Silver-Plated Deceit - The Story of Mining in Lake Valley, New Mexico

This is the story of mining in Lake Valley, New Mexico, a short-lived silver mining boom-town in southern New Mexico roughly between Hillsboro and Deming. It draws from a number of sources compiled by the late Homer E. Milford when he worked for the New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Bureau in the 1980s and '90s.The Lake Valley story is fairly typical of what happened in many western mining towns, although it is especially dramatic in the magnitude of "wheeling and dealing", coupled with numerous coloful characters, an especially rich deposit of silver, and a series of comtemporary photographs and documents, that all together present an extraordinary tale of the West.It is dangerous as well as libelous to accuse someone of dishonesty if you cannot prove it, even a hundred years after his or her death. George D. Roberts and J. Whitaker Wright, the promoters of the Lake Valley mines from 1881 to late 1883, started their venture with the intent to sell what they thought was a small silver deposit for dozens of times its real mining value. Roberts and Wright had successful careers buying deposits or mines and then forming mining companies to sell stock to the public at inflated prices. By manipulating the news their mine managers gave the press, they could raise and lower the stock prices numerous times making a profit in both directions. They knew that eventually each company would be considered worthless and anticipated that event by selling their stock before this occurred. Roberts generally had one or more new companies underdevelopment to replace the companies that got discredited. I have tried to avoid using derogatory terms to describe Roberts and Wright. Every derogatory term I know, and some I did not know were applied to Roberts in the press almost 120 years ago. These ranged from mild ones like "dishonest" to "his Satanic Majesty." Roberts was never convicted of stock fraud, but Wright was in 1904. With the exception of quotes from the press, mild terms are used for these men in this history. This is not because I think they were mhonest or had anything but the worst of intentions, but because I admire the skill they demonstratedin what was then and now illegal. These men made at least one positive contribution to mining. The mills they built to impress the public, to entice them into buying stock, were often later used by honest miners. This was an inadvertent contribution to the development of mining in North America, Australia and Africa.