History and government of New Mexico . ing throughthe Indian country that the journey had taken him allsummer, and he had to wait until the following springbefore he could return to Santa Fe. But he had tracedmuch of the route of the later Santa Fe Trail, the mostfamous highway in southwestern history. Regular tradein that direction, however, did not begin until after theclose of the Spanish era. 106. New Interest in Mining. — Early discovery of thefact that New Mexico was not a rich and easy miningregion (sec. 64) caused the principal energies of the colony 86 THE HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO to be
History and government of New Mexico . ing throughthe Indian country that the journey had taken him allsummer, and he had to wait until the following springbefore he could return to Santa Fe. But he had tracedmuch of the route of the later Santa Fe Trail, the mostfamous highway in southwestern history. Regular tradein that direction, however, did not begin until after theclose of the Spanish era. 106. New Interest in Mining. — Early discovery of thefact that New Mexico was not a rich and easy miningregion (sec. 64) caused the principal energies of the colony 86 THE HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO to be spent in other directions. But in the wave of ex-pansion that characterized the last half of the eighteenthcentury, the mineral prospects of the country began toreceive new attention. In 1765 Governor Cachupin sentJuan Maria Rivera (re-va/ra) with an exploring and pros-pecting party across the San Juan Basin and on up throughthe Gunnison and Uncompahgre (oon-kom-pa/gra) regionsin western Colorado in search of precious metals. Before. Old Spanish Fort at the Santa Rita Copper Mine the close of the century adventurous New Mexicans hadprospected and tramped over much of the Rocky Moun-tain region as far north as southern Wyoming. Whatever may have been the decaying condition of theSpanish monarchy at home, this was a period of boundlessenergy on the northern frontier of New Spain. The NewMexicans were carrying out, on their own initiative, an anirbitious program of expansion and development. Yet there was little actual mining during the Spanishera. The Santa Rita copper mine, discovered about 1800,was not extensively worked until 1804. It was owned by aChihuahua operator, and the ore was transported to MexicoCity on pack mules. Lieutenant Pike in 1807 (sees. 111-112) said it was producing twenty thousand mule loads THE CLOSE OF THE SPANISH ERA 87 of copper annually. Mica was also mined near Santa Feand Mora. 107. Intrusions of the English. — When Spain acquiredFrench Louisiana
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