Note 2 — Front matter

The Santa Rita mines early attracted the conquistadors looking for gold, and were worked in ancient times by the Spaniards, the ores obtained finding an outlet along a road down the valley to the city of Chihuahua. The prehistoric people also mined native Mimbres copper, and probably obtained from these mines and from those in Cook's Range, the native copper from which were made the hawk-bells sometimes found in Arizona and New Mexico. From these localities also were derived fragments of float copper often found in Southwestern ruins and commonly ascribed to localities in Mexico. From here came also a form of primitive stone mauls used in early days of the working of the mines.