866 



MINES AND QUARRIES 



[b. a. e. 



the New England states, and in the far 

 West, especially in California. This stone 

 was easily carved, and, because it is not 



of soapstone quarry showing stumps left in removing 

 Lumps of the Rock; California. (holmes) 



readily fractured by heat, was much 

 used by the Indians for cooking vessels 

 and for tobacco pipes. The masses of 

 this rock were 

 uncovered, and 

 lump s large 

 enough to be 

 shaped into pots 

 were cut out 

 with the aid of 

 well - sharpened 

 picks and chis- 

 els of stone 

 (Holmes, Mc- 

 Guire, Schu- 

 macher, Rey- 

 nolds, Angell). 

 Mica (q.- v.) 

 was quarried in 

 many places in 

 Virginia a n d 

 North Carolina, 

 the pittings be- 

 i n g numerous 

 and large. The 

 sheets of this 

 material were 

 used by the 

 natives for mir- 

 rors and for the 

 manufactureof ornaments. Buildingstone 

 was required in great quantities in the 

 building of pueblos and cliff-dwellings in 

 the arid region, but surface rock was so 

 readily available that deep quarrying was 

 not necessary. Catlinite (q. v.), a red- 

 clay stone, was extensively quarried for 

 the manufacture of tobacco pipes and or- 

 naments. The quarries are situated in 

 Pipestone co., Minn., and are still worked 

 tosome extent l)y the neigidjoring Siouan 

 tribes. The industry is not regarded as 

 a very ancient one, although the manu- 



CATLiNiTE ( Pipestone) quarry worked by sioux Indians, the ledge 



OF PIPESTONE APPEARS NEAR BASE OF WALL. ( Bennett) 



factured articles are widely distributed 

 (Catlin, Holmes). 



Turquoise (q. v.) is found in several of 

 the Western states, but so far as known 

 was mined extensively at only two points, 

 Los Cerrillos, near Santa Fe, N. Mex. 

 (Blake, Silliman) , and at Turquoise mtn., 

 Cochise co., Ariz. These mines were op- 

 erated by the natives before the arrival of 

 the Spanish, as is indicated by the pit- 

 tings and rude stone mining tools found 

 associateil with them. The mines were 

 operated also by tlie Spaniards, and in 

 more recent years in a desultory way by 

 the present inhabitants of the region. 

 The mines at Los Cerrillos seem to have 

 been extensively worke<l by the abo- 

 rigines. Blake, who examined the site 

 about bS55, says: "On reaching the lo- 

 cality I was struck with astonishment at 

 the extent of the excavation. It is an 

 immense pit with precipitous sides of an- 

 gular rock, projecting in crags, which 

 sustain a growth of pines and shrubs in 

 the fissures. On one side the rocks tower 

 into a precipice and overhang so as to 

 form a cave; 

 at another place 

 the side is low 

 and formed of 

 thebroken rocks 

 which were re- 

 moved. From 

 the top of the 

 cliff the excava- 

 tion appears to 

 be 200 ft in 

 depth and 300 or 

 more in width. 

 The bottom is 

 funnel-shaped 

 and formed by 

 the sloping 

 banks of the de- 

 brisof fragments 

 of the sides. On 

 this debris, at 

 the bottom of 

 the pit, pine 

 trees over a 

 hundred years 

 old are now 

 growing, and the 

 bank of refuse rock is similarly cov- 

 ered with trees. This great excavation 

 is made in the solid rocks, and tens 

 of thousands of tons of rock have been 

 broken out. This is not the only open- 

 ing; there are several pits in the vicinity 

 more limited in extent, some of them 

 being apparently much more recent" 

 (Blake in Am. Jour. Sci., 2d s., xxv, 227, 

 1858). Silliuian (Eng. and Min. Jour., 

 XXXII, 169, 1881) speaks of finding in 

 these mines "numerous stone hammers, 

 some to be held in the hand and others 



