Bulletin 11—The Geology of the Organ MountainsPart III—The mines and mineral resources of Doña Ana County
By K. C. Dunham, 1935, reprinted 1980, 87 pp., 11 figs., 5 plates, 1 index.
Part III, The Mines and Mineral Resources of Doña Ana County is the reprint of pages 185-272 of the original Bulletin 11 (the out-of-print original is now available on CD-ROM). The mines and prospects of Doña Ana County will be described according to the mountain range in which they are situated. A further subdivision into districts is convenient in certain ranges. The mining districts are listed below with their chief products. An index map of the county shows the location of these districts and of the mapped areas in the county. Almost the entire metal production has come from the Organ district, while the Tortugas mine has provided most of the fluorspar output.
Mining in Doña Ana County is known to have been carried on since 1849, when the Stevenson mine was discovered. There exists, however, a legend of a lost mine in the Organ Mountains which, if it has any truth in it, would indicate that mining began at a much earlier time. Since much effort has been devoted to a search for the lost mine by more than one generation of prospectors, a brief resume of the tale will not be out of place. The Stevenson orebody at the Stevenson-Bennett mine was discovered in 1849, and the property was acquired by Hugh Stevenson in the same year. The property was worked for ten years by Stevenson, the production up to 1857 being approximately $90,000. The ore was smelted in an adobe furnace near Fort Fillmore, south of Las Cruces. Prior to 1854 a lead vein at the mouth of Soledad Canyon had been worked by Barilla, the ore being smelted in an adobe furnace nearby. The ore was very low in silver, and it seems clear that the vein referred to was the Modoc deposit. The remains of an adobe furnace may still be seen near the mouth of Fillmore Canyon. Mining in these early days was carried out under great difficulties, for hostile Indians were a constant source of danger and the mechanical appliances available were crude in the extreme.
The Stevenson mine was purchased by officers at Fort Fillmore in 1858 for $12,500. A company was organized and a mining engineer from Freiberg was engaged. In 1861, soon after the machinery arrived, Fort Fillmore fell to the Confederate forces under General Baylor, and the mine was confiscated. After the war, some officers formed a syndicate to work the mine, but were stopped by an injunction. They resolved to sell the property to an English company, the figure named being $250,000, and an expert was sent out to examine it, only to discover that the claims had been jumped. Litigation followed and an agreement was reached whereby the new locators were to secure patents on the claims, and give a half interest to the officers' syndicate. The first survey for the patents was made in 1871 and a second one, in accordance with the new mining laws, was made in 1883.
The building of the railroad through the county in 1881 stimulated prospecting and mining, and by 1882 the Hawkeye, Memphis, Merrimac, and Black Hawk deposits in the Organ Mountains had been discovered. There was now a steady production of silver and lead and a small quantity of gold. The years 1880–1900 were the time of greatest prospecting in the region and most of the important metal mines were discovered during this time. The Bennett orebody at the Stevenson-Bennett mine was discovered in 1887 by Carrera, who held a lease on the property. The greatest period of production of that mine followed, and it is said that $250,000 in lead and silver were taken out during his lease, which expired in 1888. About 1884 a small water-jacket smelter was operated on the Memphis property. The camp of Organ dates from this period.
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New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources
New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology
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