Lost Mine Research Resources
Links to resources that may be of interest to one researching lost mine history
Spanish, Mexican, and early American history of Texas
- Bonilla's Brief Compendium of the History of Texas A consise history of
Spanish Texas up to 1772 (An Annotated Translation).
- Our Catholic Heritage in Texas By Carlos Castaneda, an in depth history of Texas from 1519 to 1936.
- The Frontier Times From the 1920's to the early 1950's the Frontier Times magazine included articles on the old west,
often written by people who were there. They are available for download for a nominal fee. If you are ever in Bandera, TX, check out the Frontier Times Museum.
General research aids
- Carmen Garcia Castillian was the dialect in use by the colonial era government, and this native of Spain can translate that into fluent English. She was referred by an attorney who uses her to translate legal documents.
- Spanish terms in common use in the colonial era.
- Texas Digital Newspaper Program A free source of scanned and searchable newspapers and other documents.
- FamilySearch.org This is a free genealogical research site that can help to research the lives of treasure hunters. It is by the Mormon Church, but one does not have to be Mormon to use it.
- Texas Digital Archives from the Texas State Library and Archives Commision.
- Dolph-Briscoe Center for American History at UT-Austin has a treasure trove of documents, intervew notes, etc. Includes the Bexar archives.
- Newspaper Archive--a for-pay site where one can search old newspapers.
- Newspapers.com--another for-pay site where one can search old newspapers.
- Genealogy Bank--and one more for-pay site where one can search old newspapers, as well as census records, etc.
Maps
Silver and Gold
- Discussion taxes on silver gold in the Spanish Colonial era.
- Spanish era mining ordinances these were mostly carried forward when Mexico gained independence.
- The diggings an easy to use site for looking up mining claims. Texas is a priavte land state, so claims are not relevant there, but this will show claims in adjacent areas and does show some known mines.
- Article on a modern demonstration of colonial era smelting.
- Article on fire assays for silver and gold.
- Translation of Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica a 1556 book on mining and refining. These methods would have been known to professional miners in the Spanish Colonial Era.
- Discussion of where Silver (and gold) has been known to have been mined in Texas.
- A great paper on mining in Mexico and Peru in the Spanish colonial era.
- A book on treasure signs -- I tend to be wary of signs, but here is a book on them. This free from Garrett
(metal detectors) and they very kindly have other resources as well.
- Gold panning how-to.
- Introduction to Gold -- a booklet from the USGS.
- A book on prospecting from the late 1800's.
Aids for writers
- Typing Spanish in Microsoft Word.
- Fair Use Copyright Law--how much is too much when copying other sources?
- Register copyrights here directly with the US Copyright Office
- Get a Library of Congress Number arranged for a book before it is published
- Get an ISBN number and bar code. Maybe only useful if printing on demand and
dristributing with online retailers. It will enter the book into databases used by sellers, libraries, etc. Bowker provides this for a fee. They will try to sell a lot of other things
for authors, but one can just get the ISBN (and bar code, if desired) and leave it at that.
For self-publishing, there are many options, from having a print shop do a run to publishing online, perhaps with print-on-demand. Right now, there are no endorsements by this site
of any publishers or services. There are lots of places happy to take your money, so tread carefully.
This site receives no compensation from any of the for-pay sites mentioned. However, they have been used before by this writer and were found to have some merit and are
listed accordingly.