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- The Bridal Chamber Mine
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- New Mexico Centennial
A Hillsboro blacksmith stumbles into the richest silver mine ever found.
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Transcript
George Lufkin and Chris Watson were a couple of itinerant prospectors in 1878 hoisting a few in a Georgetown saloon when an excited Chinese man wandered in waving a piece of what he thought was iron ore. It was a chunk of horn silver, the purest raw form of the precious metal. The Chinese fellow said he found it somewhere between Georgetown and Fort Seldon, but was unable to re-locate the spot. Lufkin and Watson guessed that the sample probably came from the Lake Valley area south of Hillboro and searched until they found a small outcropping of the ore. Their grubstake was gone, so they headed back to raise funds for their venture. Victorio and his Warm Springs Apaches chose that moment to go on the warpath and it was two years until they were able to return.
After just a few weeks of digging, they hauled a half-ton of near pure silver to the assay office in Silver City. In 1881...
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