190 



GEOLOGY AND QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS, NEW ALMADEN DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA 



FIGURE 115. The Hacienda In late 1880's. Main office and storeroom In foreground. Compare with figure 114. Building behind 

 to left IB wooduhed ; large bufldlngH are over the four Scott furnaces. Tall chimney on the right skyline IB at end of one of 

 the long exhaust lines. The chimney and a part of the office building In right foreground were the only structures remaining 

 In 1949. From L. E. Bullmore collection. 



Another shaft the Victoria (fig. 121) was put down 

 close to the Victoria stope to facilitate the handling 

 of old stope fill, abandoned in the early days but now 

 thought of as good ore. The deeper ore bodies of 

 the Randol stope were rapidly being depleted, and in 

 1892 the Randol shaft was hoisting ore only during 

 one shift a day. 



To find new ore bodies, Randol, apparently im- 

 pressed with Dr. Becker's study of the mine (see 

 Becker, 1888), had employed two other geologists, 

 S. B. Christy, of the University of California, and 

 John A. Church, of New York, to examine the prop- 

 erty and submit recommendations for further explo- 

 ration. Christy, who had been on the property 7 

 times during the previous 14 years, recommended 

 against further exploration at depth, whereas Church 

 advised exploration to the 2500 level north of the 

 Randol ore bodies. Church's advice was followed in 

 1892, when an internal shaft was sunk to the 2450 

 level from the Buena Vista workings, and a crosscut 

 was run toward the vein. As large amounts of 



and gas caused the project to become very expensive, 

 work was stopped in 1893 without having reached the 

 main "vein," but these workings have the questionable 

 distinction of being the deepest exploration in any 

 quicksilver mine in the world. Shortly after this 

 project was abandoned the Buena Vista shaft and the 

 Randol workings were allowed to fill with water, and 

 on January 25, 1896, all mining through the famous 

 Randol shaft was stopped. 



Early in 1892 James Harry managed to wheedle 

 enough money to put down the Santa Maria shaft, 

 behind the camp schoolhouse, to explore the ground in 

 the vicinity of the old very rich Velasco stopes. One 

 vear later ore was discovered on the 600 level run 

 from this shaft, and subsequent mining revealed that 

 it extended southward for about 1,200 feet. This 

 large new ore body, found in a supposedly exhausted 

 mine, was extracted economically through the Harry 

 shaft (fig. 122) and Harry tunnel, which were driven 

 as soon as the continuity of the ore had been estab- 

 lished, and it was the principal source of ore up to 



