THE LONGORENA

THE LONGORENAAuthor(s): Carol ClarkeSource: Arizoniana, Vol. 2, No. 2 (SUMMER 1961), pp. 31-34Published by: Arizona Historical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41700548 .

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ARIZONI AN A 31

ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY -EARLY WESTERN LIFE SERIES 1. Death League of the Desert ; or , Over-

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tory of the noted outlaws , Jesse and Frank James ... by J. W. Buel.

INLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY 1. A Half-breed Dance and other far

western stories ... by Randall Kemp.

THE LONGORENAŤ By Carol Clarke*

The LoNGORENAt is an old Spanish mine of the Arivaca Mining District, southwest of Tubac in Arizona, the records of which go back at least 200 years. Though now abandoned, it has an interesting history for both its early promise of rich mineral deposits and, while little known, for maintain- ing its identity through Spanish, Mex- ican and American ownership.

The earliest mention of mining in the Arivaca area that I have found is in Rudo Ensayo , written by an unknown Jesuit priest in 1763. In his description of settlements in Pimeria Alta he wrote, "There was a fourth called Ari , where the rebels camped in 1751, and it was ten leagues to the northwest (of Tubac). There used to be near this place one gold mine and silver mines which are now abandoned."1 There is no doubt that the pueblo mentioned is Arivaca by the direction from Tubac and by the reference to the camp of the Pima Indian rebels who were defeated in Aribac in 1751. 2 During the Pima revolt the Indians killed several con- verts in Arivaca and attacked the Spanish settlers as they had else- where throughout the Spanish prov- ince. It was a bloody uprising that left a period of unrest and bitterness

*Mrs. Clarke married to a member of a pioneer ranching family, lives on a cattle ranch near Arivaca. She attended the Uni- versity of Arizona; is presently working on a history of the Arivaca area,

f The Longoreña.

for many years. Arivaca, the sur- rounding settlements and the mines were all deserted after the Indian's defeat.3 The author of Rudo Ensayo , writing twelve years after the Revolt said, "We are still deploring the sad consequences of the rebellion - traces of which, together with the cruel Seris, still keep the Royal troops in continual motion."4

In 1774, after the exit of the Jesuits a Spanish governmental report mentioned the rich silver of the Lon- goreña mine.5 This seems to be the earliest mention of the mine. It is possible that the property was discovered and worked a few years before the report was written, but the facts indicate that the Longoreña was discovered at an even earlier date. De Anza in the same year, 1774, wrote that mining activity had continued near Aribac until 1767, the year of the Jesuit expulsion, when it had ceased.6 This abandonment of the Arivaca area was probably due less to the Pima Indians than to the Apaches, who were becoming stronger and a more formidable menace each year. Because of these reasons: the danger of working in the area; De Anza's statement that no mines had been worked after 1767 and the fact that the mines was well known (suggest- ing that considerable work had been done during a more peaceful period without the great danger of maraud- ing Indians), it is safe to assume that



32 ARIZONIANA

the Longoreña was first developed in the Jesuit era of Southern Arizona. It is also possible that it is one of the silver mines mentioned in Rudo Ensayo.

For the next thirty-six years, there is no mention of the Longoreña or of any activity near Arivaca. With the only protection in southern Ari- zona, centered in Tucson, the Fran- ciscan priests were unable to respark the prosperity and pioneer vigor that the Jesuits had inspired. However, at the turn of the century a few private citizens applied for land grants in the outlying fertile valleys. In 1812, Augustin Ortiz applied to the Spanish government for a grant in the Arivaca valley. One of the boundaries of the grant for which he paid about $750 included the Lon- goreña with a slightly different spelling. Ortiz occupied and stocked the grant for a few years, but his stay was brief. In the south, the Mexicans finally succeeded in regaining their country from the Spaniards. But after the revolution, in the trials of consoli- dating and forming a new government, the Mexicans neglected the northern provinces leaving Pimeria Alta to the onslaught of the Apache Indians. In the ensuing years, Au- gustin Ortiz died and his sons, Igna- cio and Tomas, fell heir to the Aribac grant. In 1838, they applied for confirmation of the original Spanish grant from the Mexican government.7 They received the confirmation, but, like their father, they were unable to use the land, due to Apache control of the entire area.

The Aribac land grant again changed hands in 1856.8 At that time, it was purchased by the Sonora Min- ing and Exploring Company, with which Charles Poston, the Father of Arizona, was associated for many years. During the time that the grant was held by this mining enterprise,

one of the mining engineers, Herman Ehrenburg, wrote the following report on the Longoreña mine.

Some twenty years later two newspaper articles appeared about the Longoreña - again under a slightly different spelling.

We have twenty and more veins of ore in the Arivaca Ranche, which are near our Reduction works, easily worked and show a good percentage. Messrs. Kustel and Lathrop investigated one, the 'Longoreñia' vein, the other day, about two miles from the Amalgamation works. It is an old abandoned mine. At a depth of ten feet they came to water. The vein is very regular. Mr. Lathrop broke off a piece of ore, at random, with a rock. This showed by assay at that depth, $450 per ton. It is not probable this will be the average, but if it even yields $100 only, it will be a valuable vein, as it can be so easily worked, and the ore transported to the works. 9

One year later, another newspaper reported, "The Arivaca Mill is run- ning on ore from the Longerin. - The ore will average about $150 per ton yielding a larger percentage of gold than silver."11

The old mines which were worked by the Jesuits a century before must have been good paying properties from the evidences of the many workings. Now a mill three- fourths of a mile from Arivaca is being con- structed, when completed it will have a 20 stamp. - The Longgania mine three miles from Arivaca has an old depth of eighty ft. It is being worked now and considered one of the best in the district.10

After a hundred years of sporadic interest, work and high speculation the Longoreña failed to live up to the preceding glowing reports. It probably would have been abandoned and forgotten, and its only thread to the past lost - its name. But luckily, the Longoreña received enough notoriety in the courts to re- tain its identity.

The Arivaca Land and Cattle Com- pany next obtained ownership of the Aribac grant, and was faced with the problem of proving the legality of the grant to the United States govern-



ARIZONIANA 33

ment. Under the terms of the Gads- den Purchase, the United States agreed to recognize the Spanish and Mexican land grants if they could be proven valid. Due to the Civil War and the prolonged Indian disturb- ances, the government did not take action on these claims for many years. Finally, in 1891, a Court of Private Land Claims was set up to settle over five million acres of disputed land.12 The problem was fur- ther complicated by the fact that nearly all the grants were occupied by settlers, miners and homesteaders. This was true of the Arivaca valley, and during the legal hearings of the Aribac grant these settlers were called upon to testify concerning the boundries of the original grant. The Ari- vaca Land and Cattle Company did not have the original deed issued to Augustin Ortiz, nor did it have the deed the Ortiz brothers obtained from the Mexican government, but they did have other papers of legal value. Most important, the grant was registered in the Mexican book of records known as the Toma de Razón. This book was highly respected by the U. S. government; actually it was one of the very few Mexican records that carried any weight in the court. The weakest point in the case of those attempting to prove the legality of the Aribac grant was the location of the original boundries, and the most questionable boundry was that of the Longoreña mine.13

During the hearings, a surveyor, Y. Bonillas, was questioned as to his findings after surveying the area in dispute. Mr. Bonillas stated that his first problem was to locate the original Aribac, as it was from this point that the boundries were laid out. By information gathered from the older residents of Arivaca, he established its position to be one and one-half miles northwest of the present town.

This location was later verified by many witnesses, John Bogan, N. W. Bernard and others, in the first trial and in the Supreme Court appeal. The northern boundary marker of the grant he found on a hill in the Gijas Mountains behind the present day Arivaca. This hill also contains a United States mineral marker, but the ruins of an older monument are still visible. There was no dispute from either side on the age of the northern marker. Witness after witness testified as to the extreme aged appear- ance of this monument, upon their arrival in the Arivaca valley. The east and west boundaries were located by Mr. Bonillas, but his testimony on these two corners was disputed. The southern corner, the Longoreña mine, proved to be the weakest point in the Arivaca Land and Cattle Com- pany's case. Not only did Bonillas have difficulty locating this mine, but several witnesses testified that the mine had first been discovered in 1877. There were no witnesses called at the first hearing who knew of the Longoreña mine being worked prior to this date. The decision of the court was not to confirm title to the grant.

The case was appealed to the Su- preme Court in 1902 with the intro- duction of new evidence - proof of the pre-1812 age of the Longoreña mine. The trial was repetitious of the first, except for a new witness, Charles D. Poston. He stated that he had known of the Longoreña mine in 1856, and that the Mexicans had known of it for years before that. De- spite the new evidence the grant was turned down, and again by a split decision.

Today, the Longoreña is neglected and deserted; many of the shafts are half-filled with water. It is located in a rocky canyon, called Frawita Wash, approximately three miles from



34 ARIZONI ANA

Arivaca. On a hill above what ap- pears to be the ruin of an old mill on the east side of the creek, there are in the general area of the mine many holes and a few tunnels. But the most interesting work is a very long, deep slash in the earth, which is, I am told, the original Longoreña.14 I picked up a few pieces of beautiful high grade silver ore by a tunnel, but in general the area seems to be worked out. There is a modern mining monument standing at some dis- tance from the deep cut in the hill- side in which is a mining location claim of H. T. Edwards, dated 1945. The paper gives the usual data on the precise location and boundaries of the mine. The last words are, ". . . said claim formally known as the Lon- guerino."

NOTES 1. Rudo Ensayo . . . first published in

1863 by Buckingham Smith; reprinted (Tucson: Arizona Silhouettes, 1951), see pp. 51, 110.

2. Arivaca was originally called Aribac. 3. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Ari-

zona and New Mexico , 1530-1888, vol. 17 of his Works (San Francisco: The History Company, 1889), pp. 54, 400.

4. Rudo Ensayo, loc. cit., p. 54. 5. Alfred Barnaby Thomas, Teodoro de

Croix and the Southern Frontier of New Spain . . . (Norman: University of Okla- homa Press, 1941), p. 172.

6. Bancroft, loc. cit., p. 385. 7. Ray H. Mattison, "Early Spanish and

Mexican Settlements in Arizona," New Mexico Historical Review , Vol. 21, Oct. 1946, p. 307.

8. Report of the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company (Cincinnati, 1857).

9. Ibid., (1856). 10. (Yuma) Arizona Sentinel , July 19,

1879. 11. (Tucson) Arizona Daily Star, April

3, 1880. 12. Mattison, loc. cit., p. 290. 13. This and following information was

taken from the transcript of the Aribac land grant trial before the Court of Private Land Claims, 1893, and the appeal to the Su- preme Court, 1903, in the Department of Library and Archives, Phoenix, Microfilm number 10.1.20.

14. Interview with Mr. Rollie Viser, Ari- vaca, 1960.

MAJOR JOHN WESLEY POWELL'S EXPLORATION OF THE GRAND CANYON1"

By Shirley Ferguson* The first expedition by boat down the Green and Colorado rivers, made under the direction of Major John Wesley Powell in 1869, was an undertaking which has captured the imagination of historians, writers, ad- venturers and even more recently the motion picture industry. The jour- ney was intended as an exploration into the depths of the Grand Canyon,

*Miss Ferguson is a Junior at Amphi- theater High School in Tucson. This paper delivered at the session for "Junior Histor- ians," during the Second Annual Arizona Historical Convention, was selected from four others prepared at her school. She belongs to the Student Council at Amphi- theater, is Secretary of Future Teachers of America and a delegate to Girl's State.

known only to the Indians of the country. On May 24, 1869:

Powell and his oddly assorted crew plunged into a mystery unknown to all men. They had no Sacajawea.

Such information as Powell had about the canyon chains of the Green and Colo- rado was fragmentary. Much of it was in- accurate. To be sure, there were known points on the rivers he would cruise, but they were few and far between. The Grand Canyon was the biggest unknown of all.

The one-armed major, tough of mind as well as body, discounted fable and fantasy. He knew that heavily silted rivers wear their beds down and he therefore inferred that he would not encounter too many high waterfalls . . .

On a calculated risk he took his boats straight into fear and fable, into the awe- some Grand Canyon of the Colorado.



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THE LONGORENA