G'evening peeps, to the patio for a last cool limeade? Temp down to 30 C , kinda cool for a iimeade stillll

This is a copy of a letter that I sent to the group that presently owns the Palmarejo Mine, among others, near Chinapas, Chihuahua, Mexico - to date no answer They were anouncing openings in The Palmarejo mine etc. staff.

--- www2.coeur.com/mine-operations-manager.html ----



Good morning Gentlemen: I am 'not' applying for a position in the Palmarejo mine, but merely posting a bit of misc information which may be of some interest to you. Please forward this to whomever might be interested - perhaps your publicity section ?.

About 1955 I was in Chinapas while on the campaign searching for the legendary lost Jesuit mine "Tayopa". I was successful, but that is not what this post is about.

I was rained in at Chinapas during an exceptionally heavy rainy season , Carlos Shultz was el Presidente, so beng bored, I spent many hours searching through the old files of the Palmarejo office at Zapote, the site of the mill in those days. It was deserted and falling apart.

The records were scattered all about, but they gave me an insight on what it was like in the early 1900's when everything had to be packed in by mule and man power from San Bernardo, and technical / engineering problems had to be sent to Europe, a simple matter that took months to receive an answer.

I believe that Mr Stranahan of ventures was there also with a blank check, attempting to buy it.. He mentioned that the entire mt would prob run $60 - 80 in those days.

To the point, I have lots of interesting little stories that I still remember from the old records, as well as some from the original personnel. Are you interested? Naturally they would be readily given voluntarily, but could add an interesting fill in on this great mine's history.

She deserves it

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One story in particular involves Judy, I am awaiting her permission to post it, minus the critical details of course, they are hers..

Another involves the small gauge, steam locomotives that were required to transport several carloads of ore from the mine, several miles down to the Mill and head quarters at Zapote.

Zapote lies on the bend of the rio Chinapas, and so supplied plenty of water for milling operations, and was only few miles from Chinapas, the source of labor.

To design and build such an engne, they scouted the world, then finally submitted their requirements to Baldwin Locomotive works in the US.

In due time -- remember this was in the early 1900's, so each round of letters took months -- they received the complete specifications for a steam locomotive from Baldwin requesting a formal contract to commence building the Locomotive..

The answer that Palmarejo sent back to Baldwin was a horrified one, the enginer in charge wrote "Gentlemen, I made it quite clear that no part could weigh over 200 lbs since everything had to be transported over a mountain range by animal and human power. Your plans absolutely would not be practical in any manner."

In due time back came Baldwin's answer "Gentlemen, If we need advice on how to run a mine, we would turn to you, when you need advice on how to build a steam locomotive, don't tell US how to do it". A rather arrogant letter at the least.

Sooo, again scouring the world they came to Leeds of London, who then promptly sent the complete plans and specfications, with nothing over 200 lbs and with every nut, bolt, washer, part, stamp coded in such a way that one didn't even need to know how to read or write to put it together - an outstanding engineering work.

They even had the heavy driver wheels in three parts if I remember correctly.

So La Palmarejo soon had it's two cute, lil steam locomotives in operation. They even extended the narrow gauge tracks East to the near by rich mining areas of Guazapares / Temoris to bring their ore down to Zapote for processing.

Another story on how these lil locomotives were used in a con game later.

Don Jose de La Mancha