A Brief History of the Orogrande Mines

by Clif McDonald

Some of the mines at Orogrande were originally worked by Native Americans who mined mostly turquoise.  Oro Grande is Spanish for Big Gold.  Gold was first discovered in Orogrande is 1865.  There were many pure nuggets at first, but ore had to be hauled by wagon to the El Paso smelter.  In 1898 the railroad came to Orogrande and a seven mile spur line was built up through the Jarilla Mountains where the mine fields lay.  However, the real gold rush didn't start until June of 1904 when a six and a half ounce nugget was found in a dry wash on the Little Joe Claim.  In December 1904, Southwest Smelting & Refining started construction of a smelter in Orogrande; its foundation can still be seen on the east side of Highway 54, just north of Orogrande.

Southwest Smelting built a 55 mile pipeline from Sacramento Lake to bring water down from the mountains.  This line furnished the first good, sweet water to the middle of the desert.  It was used by train steam boilers, by the town's people and it also made mining possible.  Prior to this, miners paid $3 a barrel for water.  

In 1905, Orogrande and two other towns in the mountains, Brice and Jarilla, became boom towns.  People lived in tents, shacks, in their mines, and some in permanent houses they built.  Orogrande had nine saloons, a real estate office with sixteen employees, a barber shop, a hotel, a tent hospital, and many other prosperous businesses in this town of over 6,000 people.  Rich ore poured out of the mines by the train load.  Eastern investors were brought in by train to see the goldfields; these financiers furnished capital to sink expensive shafts and buy equipment.

The Iron Queen Mine furnished much of the ore to build cannons for World War I.  Mines produced gold, silver, tungsten, copper, iron, turquoise, garnet and lead.

In the 1930's, the rich ore began to run out.  Most of the large mines started closing.  The railroad tracks in the mountains were removed.  Only a few miners hung on.  The town of Jarilla completely vanished.  The only thing left of Brice is a wooden cross and a few rock headstones where the graveyard for the town was located.

When trains converted from steam to diesel, they no longer needed to stop for water in Orogrande, but the community still uses the water coming the mountain pipeline to this day.

A few claims are presently being worked.  The U.S. Government requires working the claim or it will revert back.  Core drilling continues, but the sounds of jack hammers, dynamite blasting, train whistles, dance hall girls and gun fighters are silenced.  Hard rock miners, the smell of sourdough bread cooking, and great wealth have passed on into history.