



> Fr. Francisco Frojes, Historia breve <le la Conqnista de los Estados in(le))enclicntes del 

 Imiierlo Mexicano. Quoted by B'redoilco Wcidiier. Anuales del Ministei'io de Fomento, 

 Mexico, vol. 3, p. 164, 1S77. 



-.John Birkenbine, Amer. Inst. Min. Engrs.. vol. 13, pp. 10(5 7, 1S84. 



" I'rivate communication to the writer by John S. McCaiiirhan, of Durango. 



