The World’s Greatest Silver Mining City

Guanajuato is the name of a city and also of a state in the Republic of Mexico. Its resources are chiefly agricultural and mineral. The mineral wealth of the mountains in the north of the state can scarcely be estimated. In three and a half centuries over $800,000,000 worth of silver alone has been mined here.

This view over the hilly city shows the many building of the capital of the state. Guanajuato, or Santa Fe de Guanajuato, was founded in 1554. It stoutly resisted the Spanish invaders, who naturally desired it because of its mineral wealth, and was repeatedly sacked by the Spanish. It is frequently described to-day as a collection of mining villages, for the houses which we see in the background are clustered about the opening of the mines in the hills which rise at the edge of the city. The sides of these hills, to which rather the name "mountains" should be given, are honeycombed with mines. For many years the silver deposits of this vicinity were considered the richest in the world, and many have considered the Veta Madre (mother lode) the richest of all silver mines. The largest reduction works in Mexico are situated in Guanajuato.

There are other productive mines in the state, such as the San Barnabe lode, the Raya mines, and the La Valenciana mine, which is said to have yielded an output of $226,000,000 in sixty years. No less than thirty per cent of the world's output of silver comes from Mexico.