User:Tillman/Planchas de Plata, Sonora



Planchas de Plata is a historic silver-mining district near Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Native silver was discovered here in 1736 by Antonio Siraumea, a Yaqui Indian, on the Rancho Arizona of Bernardo de Urrea. Urrea's Arizona (Basque for "good oak") Ranch is the likely source of the name of the present US state of Arizona

Toward the end of last October, between the Guevavi Mission and the ranchería called Arizona, some balls and slabs of silver were discovered, one of which weighed more than one hundred arrobas (2,500 pounds), a sample of which I am sending to you, Most Illustrious Lord. --Captain Juan Bautista de Anza to Bishop Benito Crespo, January 7, 1737.

Prospecters and miners rushed to the area of the great silver discovery of October,1736. It was given the name San Antonio de Padua by Justicia Mayor Juan Bautista de Anza when he arrived on the scene in November and ordered that all the silver that had been taken from the site be impounded and brought to Urrea's Arizona Ranch, some fifteen miles down the canyon. Because his escribano (scribe), Manuel José de Sosa, dated all the impounding documents at Arizona, people in faraway places like Guadalajara and Mexico City were soon referring to the silver as the "silver of Arizona." Arizona became a household word in early 18th century Mexico, associated with great and sudden wealth.

Later mining and prospecting, most recently by a Canadian firm in 2004, failed to find a major silver deposit in the district.

References and further reading
This article incorporates text from Arizona / Planchas de Plata, a public domain article produced by the US National Park Service.