186 



GEOLOGY AND QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS, NEW ALMADEN DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA 



4 



FIGURE 111. Opencut on east side of Mine Hill between English and Spanish camps In the 1880's. Portal of abandoned Main tunnel Is in 

 right foreground. No trace of any of the buildings shown remained In 1946 when the writers mapped this area (compare with figure 

 124). From L. E. Bullmore collection. 



inventor of the similar Knox furnace, 4 such furnaces 

 with a daily capacity of 100 tons each were soon in 

 operation at the Hacienda. (See figs. 114, 115.) These 

 furnaces were large structures of brick requiring con- 

 siderable wood, as well as a lengthy period of time, 

 to reheat them if they were allowed to cool, and it 

 was therefore customary to keep a furnace fired con- 

 tinuously for more than a year. This feature of con- 

 tinuous firing was almost the undoing of the New 

 Almaden mine, for the Randol shaft equipment was 

 incapable of hoisting more than 300 tons per day. 

 and, with the directors clamoring for increased pro- 

 duction, the hoisting of ore could not be stopped long 

 enough to enlarge the shaft. 



To lighten the burden on the Randol shaft, the 

 Santa Isabel shaft was started in 1877 from a point 

 1,300 feet farther west. (See figs. 81, 116.) This 

 was a modern three-compartment shaft with large 

 pumps, and it served its purpose in draining the wa- 

 ter out of the Randol workings. But it was located 



so far to the west that it did not greatly alleviate the 

 hoisting burden, and late in 1881 the Randol stopes 

 contained 800,000 tons of broken ore waiting to be 

 hoisted to the hungry furnaces. On July 5, 1882, in a 

 last effort to relieve the burden on the Randol shaft. 

 another shaft, known as the Buena Vista, was started 

 1,000 feet to the north. It was planned on a grand 

 scale, to contain three large compartments, 18-inch 

 pumps, and all the most modern hoisting and pumping 

 equipment. (See figs. 117, 118.) By March 1886 it 

 had been sunk to the 2300 level and was connected to 

 the Randol and Santa Isabel shafts by a long crosscut 

 on the 2100 level. Although the Buena Vista shaft 

 was doubtless one of the best in the State, and al- 

 though its pumps proved useful in dewatering. it was 

 so unfortunately placed that not 1 ton of ore was ever 

 hoisted by its ponderous steam engines. 



While the Randol shaft (fig. 119) was supplying 

 its daily stint of 300 tons of ore an additional 100 

 tons had to be mined elsewhere to keep the furnaces 



