Los Almagres Mine, Lost San Saba Mine, Bowie Mine

In the 1750's the Spanish governor of Texas sent an expedition into the hill country of what is now central Texas to check on reports of rich deposits of
silver and gold.  The expedition returned with rich ore samples that started the stories, quest, and tales of vast riches.

For years the quest for these mines and vast hoards of buried treasure have sent hunters all over the area.  The Spanish built a presidio and a mission to
protect the miners and pacifiy the Indians.  The Commanches promptly
burned the mission down and killed the priests.  The hunt for the missing
mines continued, in the early 1900's the University of Texas historian Herbert E. Bolton announced that using old Spanish documents he had
located the mines on Honey Creek south east of Llano.  The USGS placed
a marker at his site.  Only problem was no mines and no treasure was located in the area.

For several years my history buddy Bill Wootan told me about a friend  he had gone to high school with that believed he had located the mines on his ranch just a few miles from the Bolton site.  James Stotts, who ranches southeast of Llano near Packsaddle Mountain, had told Bill about several "mines" they had located in the process of clearing brush off his ranch.  We tried several times to visit the site but it didn't work out until November of 2014 when Stotts gave us an inspection tour of the mines and mineshafts.

 

This is a pile of what I would call mine "tailings", the debris that was removed from the mine shaft.  The debris was sorted into three different piles as it was removed.  Small gravel and rocks, larger material, and finally large rocks.

 

 

It is very obvious from the size of these rocks that some serious mining operations went on at this site.

 

This is the first mine shaft we visited.  It is a vertical shaft that is about 8 feet in diameter and has water standing in it at about the 40 foot level.  It has been covered with mesh wire to prevent livestock from falling into it.

 

 

Another view of mineshaft #1

 

 

Mineshaft #2 is a horizontal tunnel that goes back into the side of the hill.

 

Again, the large size of the rocks removed shows evidence of some serious digging

 

Another vertical mineshaft

 

This shaft is one of the largest and most impressive.  Our buddy Stanley Miller is standing in the mine opening to give a perspect of the size of

the mine opening.  This shaft is about 200 feet long horizontally and has a couple of vertical shafts that are up to 60 feet deep.  No pictures from inside, I don't do tunnels or mines or caves.

 

 

These mines are located in extremely rough and brushy country.  It is so rugged that ranchers are unable to run cattle on the rangeland and resort to raising goats.  One of the reasons that the mine sites went undisovered for so long is that they are covered by the brush on the terrain.  It was only when the Stotts family started using a bulldozer to clear brush that they discovered the mine shafts.

 

 

Here is the reason I don't do tunnels and mines.  Bill Wootan placed it in the permanent relocation program

 

A geologist friend told us that one of the indications of gold and silver was the presence of red streaks (iron) found in quartz deposits.  Rocks like this cover the area around the various mine shafts.

 

 

Another long horizontal mine shaft

 

Another horizontal mine shaft.  It is easy to see why with all the heavy brush and growth that these sites went undetected for so long.

 

Bill Spain stands beside the outer wall of a large stone corral near the mine shafts.  This corral is about 50 x 50 feet, rock walls on three sides and the vertical mountain side forms the fourth side.