HISTORY OF THE NEW ALMADEN MINES 



179 





FIGURE 102. New Almaden Hacienda viewed from the north in 1852. Flats behind the building on the right were used in sorting the ore 

 and making adobes (fist-sized mudballs) of the fine-grained material. From an original drawing by William Rich Button; reproduced 

 by permission of the Huntlngton Library, San Marino, Calif. 



by 1857. This early development must have been 

 yielding ore, even though no production was recorded 

 in 1848 and 1849, for in 1850 a production of 7,723 

 flasks was recorded and in the following year the 

 production increased to 27,779 flasks. 



Conditions at the mine in 1854 were described in 

 some detail by W. V. Wells (1863, p. 25-41). He 

 tells of the very pretty village of New Almaden. nes- 

 tled in the canyon below the mine, where the mining 

 officers and foremen lived in well-painted houses with 

 flower gardens and trim picket fences. In sharp con- 

 trast was the Mexican settlement of straw-thatched 

 houses, located on a windy spur of Mine Hill. In this 

 camp lived the Mexicans and Yaqui Indians from 

 Lower California, who did all the actual mining and 

 were paid on the basis of the amount of ore deliv- 

 ered to the sorting sheds. These large sheds, or planil- 

 las, were located at the mouth of the Main tunnel, 

 which furnished access to the huge cavernous stopes 

 lying about 500 feet below the summit of Mine Hill. 

 The extensive workings were illuminated by large 

 central bonfires supplemented by candles set into crev- 



ices in the walls, and as gunpowder was used for 

 blasting, one can easily imagine what a pall of smoke 

 hung over the working face when the miners returned 

 to it, as was the custom, immediately after a blast. 

 (See fig. 104.) 



The ore was hoisted to the level of the tunnel on 

 the backs of Yaqui Indians, each of whom carried a 

 standard load of 200 pounds in a leather sack 

 strapped onto his back and supported by a headband 

 (fig. 105). With this incredible load the Indians 

 hitched their way sidewise in the near darkness up 

 ladders made of single poles into which notches had 

 been cut for steps; and the expected day's work con- 

 sisted of 25 to 30 such trips up more than 200 feet of 

 ladders. The ore was partly sorted underground, 

 and then resorted on the surface to bring the grade 

 up to about 20 percent quicksilver. The sorted ore 

 was trammed to the canyon below the mine and 

 charged into 16 furnaces like the one shown in fig- 

 ure 106. 



While Barren, Forbes, & Co. were bringing the 

 mine up to a production of more than $1,000,000 



