402 Reminiscences of 



the good recommendation given of him from one 

 of the substantial townsmen with that ready willing- 

 ness so common in the extreme West. 



Meyers claimed that he had acquired an immense 

 tract of land known as the Nacimiento Grant in per- 

 fect title from the Spanish and Mexican govern- 

 ments, ratified in patent by the United States, which 

 abounded in immense ledges of sandstone, impreg- 

 nated by nodules and particles of pure copper, which 

 would yield large profits if worked by modern methods. 

 The presentation was attractive from a prima facie 

 view, and to some extent as alluring as that which 

 induced the adventurous Coronado in earlier days 

 to traverse the same region in search for the golden 

 cities of Cibola. The evidence in result was that 

 the romancing Meyers had not a penny's interest 

 in the grant, or any means for acquiring one, and 

 the copper existing in the ledges was of such insignifi- 

 cant proportions as to prove unprofitable even if 

 worked over by the complete manner followed in 

 the Lake Superior regions, where less than one per 

 cent, of native copper gives large profits. But the re- 

 gion was very extraordinary and interesting, where 

 the geological features were unique in character. 

 Once it had been the bed of an immense lake into 

 which had flowed streams carrying trunks and 

 branches of trees, principally palms. The water of the 

 lake from some cause had been strongly impreg- 

 nated with copper in solution, which saturated the 

 logs more or less, and the wood became petrified 

 completely, and the copper solidified in the wood 

 in a metallic form in minute particles. Then a con- 

 vulsion of nature occurred, a mighty upheaval of 



