Royal John Mine and Mill, Royal John Mine Road, approximately 10 miles north of intersection with New Mexico Route 61, San Lorenzo

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER NM-35. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Royal John Mine and Mill complex is on the west slope of the Black Range in the Gila National Forest. Off Highway 61, near Faywood, New Mexico, is Royal John Mine Road. The road is approximately 12 miles long, and the Mine and Mill are located at the end. It is within the boundaries of Township 17 South, Range 9 West, and includes parts of Sections 8, 9, 16, and 17. Date of Construction: A single claim was patented in with major development occurring in the area between and Designer: Unknown. Builder: Mine and Mill builders are unknown. The builder of the New Mill is American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO).

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER NM-35. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Erin Edwards Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 2 LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY, FLORA, AND FAUNA: The Royal John Mine and Mill are located in the Mimbres Mountains on the western slope of the Black Range in Grant County, New Mexico. The Mimbres River is located approximately 10 miles to the west. The Royal John Mine complex is located along Cold Springs Creek in the Silver City Ranger District of the Gila National Forest. The datum UTM coordinates (NAD Zone are East, North, and the legal description is NE of the SE of the SE of Section 8, and the W of the SW of the SW of Section 9, The Map Reference is Maverick Mountain, New Mexico USGS 7.5 topographic quadrangle (See Figure 1 and 2).

The Royal John Mine Group, as well as other prominent mines within the Carpenter Mining District, is located along or near the Grandview and Owen fault system in a rugged and mountainous area. Ore deposits in the area are mostly lead, zinc, silver, and gold. Vegetation in the area is primarily Ponderosa pine, juniper, aspen, and oak. Wildlife in the area include mule deer, coyote, black bear, bobcat, black-tailed jackrabbit, desert cottontail, red-tailed hawk, Montezuma quail, Chihuahuan raven, black-tailed rattlesnake, and several kinds of lizard HISTORY AND CONTEXT FOR NEW MEXICO: At the time of initial Spanish contact, several indigenous hunter and gatherer cultures were present in the northern part of the Chihuahuan Desert.

The Apache were the largest non-Pueblo group in southern and southwestern New Mexico. The Apache are related to the Navajo, with both belonging to the Athabascan language family. They were from western Canada originally, but migrated to the Southwest. Upon arriving in New Mexico, they spread over a large area of southern New Mexico and southeastern and central-eastern Arizona. Southwestern New Mexico was dominated by a branch that would eventually be called the Southern Chiricahuan Apache Cabeza de Vaca, from the ill-fated Narv ez expedition, was the first European to cross the southern part of New Mexico in (Chipman After trekking from Florida to Mexico Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No.

Page 3 City in he described a land with sparse settlements, whose inhabitants treasured beads, turquoise, and arrowheads made out of emeralds.

Natives that he had encountered along the way also told de Vaca about a land to the north where the inhabitants lived in large houses in the Seven Cities of Cibola (Donoghue In Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza sent Fray Marcos de Niza and a slave named Estevanico, who was one of the four survivors of the Narv ez expedition, to verify the stories of Cibola (Chipman Estevanico was killed while scouting ahead near Hawikuh, a Zuni village in western New Mexico (Chipman Upon his return to New Spain in Fray Marcos reported that the legend of Cibola was true, and that he had seen with his own eyes one of the smaller cities, which was about the size of Mexico City Cibola (Chipman Immediately upon hearing this, Mendoza directed Francisco Vazquez de Coronado to conquer Cibola for Spain (Donoghue Coronado set out from Culiacan on April 22, with soldiers, horses and mules, and several hundred cattle and sheep.

He also had two ships under his command that were to sail up the coast to support the expedition (Donoghue After six months, the Coronado expedition arrived at Hawikuh, the Zuni village where Estevanico had died. They found small mud huts, but no gold, and hostile natives who had to be forcefully subdued. Failing to find the Cities of Gold, the expedition returned to Mexico City in (Donoghue It would be around 40 years before another expedition was undertaken. Despite several attempts to settle the land in New Mexico, the first official settlement of New Mexico was ordered by King Phillip II of Spain in Juan de O ate was chosen to lead an expedition to establish a settlement in New Mexico, and on July 11, he established the first settlement in New Mexico and named it San Juan.

Within a few months a second settlement was established and was named San Gabriel. From the very beginning, the settlers found New Mexico to be uninviting. Settlers still expected to find precious metals, and when no riches were found, the colonists quickly became disillusioned. Trouble with the Pueblo Indians also plagued the colony. In January O ate launched an attack against the Acoma people in retaliation for their attacks on soldiers the previous year. By the end of the battle, Acoma lay in ashes and between 600 to 800 Pueblo Indians were dead. In O ate made an expedition to Quivira, in Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 4 modern-day Kansas, looking for riches but found nothing. Upon returning to San Gabriel, he found the colony almost deserted.

O ate left his office on August 24, On November 1, the king of Spain made New Mexico an official royal colony. This placed the colony under direct control of the crown, and the king appointed Pedro de Peralta as the first royal governor. Shortly after his arrival in San Gabriel in Peralta moved the capital to Santa Fe. The arrival of Governor Peralta ushered in a great missionary period in New Mexico history with a focus of efforts on Christianizing the native population. The hardships endured by the Pueblo people during this period from the burdens of forced labor, tribute, religious intolerance, disease, and drought prompted the Pueblo Indians to unite and revolt.

On August 10, the Pueblo revolt began, and by August 22, Santa Fe had surrendered, which forced the Spanish to retreat to El Norte. Spanish forces tried three times to regain control of New Mexico in the but it would not be until September that Santa Fe would be recaptured. Reaffirming control of the area was problematic, and two additional Indian revolts occurred in and Nothing had changed for the Pueblo people, and the were equally as hard for them as the The population of the Pueblos had been decimated; by the end of the the Pueblo population was half of what it had been a century before. In contrast, the Spanish population exploded and the New Mexico colony grew steadily. By New Mexico had become one of New Spain's most populous colonies.

While the Spanish and Pueblo people had reached a relatively peaceful coexistence, other Native American tribes continued to frequently raid Spanish settlements. By the the Apache, Comanche, Ute, and Navajo had managed to disrupt everyday life in the Spanish settlements In Jose Manuel Carrasco, the retired captain of the Presidio of Carrizal in Chihuahua, was led to a copper outcrop by a group of Apaches that he had helped in previous years. This copper outcrop is what became known as the Santa Rita del Cobre mines, in southwest New Mexico. At the time, all minerals and gems mined within the Spanish territory belonged to the Crown, but the miner was able to keep a small portion of the profits.

Claims were approximately 275 feet by 500 feet in length, and each claimant could strike up to four claims total on any given vein. As Carrasco was a retired soldier and not personally wealthy, he needed the backing of a wealthy investor in order to mine his claim. He found a benefactor in Ramos de Verea, a successful Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 5 merchant in Chihuahua who had previously supplied various presidios in Chihuahua with merchandise. De Verea even gave Carrasco the use of his own mule train in order to get the raw copper to the royal mint in Mexico City.

Despite the backing of de Verea, difficulties in mining the area, such as high taxes, difficulty in finding workers who would brave the occasional Apache attack, and lack of smelting facilities, ultimately led Carrasco to sell his stake to Francisco Manuel Elguea (Huggard and Humble Elguea was a wealthy and well-known politician from Chihuahua, with many contacts and a fruitful mercantile trade, which did business as far north as Santa Fe and often had Spanish government contracts. Diego Obeso was appointed as the superintendent of the mines. Obeso, a Spanish native, was awarded the title Comisario de Justicia, which awarded him the right to register mining claims and investigate crimes.

Obeso directed the miners to use techniques used at other mines in other countries and introduced underground mining to New Mexico. By the end of December Obeso had already sent the first batch of copper ore to Mexico City to be tested. Workers at the mint realized quickly that the ore was some of the richest to have come through the mint in years, and recommended the high price of 25 pesos per 100 pounds. This cemented the importance of the El Cobre mines, and mining in southwest New Mexico for generations, and led to an increase of Spanish troops in the area to protect the miners, the mines, and the caravans heading to Mexico City. Additionally, food rations were given to Apaches in the area to placate them into not attacking the mining camps.

However, as the Mexican Revolution began to appear like a certainty, troops were withdrawn from the mining camps to save money, and importantly, the food rations that were given to the Apaches in the area were terminated. In retaliation, the Apaches pillaged the mining camp herds. The government reestablished the rations a year later, and there was a tentative peace between the Spanish and the Apaches until about but tensions still ran high and there was no trust between the two groups. Around the main chief of the Chiricahua, Mangas Coloradas, married into the Bedonkohes band. Upon the death of chief Mahko, Mangas Coloradas became the chief of the Bedonkohes as well, and united the two bands of tribes.

Mangas Coloradas had no affection for the Spanish, and was determined to get the aliens out of Apache territory, referring to the Spanish (Huggard and Humble Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 6 In September of New Spain gained its independence from Spain, becoming the independent country of Mexico. The news slowly reached Santa Fe, and the residents welcomed it. Mexican officials removed the trade restrictions that the Spanish had imposed, and a large influx of traders came into New Mexico. By the caravans from the United States heading for the capital of Santa Fe included hundreds of wagons, each of which carried pounds of goods.

Trade caravans heading to Santa Fe followed what is known as the Santa Fe Trail, which had two alternate routes, a mountainous branch, and the Cimarron Cutoff. Increased trade allowed for a greater amount of goods and opportunities for New Mexicans, but it also allowed for a greater number of Anglo-Americans to move into New Mexico and to establish control over most of the economy. Despite being under the jurisdiction of a new country, Native American tribes, particularly the Navajo in the area, continued to disrupt everyone s lives. Southern New Mexico was approximately miles from Mexico City, the capital, and that meant that the government of Mexico only barely controlled affairs in New Mexico.

As a result, New Mexicans did not have a sense of loyalty toward Mexico Because of the population growth of Mexicans and Americans in the area, the Apaches began to feel even more threatened. In the early the Chiricahuas joined together to increase the number of raids in the area, hoping to make the foreigners move out. Because of the raids, Mexico had placed a bounty on the scalps of Apaches, and the ration system was once again terminated. In August of Captain Jose Ignacio Ronquillo was sent by the Mexican government to negotiate peace. Ronquillo met with American miners, Mangas Coloradas, and 28 other chiefs at Santa Rita, and ultimately agreed to a tentative peace.

Mangas Coloradas had more faith in the Americans than the Mexicans, and believed that the Americans were more honorable and less likely to take over the Apache homeland. The Treaty of began to fail almost immediately, as the Mexican government refused to reinstate the ration system. Santa Rita lost a third of its population as the conflict continued, and the town was attacked constantly. The final strike against the Treaty of occurred in April of with the Johnson Massacre. John Johnson, a trapper and trader from Kentucky, and a party of American traders stumbled upon a large group of Apaches about 90 miles south of Santa Rita. Surprised by the number of Apaches at the site, and realizing that the Americans were outnumbered, Johnson pretended to have gifts for the chiefs in a nearby wagon.

Instead he turned a swivel gun on the crowd, killing Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 7 Chief Compa, Compa s brother, Chief Marcello, a large number of warriors, and two of Mangas Coloradas wives. Johnson then collected the scalps, and took them to Mexican authorities for his reward (Huggard and Humble The Johnson Massacre ended any chance for peace in the region for the next two decades. The Apaches blockaded the city of Santa Rita and all of the mines in the area. Miners, settlers, and Mexican troops hastily abandoned the area.

Mangas Coloradas himself supervised the blockade of the mule train route to Chihuahua to the smelters, and every single horse, mule, or goat in the entire mountain range was stolen by the Apaches (Huggard and Humble With the beginning of the Mexican-American War in New Mexicans began to further challenge Mexico s rule. In the United States annexed Texas, straining relations between the two countries. In addition, there were disputes over the location of Texas' southern boundary; the United States believed it was along the Rio Grande River, and Mexico believed it was at the Nueces River. Mexico moved troops to the Rio Grande and prompted a skirmish between U.S. troops, commanded by General Zachary Taylor, and Mexican troops commanded by General Pedro Ampudia.

Mexican forces defeated the American forces, but the battle provided the excuse for the President of the United States to declare war on Mexico on May 9, United States forces fought in present-day Mexico and in the northern Mexican borderlands of New Mexico, Arizona, and California. United States troops, under the command of Colonel Stephen W. Kearney, marched through Las Vegas, New Mexico, and into Santa Fe without any opposition. After appointing New Mexico's first Anglo-American governor, Charles Bent of Taos, Kearney left for California on September leaving Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan and his Missouri volunteers behind to defend New Mexico.

That same month additional troops arrived at Santa Fe, and feeling safe with the security of Santa Fe, Colonel Doniphan moved his troops south, reaching Do a Ana, north of Las Cruces, on December 22, Continuing south, his troops engaged Mexican troops under the command of Mexican Colonel Antonio Ponce at El Brazito, near present-day Do a Ana, New Mexico. This would be the only armed conflict that Doniphan would meet in the territory and was the only battle of the Mexican-American War fought inside a territory of the United States. Doniphan s forces beat back the attacking Mexican soldiers, and Doniphan continued his march on to Chihuahua and Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 8 eventually the Gulf of Mexico.

Even though Doniphan and Kearney both thought they had left the territory secure and under United States control, revolts broke out in Taos in January which resulted in the death of Governor Bent. By summer of however, the United States had regained control over the territory, and by September General Winfield Scott had captured Mexico City, ending the conflict With the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in the Rio Grande was established officially as the southern boundary of Texas, and the United States gained land from Mexico which encompasses most of the modern-day American southwest. Mexicans living in New Mexico were given the choice of staying and becoming citizens of the United States or moving back to Mexico.

Most decided to stay in New Mexico The Gadsden Purchase in added more land to the territory of New Mexico, and established the southern boundary of the territory. The were a time of population growth in the territory. The population grew from in to in As the population expanded, settlers explored and settled into previously unpopulated areas of the territory Throughout the late and Mangas Coloradas and other Apache chiefs had attempted to obtain a treaty with the United States to secure ownership of their homeland, including the copper mines. However, in Americans tried to establish Fort Webster at Santa Rita. At the time there were approximately 900 Chiricahuas living in the area, and as soon as the fort was established, the Apaches mobilized and blockaded the new fort.

Within weeks, the soldiers inside the fort wanted to retreat and ultimately did retreat within six months, building a new Fort Webster on the east side of the Mimbres River. In Indian Agent Michael Steck and Territorial Governor David Meriweather reached an agreement with Mangas Coloradas to create a protected homeland for the Apaches in southern New Mexico. However, the South wanted to create a southern route for the transcontinental railroad and Texas Senator Thomas Rusk killed the proposal to establish a protected homeland in Congress. Mining resumed at Santa Rita within two years, going against the wishes of the Apaches (Huggard and Humble Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 9 The Civil War had an enormous and immediate effect on the territory of New Mexico.

Army officers in the territory resigned to join the Confederate armed forces, and the Confederacy claimed southern Arizona and New Mexico as Confederate territories. The reasons the Confederacy wanted to control the territory were varied. The Confederacy believed that having control of the New Mexico territory could allow Confederates to be closer to California should the Confederates try to take it over, enabling the South to draw on its vast resources of gold, manpower, and seaports. The Confederacy also believed that controlling New Mexico would allow a direct pathway into Mexico from the South, allowing it to move its troops into Chihuahua and Sonora from El Paso, Texas, and Arizona.

Some in the South even believed that controling the vast area of the West, from New Mexico to California, might make European nations take notice, and possibly even recognize the Confederacy as an independent country and lend financial aid or other support Military operations in the territory began in mid-summer of with the capture of Fort Fillmore on July 26. Though Confederate forces enjoyed initial victories and captured Albuquerque and Santa Fe, their advance through New Mexico was stopped at Glorieta Pass, and by April 10, Union forces moved on Albuquerque and began to bombard the Confederate positions there. Two days later Sibley ordered the retreat from Albuquerque to Fort Bliss, Texas.

By August fighting in New Mexico had ended, the Confederates had failed in their plans to capture the territory, and they had withdrawn east. The vacuum left from their departure emboldened local Native American groups, who increased the number of raids in the territory believing that they would face little to no opposition General James Carleton was dispatched to New Mexico and arrived in September to begin working on the problem. General Carleton ordered Brigadier General Joseph West to capture or kill Mangas Coloradas to break the will of the Apache people. In January of Mangas Coloradas was captured at Pinos Altos, and taken to Fort McLane, south of Santa Rita, where he was accused of unprovoked brutality.

Mangas Coloradas claimed he acted in self-defense, but West gave him a death sentence nonetheless, executing him under questionable circumstances by shooting him in the back of the head, beheading him, and then mutilating his body. In the summer of the remaining Apache were forced to the Bosque Redondo reservation in southern New Mexico by Colonel Kit Carson. Although Apache warriors, including Geronimo, would continue to resist Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 10 the Americans into the the death of Mangas Coloradas was the beginning of the end for Apache rule in the territory (Huggard and Humble After the Civil War, raising cattle and sheep became the predominant economic engine of the New Mexico territory.

Mining was close behind, as silver and gold were discovered in southern New Mexico and the copper mines in southern New Mexico reopened. The General Mining Act of opened up federal lands that did not have a specific use, such as national parks or wilderness areas, to mining claims by anyone 18 years of age or older, and mining was further encouraged by the Federal Mining Act of and the Sherman Silver Act of Railroads were desperately needed and construction flourished in New Mexico following the Civil War. The first railroad company to enter the territory was the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (AT&SF) in the north, and the Southern Pacific Railroad Company entered the territory in the south.

The meeting of the two railroads in Deming was a significant achievement for the New Mexico territory and allowed travel and easier shipment of goods to both the east and west coasts, and by there was a spur leading to Santa Rita and to Silver City. Construction of the railroads brought an end to New Mexico's isolation and created a spike in settlers moving into the territory. By the population of the territory had jumped to and by the population was This is the era into which the Royal John Mine and Mill began its existence. As the population increased, the continuing contributions that New Mexico was making to the United States as a whole prompted the consideration of statehood for the territory. In the Enabling Act was passed, which invited New Mexico and Arizona to become states.

A constitution for New Mexico was approved on January 19, and the next year President William Howard Taft signed the proclamation making New Mexico the Nation s state on January 6, While New Mexico was making an adjustment to statehood, the Mexican Revolution began to bring instability to the southern border. Mexican President Porfirio Diaz had been overthrown in by revolutionaries, and the country descended into civil war. Francisco "Pancho" Villa, a Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 11 revolutionary in the northern state of Chihuahua, was angry with the lack of support he was receiving from the United States in his fight to take control of Mexico. In retaliation, Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico, on March 9, however, a retaliatory mission by General John J.

Pershing failed to capture him Within a year of the Columbus raid, Great Britain had intercepted the Zimmerman telegram , which was named after the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman. In the telegram Germany promised the return of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas to Mexico in return for Mexico joining Germany s side in World War I. The Zimmerman telegram, along with the announcement by Germany that it intended to sink all ships found in the war zone around Britain, including those of the United States, angered the citizens of the United States, and on April 2, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany In late the Great Depression began. Along with a prolonged drought, both issues caused serious economic damage to the state.

The mining industry, which had been in decline since the was also heavily impacted by the Great Depression as the price of metal began to plummet. As a result of economic uncertainty and extreme unemployment during the Depression, New Mexico welcomed New Deal programs of all kinds, such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration (NYA). The New Deal programs failed to end the Great Depression, but they did bring some security and relief to many New Mexicans.

Despite economic problems following World War I, by the number of residents in the state stood at and New Mexico's population continued to grow through the HISTORY OF THE GILA NATIONAL FOREST: The National Forest System began in the late when American land policy changed from acquiring land to conserving land. The Forest Reserve Act of and the Organic Administration Act of were both passed as the need to protect natural resources became apparent, specifically protecting the watershed system and lands from overgrazing and the overharvesting of timber. The Forest Reserve Act of gave the President the power to create National Forests, and the Organic Administration Act of created the framework for how the Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No.

Page 12 National Forests were to be protected, including who was in charge of maintaining and preserving the forests (USDA Forest Service The Gila River Forest Reserve was established on March 2, by President McKinley with an initial acreage of acres by Proclamation 432 Setting Apart as a Public Reservation Certain Public Lands in the Territory of New Mexico (34 Federal Statues In July of President Theodore Roosevelt issued Proclamation 582 Enlargement of the Gila Forest Reserve, New Mexico (34 Federal Statues at which time the name of the Gila River Forest Reserve was changed to Gila Forest Reserve (USDA Forest Service Any patents issued by the United States Land Office were to be honored unless the land holder failed to comply with the law, but other than patented claims, there were to be no more settlements allowed in the Forest Reserve (Proclamation 582 In Congress transferred the management of the forests from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture.

In the Gila Forest Reserve was made a National Forest upon the creation of the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture. The Gila National Forest was under the administration of the Southern District of the Forest Service, with their main offices in Washington The Forest Inspectors, while technically stationed in Washington mostly served out in the field with offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In December of the Southern Division was reorganized into the District 3, which covered forests in Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Florida, and the headquarters for the Gila National Forest was moved to Silver City, New Mexico (USDA Forest Service 2016a).

In June 18, President Roosevelt combined the Big Burros National Forest with the Gila National Forest using Proclamation 811 (35 Federal Statutes President Hoover combined the Datil National Forest on December 24, with Executive Order and on July 1, President Eisenhower combined part of Crook National Forest with the Gila National Forest (18 Federal Register Additionally, several deletions of acreage occurred in and (USDA Forest Service Today, the Gila National Forest is approximately 3.3 million acres, with three separate wilderness areas: the Gila Wilderness, the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, and the Blue Range Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 13 Wilderness.

The Gila Wilderness was the first National Wilderness in the United States in and was advocated for by conservationist Aldo Leopold (Visit Silver City HISTORY OF THE ROYAL JOHN MINE AND MILL: Seeking out opportunity in the west in the late miners saturated the hills of the west looking for wealth and precious metals. The General Mining Act of increased the number of prospectors in southern New Mexico who struck claims on Federal land by codifying the existing laws into one law. Ore was first discovered in the Royal John area around when prospectors were looking for silver deposits. In total, 16 claims were made in the Royal John area and only one, the Comanche Claim, was patented.

The Comanche Claim was first located in and was patented in Some silver was located, but the distance from a mill made mining in the area difficult (McDonald In an 18-mile road from Lake Valley, in the east, to the mine was laid and a small mill, the Old Mill , was built. There is no documentation of who built the road or the mill. That mining venture did not succeed and mining ceased in the area. Albert Owen and his brother John Owen acquired the mine and Old Mill in Albert and John then built an 11-mile road that is in use today and runs from a turnoff near Faywood, New Mexico, on Highway 61, up to the mine and mill. No ore was mined until when 161 tons of ore were mined and shipped (McDonald In early the Mimbres Mining Company did a large amount of drilling in their search for ore.

Despite finding ore at Royal John, they did not find the grade of ore they were looking for, so they left and the property temporarily returned to the Owen Brothers (McDonald Between mid-1917 and early the Black Range Mining Company operated the mine and found a small amount of lead-zinc ore. They drilled nine churn holes to the north of the Sunshine Cut. It was also indicated that they used a steam-operated jig mill, the Old Mill, to concentrate the ore (Kinney During mining at Royal John produced tons of ore (Soule Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No.

Page 14 ASARCO operated the mill between approximately and early During this period, ASARCO mined tons of ore (Soule They improved mill operations with the refurbishment of the Old Mill, the addition of the New Mill , which housed new diesel electric power equipment, with tables and flotation equipment.

Despite the new equipment, operations were still hindered by a lack of crushing equipment (Kinney With the beginning of the Great Depression in late metal prices dropped and mining at Royal John ceased in early Albert Owen resumed mining at Royal John in but the Old Mill, unused since burned in June and the ore was then hand-sorted and transported to the Blackhawk Mill near Hanover, New Mexico, approximately 35 miles away (Kinney During Owen mined 494 tons of ore (Soule In June the Peru Mining Company of Silver City, New Mexico, began test-drilling 12 holes at Royal John.

The test holes were dug to the north of the West Cut, and to the west of the Number 3 Working, with the deepest hole bottoming out at 708 feet below ground (Kinney The Peru Mining Company produced 603 tons of ore in (Soule During the spring and summer of a field survey party surveyed the entire Carpenter Mining District, and made recommendations to do further exploratory drilling at the Grandview Mine, which is north of the Royal John Mine. In the summer of a further study was undertaken by Kinney, with the assistance of the mine owners, Albert and John Owen (Kinney Between and mining produced tons of ore at Royal John (Soule It is presumed that concentration equipment was moved into the New Mill around this time, to continue with production of ore.

In November of the Bureau of Mines investigated the Royal John Mine area, and a report by John H. Soule was written. As of there was a boarding house that was capable of housing 15 people, but all labor was imported from 40 miles away (Soule Production was not consistent during the and The and G. Mining Company shipped tons of ore in and then Diversified Corp. and Joplin Industries acquired the property. In September and October of Oliver Reese and the FROBEX Company drilled Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 15 four holes (McDonald Between and miners produced tons of ore at Royal John (McDonald With the backing of multiple investors, Oliver Reese filed multiple mining claims in the area. One of the investors, Gerald Gorka, sued Reese and received the Comanche claim in the settlement.

Mr. Gorka then sold the property in to James Scartaccinni, who owned Gila Equipment and Mining (McDonald The current owner is Royal John LLC (Email from Wendy Sutton, USFS REMEDIATION: The U.S. Forest Service hired consultants to perform an Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis (EE/CA) at the Royal John Mine and Mill site, (Forest Service No. AR-03-06-07- LA No. The Forest Service is the lead regulatory agency, under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), responsible for the removal of heavy metals contamination in tailings performed due to the former mine and mill operations.

The site is approximately 410 acres and has numerous adits, cuts, waste piles, two tailings piles, and the mills (Email from Wendy Sutton, USFS The results of the EE/CA indicate that the primary source of contamination at the site is heavy metals in waste rock and the tailings piles. The consultants performed a streamlined risk evaluation of the site to evaluate threats to human health and the environment. The results of the evaluation indicate that heavy metals in the waste rock and tailings do pose an elevated risk to human health and the environment, and have already impacted nearby streams and sediment in the streams. Because of this, the removal of the contaminated waste rock and tailings is necessary.

(Email from Wendy Sutton, USFS Removal Action Objectives (RAOs) were identified to eliminate the risks associated with exposure at the site. The RAOs for the site include the following: Reduce the potential for human and ecological exposure (through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact) to contaminants of concern in waste materials (waste rock and tailings) and surface water. Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 16 Reduce potential migration of waste materials to the surrounding environment via surface runoff, erosion, and wind dispersion.

Protect the beneficial uses and water quality objectives for the surface water of Cold Springs Creek and downstream receiving waters (Email from Wendy Sutton, USFS Four action alternatives were examined to address the RAOs and each alternative was examined according to how effective it would be in mitigating the site, the ease of implementing the remediation at the site, and the cost: Alternative 1: No Action. Alternative 2: Institutional Controls Includes the installation of security fencing, restricted access, and signage. Alternative 3: On-Site Consolidation and Stabilization Includes excavation, consolidation, and regrading of waste source material into an on-site repository area located near the West Cut.

Alternative 4: Excavation and Off-Site Disposal (Email from Wendy Sutton, USFS Because of the evaluation, Alternative 3 was selected as the best remediation for the site, with an estimated value of million (Email from Wendy Sutton, USFS Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 17 BIBLIOGRAPHY: American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) ASARCO Company History. Electronic document. Chipman, Donald E. Handbook of Texas Online, "Cabeza De Vaca, Alvar Nunez," accessed January 05, Chipman, Donald E. Handbook of Texas Online, "Seven Cities of Cibola," accessed January 05, Donoghue, David Handbook of Texas Online, "Coronado Expedition," accessed January 05, Fell, James E. Ores to Metals: The Rocky Mountain Smelting Industry. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. ForestHistory.Org.

National Forests of the U.S.; digital document Gulf South Research Corporation. Cultural Resources Survey of the Royal John Mine and Mill in Grant County, New Mexico. USDA Forest Service, Gila National Forest, New Mexico. Hast, Adele. International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 4. St. James Press, Chicago, Illinois. Heyl, Allen V., Allen Agnew, Erwin J. Lyons, and Charles H. Behre, Jr. The Geology of the Upper Mississippi Valley Zinc-Lead District. Geological Survey Professional Paper United States Government Printing Office, Washington, Huggard, Christopher J., and Terrence M. Humble Santa Rita del Cobre, A Copper Mining Community in New Mexico. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

Kinney, Geology and Ore Deposits of the Royal John area, Swartz District, Grant County, New Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report. Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 18 Kohout, Martin Donell Handbook of Texas Online, "Asarco," accessed January 05, McDonald, Steven John Brief History of the Royal John Mine and Mill Site. Gila National Forest, Grant County, New Mexico. Simmons, Jerry. New Mexico Mining History. Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Club. Electronic document. Soule, Investigation of the Royal John Lead-Zinc Deposits, Grant County, New Mexico. U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations Sutton, Wendy. Email from Wendy Sutton, November 30, Sutton, Wendy. Email from Wendy Sutton, January 27, The American Presidency Project.

2016a Proclamation 432 Setting Apart as a Public Reservation Certain Public Lands in the Territory of New Mexico. Electronic document. The American Presidency Project. Proclamation 582 - Enlargement of the Gila Forest Reserve, New Mexico. Electronic document. USDA Forest Service. Establishment and Modification of National Forest Boundaries and Natural Grasslands, A Chronological Record electronic document. %20to%202012.pdf USDA Forest Service. 2016a The Early Days: A Sourcebook of Southwestern Region History. Electronic document. USDA Forest Service. Gila National Forest. Electronic document. https://www.fs.usda.gov/gila. Visit Silver City. Gila National Forest. Digital document; Royal John Mine and Mill HAER No. Page 19 Figure 1 - Map of the Royal John Mine and Mill complex.

Reprinted from the Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations