Ojuela, an abandoned mining town in the mountains above Mapimi in the State of Durango, is at once unexpected yet totally believable, when you consider Mexico’s history of mining. Along the lines of the Comstock Lode in Nevada or the gold fields of California; once the source of tremendous wealth, now all but forgotten.
Ore was first discovered here in 1598 by the Spanish. By 1777, seven "haciendas de beneficio" (enrichment plants) served thirteen different mines in the area. In 1848, the Spanish mine owners gave up their struggle to make the mines pay and a Mexican company, eventually Penoles, took over the operation. In 1892 they were looking for an easier way to access the Santa Rita mine on the hillside opposite Ojuela. A German engineer, Santiago Minguin, proposed a deck truss, suspension bridge across a 90 meter gorge between the town and the mine. At 315 meters long and 1.80 meters wide, it is said to be the 3rd longest suspension bridge in Latin America, the longest in Mexico. At the time it was constructed, it was heralded as an engineering marvel of the Americas.
The design for the suspension bridge was that of John A. Roebling, a German immigrant to the U.S., who is most famous for his work with “wire rope” and suspension bridge construction. His most famous work in the U.S.: the Brooklyn Bridge. Santiago Minguin is also better known for his collaboration in one of his later works, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
The Santa Rita mine's production peaked just after the Mexican Revolution. Between 1922 and 1925: 687 kilos of gold, almost 100 tons of silver, 51,000 tons of lead and a 1,000 tons of copper were produced. The entire mine honeycombs the mountain and has various openings. There are 14 levels with storage areas hollowed out of the mine shafts and tunnels. When water flooded the lower levels of the mine, the cost of operating the pumps became economically onerous.
At about 5:00 the afternoon of August 31, 1907, a fire broke out in Ojuela when a carbon light generator exploded next to a local pool hall. The fire extended to an alcohol storage area and the flames spread quickly. The fire raged into the wooden homes of the miners and consumed many of them before being controlled at 11:00 that night. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but the damage to the town was extensive.
At one time, Ojuela had a population of over 5,000 rivaling Mapimi, the most important town in the area with just over 8,000 inhabitants. Rock paved streets with names like “Presidente Porfirio Diaz” and “Progreso”, Peace and Progress was the theme of the Porfirio Diaz government, were well laid-out and maintained. There were cantinas, churches, cantinas, hospitals, pool halls and cantinas. There were also some cantinas. The mostly American mining engineers of 1900 had a swimming pool, a tennis court, theater, a casino with bowling ally and a spectacular view of the desert that stretched north to the “Zona de Silencio”.
Even the abandonment of Ojuela is an interesting story. In 1961, Penoles made a contract with Carlos Gonzalez to completely dismantle the town for scrap. The bridge, which almost 70 years before was considered an engineering marvel, was also to be dismantled. Carlos Gonzalez subcontracted Cecilio Hernandez Ayala who, with 50 workers, began the project. The copper electrical cables and roofing were the first items to go. The bridge was next. Only the “wire rope” cables would have been of any value, but even these were obsolete and the effort of scrapping the bridge was questionable. But Cecilio had other ideas. He requested from the head of the Federal Department of Water Resources that the bridge be saved and declared a historical monument. Through Cecilio’s initiative, the request was approved. But, it wasn’t until the 1992 when the governor of the State of Durango, Jose Ramirez Gamero, ordered some improvements to the bridge, almost 30 years after it was declared an historical site. The original cable support towers were taken to Gomez Palacio to be placed in the fair grounds and new towers were constructed. More recently, the local population has begun to take a more active role in the conservation of Ojuela.
The historic town of Mapimi, the municipal capital and just down the mountain from Ojuela, gets it’s name from the Tepehuan Indian name “the rock on the hill.” It is the largest and most important town in the area. The Jesuits and short visits by Padre Hidalgo and Benito Juarez, as claimed by almost all towns in this part of Mexico, make up much of the historical context of this desert community now known as the gemstone and mineral collector’s capital of Mexico. Pieces of agates, selenite crystals and calcite remind us of the mineral legacy of the location. The future of Mapimi now, however, seems an incongruity from his famous religious and mining past. Tyson chicken farms now provide the majority of the jobs for this once important desert mining district.
Our TOUR OF THE COPPER CANYON AND PANCHO VILLA TERRITORY, November 29 – December 15, 2010 will include Ojuela and Mapimi. For further information, www.rcwalkermexico.com, Tours.
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