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Photo of Oro Blanco mill |
Column No. 2
Bob Ring, Al Ring, Tallia Pfrimmer Cahoon
Let’s begin our trip along the Ruby Road with a little mining history and the
story of the first American gold mine in the Oro Blanco area. We’re talking
about a place a few miles south of Arivaca, just north of the Mexican border.
Except for Spanish Conquistadors, who roamed the southwest in the 1500’s looking
for seven cities of gold, Europeans first came to the Santa Cruz Valley in 1691
in the person of Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino. Over the next few years, as a part
of Spanish missionary expansion from Mexico, Father Kino established missions
along the Santa Cruz River at Tumacácori, Guevavi, and San Xavier.
Local mining history began in 1736, when prospectors made a fantastic silver
strike at Arizonac, just southwest of present day Nogales. This discovery
attracted thousands of European fortune seekers, some of whom drifted northward,
along the Santa Cruz River.
A few of these unsuccessful miners from the south, and a few missionaries
looking to add to their meager income, were the first people to explore mining
in the Oro Blanco area, probably around 1740. And they named the region Oro
Blanco (white gold), because the gold they found in streambeds had a high silver
content, giving the ore a whitish color.
The Oro Blanco area became Mexico’s responsibility, when Mexico gained its
independence from Spain in 1821. Finally, Oro Blanco became United States
property, with the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.
American mining in Oro Blanco started soon after, but constant Apache raids and
the absence of the protective military during the Civil War, made the area a
very dangerous place to live and work. After the Civil War, with the return of
the military, mining in Oro Blanco resumed in relative safety.
Just in time for serious mining in the south-central Arizona Territory, the U.
S. Congress passed the Mining Law of 1872. This law provided for mining
districts and set official guidelines for “locating” and recording mining
claims. For example, the law limited the size of each mining claim to 1,500 feet
by 600 feet.
Legally, “locating” a mining claim was fairly easy. The location required
official recording of the name of the mine, location date, name of locator,
size, boundary markings, and home mining district.
But locating a mine established mineral rights only. If the mine owner didn’t
perform at least $100 worth of labor and/or improvements on the mine each year,
the location lapsed, and others could locate the same “hole in the ground.”
(This is why mining claims changed hands so much.)
To get title to the land itself, the mine owner had to “patent” the mine, a
process that took up to a year and cost the miner some money. Not surprisingly
patenting occurred only when the mine owner had convincingly proven value of the
mining claim. (And this is why mines owners patented so few mines.)
A man from Tucson, Robert Leatherwood, located the Oro Blanco area’s first
American gold mine on March 20, 1873. Leatherwood fittingly named the mine, the
Oro Blanco. He found evidence that the Spanish worked his gold mine as early as
the 1700’s. There were large oak trees growing in old trenches dug in the
ground.
At the time, Leatherwood wasn’t sure that his mine was actually in Arizona. So
he surveyed the mine site and determined that his mine was indeed in U. S.
Territory, in fact just two and half miles north of the border. (Along today’s
Forest Road 217, about three miles south of Ruby)
Robert Leatherwood became a well known Arizona pioneer and colorful character.
He was only five feet five inches in height and weighed a scant 130 pounds. He
compensated for his small stature with a feisty attitude, often demonstrated
fearlessness, and a readiness to fight if required.
Leatherwood was born in North Carolina in 1844. He was a scout for the
Confederate army and proudly wore the Confederate uniform at important functions
all his life. He was even buried in it.
Leatherwood came to Tucson in 1869 and started out in the livery stable
business. While operating the Oro Blanco mine (and 14 other local gold mines),
Leatherwood also began a long political career in Tucson. He served as mayor of
Tucson in 1880, was a three-term representative to the Arizona Territorial
Legislature, and was Sheriff of Pima County from 1894 to 1898.
According to local legend, while Leatherwood was mayor of Tucson in 1880, right
after the completion of the southern route of the transcontinental railroad in
Tucson, he sent off telegrams to a large number of U. S. dignitaries, including
President Hayes, and to the Pope in Rome, announcing the completion of the
railroad and inviting them to the celebration in Tucson. At a big banquet to
celebrate the new railroad, the emcee read the supposed reply from the Pope
(printed in Arizoniana, 1960, by Mable Forseth Below):
His Holiness the Pope acknowledges with appreciation receipt of your telegram
informing him that the ancient city of Tucson has at last been connected to the
outside world and sends his benediction, but for his own satisfaction would ask,
where the hell is Tucson?
The original Oro Blanco gold mine was to enjoy a long, if only intermittently
successful, history. But that’s another story. (Hint: The Oro Blanco gold mine
was never patented.)
(Sources: James Brand Tenney, History of Mining in Arizona; Tucson Citizen;
Arizona Daily Star; 1872 Congressional Mining Law, Arizoniana, Arizona
Historical Society Clip Books)
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Photo of Oro Blanco mill |
NEXT TIME: ALONG THE RUBY ROAD The Birth of the Oro Blanco Mining District