WHITE OAKS NEW MEXICO MINING CAMP MIGRATION
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NEWSPAPER ARTICLES OF WHITE OAKS MINING CAMP MIGRATION
APRIL 1880 LAS VEGAS N.M. GAZETTE
After the discovery of gold in 1879 by John Wilson ,Jack Winters also known as “John” and Harry Baxter, who were placer mining in the White Oaks country, news spread quickly around the country especially via Las Vegas New Mexico about 130 miles as the crow fly’s Northeast of White Oaks and the Buzz starts hundreds and thousands and people flocking to White Oaks to claim their riches. It Appears April of 1880 the gold fever had struck A very exciting time. Our party arrived here on the 7th from Vegas. We found half a dozen log cabins constituting the new laid out town of White Oaks. I went immediately up to Baxter gulch to the famous Homestake Lode. Going up the gulch I saw a hundred Mexican miners washing out gold, stopped long enough to see one pan of dirt turned out a dollars worth of gold. I saw one Mexican who had washed out that day sixteen dollars worth of gold and another twenty dollars worth. I saw one Mexican today with a nugget of gold which he washed out that weighed thirteen pennyweights and sold for ten dollars.
The Chicago Mining Review has this to say of the White Oaks Camp, “Here is located the Homestake mine, by many supposed to be the richest mine in America. AnArastra is being erected to reduce the rock to bullion. Occasionally as ounce of rock is pounded up, and it yields from $1.00 to $1.25. About one hundred men are at work dislodging free gold. Miners are arriving in the camp every day. The main vein is four feet across, and it will yield from $5,000 to $6,000 per ton. Within this four foot vein, there is a smaller vein, one foot wide, of high grade ore, which runs as high as $50,000 per ton, with an average of $15,000.”
The Homestake is owned by J.W. Winters, J. J. Dolan and J. A. Larne. It has a three and one half feet crevice and is seven hundred and fifty feet long, filled with rich chlorides of gold and with frequent small pockets of wire gold (of which I enclose you a specimen). it pays fifty-two ounces of gold and forty-two ounces of silver at ten feet from the surface. it has been traced and located three miles south-east in a granite formation and I have traced it four miles in a north-westerly direction into the Lone Mountain. It was discovered August 14th, 1879. . . . Dry good, shoe, hardware, drug, whiskey and grocery stores would all do well here now. . . .. . . may I not suggest a brilliant future for White Oak district. See full Story here Respectfully, A.G. Lane, M.D.
April 20th 1880. The Future promise of this camp
Judge Ira E. Leonard came up from the White Oaks yesterday, arriving in (Las Vegas ) the afternoon. We sought him out at his rooms at the Grands View and obtained the following facts:
“When did you leave White Oaks, and by what route did you come?”
“We left the camp Friday morning and came by the short-cut route. We hauled a barrel of water to carry us over the seventy-five mile stretch between the Pinos Wells, and the Pecos, where there is no water.”
“What were the prospects at the mines when you left?”
“The prospects are splendid; there is an abundance of mineral and mines. They all show up well, and free gold can be found not only in the Homestake lode, from which has been taken the fine specimens you have seen; but likewise from the Black Prince, the Lily, the Contention, Sliver Glance and many others. There has been two shafts sunk in the Homestake, one is down about twelve feet, and the other about eight feet. Both show the same class of ore and free gold. The Black Prince has just the same class of ore as the Homestake and shows free gold.”
well, this would indicate that the gold bearing rock is quite extensive, and that there are more than one rich mine?”
“Yes, Sir; the mineral belt is large and I have no doubt but there are many more mines as rich as the Homestake, when they are developed. There are immense deposits of carbonates which actually assay $80 in silver near the surface. I have located eight claims there, four carbonate and four gold lodes . . . Provisions are scarce , mining tools, blasting powder and miners supplies are greatly needed.” Most of the people flocking to White Oaks to seek gold are not prepared, no mining equipment, no powder and sitting idle just speculating what’s under their feet. “There is no powder or fuse in the camp. . . People are pouring into the camp from all directions and the only provisions going in is Whiskey. . . .” See full story here
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All the newspaper Clippings from the Daily Gazette for April 1880 Below
