Harry Pye (prospector)

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Harry Pye (died 1879) was a prospector and sometime mule skinner in New Mexico Territory who discovered silver chloride in the Black Range in 1879 initiating a multimillion-dollar silver rush. [1] [2]

Prospecting The physical search for minerals

Prospecting is the first stage of the geological analysis of a territory. It is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.

Teamster profession

A teamster, in modern American English, is a truck driver, or a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union in the United States and Canada.

New Mexico Territory territory of the United States of America, 1850-1912

The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of New Mexico, making it the longest-lived organized incorporated territory of the United States, lasting approximately 62 years.

Contents

Born in England, he first went to Australia where he was unsuccessful, then he came to the American Southwest. Pye was working as a teamster hauling goods for the U.S. Army when he recognized the greyish mineral weathering out of the rock in a remote canyon as silver chloride or chlorargyrite. [1] [2] [3] He finished his contract, filed a claim and started mining, only to be killed a few months later by the Mimbres Apache. [1] [2] [4] But his mine continued under new management and the town of Chloride, New Mexico was founded in the canyon. [1] [5]

Chlorargyrite halite mineral

Chlorargyrite is the mineral form of silver chloride (AgCl). Chlorargyrite occurs as a secondary mineral phase in the oxidation of silver mineral deposits. It crystallizes in the isometric - hexoctahedral crystal class. Typically massive to columnar in occurrence it also has been found as colorless to variably yellow cubic crystals. The color changes to brown or purple on exposure to light. It is quite soft with a Mohs hardness of 1 to 2 and dense with a specific gravity of 5.55. It is also known as cerargyrite and, when weathered by desert air, as horn silver. Bromian chlorargyrite is also common. Chlorargyrite is water-insoluble.

The Apache are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Salinero, Plains and Western Apache. Distant cousins of the Apache are the Navajo, with which they share the Southern Athabaskan languages. There are Apache communities in Oklahoma, Texas, and reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. Apache people have moved throughout the United States and elsewhere, including urban centers. The Apache Nations are politically autonomous, speak several different languages and have distinct cultures.

Chloride is an unincorporated community in Sierra County, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The community is located at the confluence of Chloride Creek with Mineral Creek. Most of the old mine workings are to the west along Chloride Creek. Winston is about two miles to the east.

Effects

Pye's claim, and the success of his mine set off a silver rush with hundreds of silver mines being opened in the Black Range. [1] [5] Among them was the discovery of the Bridal Chamber in 1882, the richest native silver deposit ever found. [3]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Abarr, p. 1
  2. 1 2 3 Twitchell, p. 271
  3. 1 2 Harley, George Townsend (1934) The geology and ore deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico published as New Mexico State Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Bulletin 10, p.178-179
  4. ↑ Woods, Betty (February 1953) "Trip of the Month: Chloride" New Mexico Magazine 31(2): p. 6
  5. 1 2 "About Sierra County:Chloride" Sierra County Recreation & Tourism Advisory Board Historical information courtesy of LaRena Miller, Geronimo Springs Museum, Truth or Consequences, and Rural Economic Development Through Tourism (REDTT).

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References

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