Page 27 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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SAN ANTONIO-HER TRADE,
bring their money, their workers and all necessaries to claiming from the
soil those silvery products—the one yield that all the world appreciates and
gives the highest value; the work that rain and flood and cold and fire
cannot destroy.
A review of the resources of the northern states of Mexico will be• in-
teresting to those contemplating the future of San Antonio as a city; for
it must be now understood that, although the natives have been variously
credited as an indolent class, the lands are becoming peopled with foreign-
ers whose characteristics are anything else but thriftless. The prospects of
law, order and general prosperity there, were never brighter than at the
present day.
Mexico—State of Chihuahua—Is situated on the Rio Grande, in the
north central portion of the republic of Mexico, and is bounded: North by
Texas, east by Coahuela, south by Durango, and west by Sonora. It con-
tains about 105,300 square miles and has a population of 190,000 people,
nearly all of whom are natives. The principal interests of the state are
stock-raising, agriculture and mining, the latter interest being by far the
most important. The many different districts in which valuable mineral
deposits are worked are known to the geography of the country, each by
its particular name, the principal of which are Guadalupe, Zafuni, Bato-
pilas, Urique, Ganzafares, Jesus Maria, Potraro, Morellos, Chuafa Pinos
Altos, Conception, Hidalgo, Tenorivo, San Francisco Del Oro, and various
others. It would take a volume to enumerate the out-puts and labor ex-
pended on the mines within these districts, and we will confine ourselves
to the principal four. The reader may be assured that the entire mining
district of the state is proportionately productive, though the attention and
labor spent is by no means the same. The famous
SANTA EULALIA MINE,
twelve miles east of the city of Chihuahua, has yielded from first to last
over $445,000,000, half of which has been realized in the last fifty years,
giving an average within that period of $4,450,000 per year. It is still
being worked and with continued success.
The mines in the El Parral district h: the yielded over $60,000,000, and
now being owned by a Chicago company, are worked on a much larger
scale, with more satisfactory results than ever.
THE PASTRONA MINE,
in the Batopilas district, has in the past four years yielded over $3,000,000.
A new lead has recently been struck which promises $400,000 from itself
as soon as thoroughly explored. Many other enterprises have yielded
profitably, but none so well as those mentioned. It must be known too,
that as yet the machinery applicable to this industry is hard to land in
these sections, and most of the mines are worked very much in the prim-
itive fashion. A good portion of the yields has been gold, though silver
is more abundant.