Harry Pye (prospector)
Encyclopedia
Harry Pye was a prospector
and sometime mule skinner
in New Mexico Territory
who discovered silver chloride in the Black Range
in 1879 initiating a multi-million dollar silver rush.
Born in England, he first went to Australia where he was unsuccessful, then he came to the American Southwest. Pye was working as a teamster
hauling goods for the U.S. Army when he recognized the greyish mineral weathering out of the rock in a remote canyon as silver chloride or chlorargyrite
. He finished his contract, filed a claim and started mining, only to be killed a few months later by the Mimbres Apache
. But his mine continued under new management and the town of Chloride, New Mexico was founded in the canyon.
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
and sometime mule skinner
Teamster
A teamster, in modern American English, is a truck driver. The trade union named after them is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters , one of the largest unions in the United States....
in New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory
thumb|right|240px|Proposed boundaries for State of New Mexico, 1850The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of...
who discovered silver chloride in the Black Range
Black Range
The Black Range is an igneous mountain range running north-south in Sierra and Grant counties in west-central New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. Its central ridge forms the western and eastern borders, respectively, of the two counties through much of their contact...
in 1879 initiating a multi-million dollar silver rush.
Born in England, he first went to Australia where he was unsuccessful, then he came to the American Southwest. Pye was working as a teamster
Teamster
A teamster, in modern American English, is a truck driver. The trade union named after them is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters , one of the largest unions in the United States....
hauling goods for the U.S. Army when he recognized the greyish mineral weathering out of the rock in a remote canyon as silver chloride or chlorargyrite
Chlorargyrite
Chlorargyrite is the mineral form of silver chloride . Chlorargyrite occurs as a secondary mineral phase in the oxidation of silver mineral deposits. It crystallizes in the isometric - hexoctahedral crystal class. Typically massive to columnar in occurrence it also has been found as colorless to...
. He finished his contract, filed a claim and started mining, only to be killed a few months later by the Mimbres Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
. But his mine continued under new management and the town of Chloride, New Mexico was founded in the canyon.