New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

"This reported occurrence needs verification."—Stuart A. Northrop, 1944

1904 is a heady year of the territory of New Mexico: growing population, proven reserves of mineral commodities, and lumber for exploitation—the drive for statehood is in full swing. F. A. Jones publishes his "New Mexico Mines and Minerals, World's Fair Edition" to coincide with the Louisiana Exposition. He squarely places the mineral petalite along with spodumene and amblygonite in the mining district he called Cieneguilla, south of Taos. These minerals are all sources of lithium—needed to fuel a strong ceramics and glass industry on the eastern seaboard of the United States. In the 100 yrs since, no worker has confirmed, or denied, its existence at this locality. Is it just a case of calculated speculation with Jones as a well-placed shill or fact?

Rito Cieneguilla (little swamp in Spanish)—located 13 mi southwest of the town of Taos, in Taos County. Over 3 mi in length, it is an arroyo-creek that headwaters in a canyon of the same name, in the northwest Picuris Mountains. It has a confluence with the Rio Grande at Pilar, New Mexico. Its course straddles a major geological unconformity—Santa Fe Group sedimentary deposits to the west and uplifted Precambrian terrane to the, east. Its existence is due, in part, to a widespread fault zone, with the southwest-northeast trending Embudo fault joining with the northwest-southeast Picuris–Pecos fault midway down its length. Three mi due south is Copper Ridge, home to the Champion mine and Copper Hill. The Harding mine is 2 mi farther south. The Apodaca, an old Spanish road and one of the extensions of the Camino Real, connected all at the turn of the century. Glenwoody Bridge, site of another infamous mine speculation, lies 2 mi southwest on the Rio Grande, below the Pilar Cliffs. The entire length of the Rito Cieneguilla is designated Bureau of Land Management property. Some private property exists within the area.