Trail dust: Stories of a boyhood in territorial N.M

Trail dust: Stories of a boyhood in territorial N.M. More on this site Marc Simmons The New Mexican 6/19/2009 - 6/20/09 "It was April of 1880 and we were living in Trinidad, Colorado.

[Sceptic]

Another interesting tale, but I question the 300 lb silver ingot memory? That isn't an unusually heavy load for most farm and ranch wagons that regularly carried several 100 lb sacks of grain, hay bales, etc.

Keep these interesting tales coming!

[Verna Hutchinson]

This is sort of "off topic", but I thought Sceptic might enjoy this piece of information -- I sure did.

Between I-25 south to Las Cruces, at exit 63 which goes across the Emory Pass to Silver City, there is a small highway leading to Lake Valley, at one time a busy silver-mining town. At the Gem and Mineral Show in Denver in the early 1890's, a "chunk" of silver was on display. It was worth $7,000. At $1.11 per oz it weighed 6,306.306 ozs.(Unless it was figured at a "troy" ounce, which would make it different). If 6,306.306 is divided by 16 oz (a regular pound) it weighed 394.144 pounds.

This silver was so "pure", it was sent UNMILLED to the Mint.

I hope you enjoy this bit of local information as much as I did when I read it. We have lots of visitors who come here specifically to visit the "ghost" mining towns.