ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE NEW ALMADEN MINES 



195 



FIGURE 125. Rotary furnace plant built on Mine Hill in 1942. Ore bin 

 at top of photograph, furnace room in lower right, condensing pipes 

 In center, and exhaust stack going uphill to left. The furnace was 

 removed in 1946, and in 1947 an unsuccessful attempt was made to 

 use a vertical retort built in the central building. 



begun. (See fig. 126.) This supplied the bulk of the 

 ore treated in the last year before the New Almaden 

 Corp. stopped work on December 1, 1945. In 1946 

 the furnace and other mine equipment were sold and 

 hauled away, and the corporation was dissolved by 

 vote of the stockholders. Their 6-year operation of 

 the mine had yielded nearly 7,000 flasks of quicksilver 

 from ore that came chiefly from dumps and opencuts. 

 Since 1945, a little ore has been taken from the lower 

 part of the San Francisco opencuts and from the re- 

 opened Upper America tunnel. A more interesting 

 operation was begun in the fall of 1945 and continued 

 until the fall of 1947 : along the north margin of the 

 furnace dumps of the old Hacienda, at the junction 

 of Deep Gulch and Almaden Canyon, H. F. Austin 

 mined, by means of a drag line, stream gravels con- 



FIGURE 126. Mining equipment employed by New Almaden Corp. In 

 San Francisco oppncut on Mine Hill in 1945. Ore was distinguished 

 from waste largely by panning, and about 15 truckloads of waste was 

 removed for each truckload of ore. Photograph by C. N. Schuette. 



taining large nuggets of very rich ore. In the sum- 

 mer of 1948, with the death of Mrs. Mary Lord Sex- 

 ton, the ownership of the property passed to her two 

 nephews. In the fall of 1948, the once renowned New 

 Almaden mine was deserted, except that one man was 

 mining in the vicinity of the San Francisco opencuts. 

 Neither prospectors nor geologists any longer swarmed 

 over the hill; it had once again become range land, 

 whereon grazing cattle chewed their cud in peaceful 

 solitude, disturbed only by an occasional prowling 

 mountain lion. 



ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE NEW 

 ALMADEN MINE 



1848 Lyman, C. S., Mines of cinnabar in Upper California: 



Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., v. 6, p. 270-271. 



Cinnabar known to Indians; history of develop- 

 ment and production. Mentions discovery of gold 

 near Sutler's Fort and states that it "is said to 

 promise well." 



1849 Anonymous, American Quicksilver Company of Califor- 



nia : New York, 29 p. 



Pamphlet. 



Revere, J. S., A tour of duty in California: Boston, 

 Mass., J. H. Francis, p. 55. 



Mine was worked by Indians. Paper in files of 

 Stanford University Library. 



1850 Mason, R. B., Congressional documents, 31st Cong., 1st 



Sess., H. Doc. 17, p. 528-536. 



Letters describing conditions during gold rush. 

 Short description of visit to New Almaden. 

 Tyson, P. T., Congressional documents, 31st Cong., 1st 

 Sess., S. Doc. 47, p. 36-37. 



Description of geology of Northern California north 

 of San Francisco. Brief mention of New Almaden. 



1852 Bealey, Adam, Examination of an ore of cinnabar, from 



New Almaden, California : Chem. Soc. Jour., v. 4, 

 p. 180-185 ; Jour. prak. Chemie, v. 50, p. 234-236. 



1853 Anonymous, The Almaden (quicksilver) mine, California : 



Mining Mag., v. 1, p. 209-210. 



Description of mine and of trip into underground 

 workings. Mentions Soda Spring in Almaden Can- 

 yon. 



Hart, T. S., Notes on the Almaden mine, California : Am. 

 Jour. Sci., 2d ser., v. 16, p. 137-139. 



General account of trip to New Almaden and into 

 the mine. 



1854 Bealey, Adam, Zinnober-Erz aus Neu-Almaden in Cali- 



fornien: Neues Jahrb., 1854, p. 183. 



Analysis of cinnabar ore. 



1854 Blake, W. P., Quicksilver mine of Almaden, California: 

 Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., v. 17, p. 438-440. 



Description of mine and ores. Mention of gold In 

 ore. 



D'Heiny, D., Quicksilver in California : Mining Mag., 

 v. 2, p. 116-117. 



Ores and reduction methods. Ten furnaces yield 

 400 flasks of quicksilver per week. Rock discharged 

 from furnaces contains 8-10 percent quicksilver. 



