Mining the Riches of the
Big Bend of Texas
by Danielle Gallo
T
he Big Bend has a shortage of
groundwater, of topsoil, of tim-
ber. In addition to its dry cli-
mate and frequently severe weather
patterns, it lacks many of the resources
necessary for human populations to
flourish in large numbers. It is not, in
most senses of the word, a hospitable
environment.
But it has no shortage of rocks.
Metal and mineral resources abound
in the Big Bend region, a veritable geol-
ogist's playground. The earth offers
riches in forms as varied as fossil fuels
and mercury, silver and chert.
The earliest mines found in the Big
Bend date as far back as the Paleo-
Indian period. Burro Mesa, located in
the foothills of the Chisos Mountains
in present-day Big Bend National Park,
was an important source of high-qual-
ity stone known as Burro Mesa chert.
This sedimentary rock is excellent for
making tools: it flakes easily to a razor-
sharp edge and can be readily shaped.
Burro Mesa chert comes in every
color, from pinks and dusky reds to
greens and mottled blues. Fire was used
to break down large chunks of the
chert, which were then knapped, or
shaped by striking, into suitable blanks,
which were later transported to camps
for finishing. The deposits of the stone
lie above beds of tuff, a volcanic stone
formed by the expulsion of hot ash
from vents during eruption. Tuff has a
light, airy consistency that is easy to dig
through. At Burro Mesa, the beds of
tuff contain veins of kaolinite, a
Photograph courtesy Big Bend National Park
whitish, relatively soft claystone prized Mariscal Mine, located in present-day Big Bend National Park, was one of several mercury-producing mines in the Big Bend. In addi-
by prehistoric peoples for making tion to many industrial, medical and defense applications, mercury was also widely used in the production of precious metals.
beads and pendants.
mercury is found. The Terlingua Mining District was Solis and prospected by U.S. immigration inspector
Burro Mesa chert and kaolinite have been found as the largest national producer of the metal from 1900 D.E. Lindsay, produced small amounts of cinnabar ore
far away as 50 miles from the Chisos Mountains, and to 1930, providing fully a third of the mercury pro- which Lindsay transported to the larger Chisos mining
areas of Burro Mesa show periods of heavy mining. duced in the U.S. Liquid at ambient temperatures, facility for refining. In 1916, as World War I raged and
Both Clovis and Plainview points made of the chert date mercury was used widely in the production of precious the value of mercury increased, Lindsay's claims were
the early mining of the Mesa to 13,000 years ago and metals, in the medical and dental fields, as an electrical patented by W.K. Ellis, then the owner of the nearby
perhaps earlier.
conductor and in the detonation of explosives. It was candelilla wax factory at Glenn Springs. The mine was
Commercial mining of mercury began in the Big prized particularly in times of war. The Chisos Mining abandoned in 1940.
Bend in the last decades of the 1800s. The Chisos and Company went bankrupt in 1942 and was completely
Mercury is separated from its ore by the simple
the Marfa and Mariposa mining companies were the dissolved by 1944.
expedient of heating the ore to 360 degrees
preeminent producers of cinnabar, the ore in which
The Mariscal Mine, discovered by rancher Martin Fahrenheit, at which temperature it becomes a vapor.
24
Cenizo
First Quarter 2013