Chapter XXVII: Chihuahua

Separated from the United States of America by the Rio Grande, Chihuahua is the largest State in the Republic. It cannot be termed a beautiful State from a scenic point of view, but there are parts where it furnishes picturesque scenery not to be outrivalled anywhere in the world. A prolongation of the Sierra Madre mountains traverses the western part of the State and is rich in minerals. It is practically an undulating tableland, the plains averaging four thousand to five thousand feet above the sea, while the mountain-tops rarely rise more than a thousand feet higher. The climate is pleasant, the seasons being about like those of southern Texas.

The capital city, Chihuahua, has a large mixed population: English is as much spoken as Spanish, and many American enterprises and manufactories give it an air of progress. It is distinctly a mining State. Numerous and important exploitations of silver ore has been made for many years. The mines of Chihuahua have been celebrated for centuries. The most important are Batopilas, Santa Eulalia, Parral, Cerro Colorado and Minas Nuevas. Santa Eulalia is the famous mining camp to which Chihuahua owes its origin and prosperity. It is still one of the great silver-lead producers of the world. Batopilas became noted for its ruby silver at an early period, and is best known for both quality and quantity.

Batopilas has only about four thousand inhabitants and is located on the river of the same name, a mountain stream low and quiet during nine months in the year, but during the rainy season rising to a mighty torrent. Owing to the steady work in the mines this town is more advanced than others in the vicinity. The Batopilas mines are among the richest in the world, although in this State there are others which rank almost equally well.

In cattle-raising the State of Chihuahua is one of the most important. The temperate climate and the fertile fields serve to nourish thousands of head, which are shipped to points in the Republic and to the United States. The price of pasture lands is low, owing to much undeveloped land. The stock is thoroughly healthy and the government maintains a strict quarantine on all imported animals.

The ride over the Mexican Central route down through Chihuahua furnishes an ever-changing series of infinitely interesting views. The distant heights are rich in mineral dyes and exquisite in outline. Through some break in the hills one catches a glimpse of an exquisite valley with slanting sunlight streaming across it. Silent faraway cities, forests of cacti and yucca plants, and a host of brilliant flowers are always fleeting backward until the approach to Chihuahua brings one to the first distinctly Mexican city. Purpled mountains are in the distance below, two large steeples of the cathedral dominate the landscape, and low flat roofed houses lie along the reddish horizon with a truly oriental effect.

Inside the city streets, long colonnades with arches outside the houses offer shelter from the mid-day sun, and the outer walls are frescoed in pastel colors. Broad stone seats with high backs line the principal streets while clumps of Mexican aloes and prickly cacti hedge the roadway.

The Cathedral faces the beautiful Plaza de la Constitucion. It was completed in 1789, being under construction about fifty years. There is a barbaric richness of ornamentation about the façade of this beautiful edifice, carved in solid stone by native artists. Within its sacred portals and under the flickering lights of the altars many troubled souls find solace.

Chihuahua was founded in 1698, but the town proper was not built until 1718, and it was elevated to the dignity of a city in 1824. Its principal public buildings are monuments of art and industry. The governor’s palace is a gray stone building covering a square, with wide balconies and a large courtyard. It is not only a handsome building but it is furnished with an elegance and a refinement of taste that is so indicative of the Mexican people. Most Mexican towns are built in the Mexican style with plazas and garden spots and one-storied houses, but in this city there are evidences of the foreigner and it has the appearance of some of the Texan cities. In the Plaza de Hidalgo is a monument commemorating the execution on the spot of the first heroes of Mexican independence.

As the scene of several historical events Chihuahua has many monuments to the nation’s heroes. The city is very much Americanized: banking houses and investment companies are well organized institutions.

There are hospitals, houses of correction, military schools and the State Normal School, which has a very high standard of education. A technical or industrial school for young ladies has been of great benefit to young women who are called upon to support themselves by their own efforts, and it is one of the prides of the city.

Public education receives much attention and is conducted in a most progressive manner. Among the most important schools are the Scientific and Literary Institute, which consists of preparatory, special and professional courses. There are also departments of commercial, industrial, mechanical, mining and farming and these embrace a very practical course of learning.

In Ciudad Juarez, a school of agriculture has been installed under the supervision of the Government.

Industry is taking a firm hold in the State. All enterprises have the full encouragement and protection of the government. There are several smelters, a brewery, ice and gaseous water factory, canneries, and iron and steel foundries. Arts and crafts establishments abound in all the smaller cities.

Chihuahua has the honor of being represented in the Cabinet by Señor Don Enrique C. Creel, who was formerly the Mexican ambassador to Washington, and the governor of the State. His administration was noted for the manner in which he endeavored to elevate the Indians, and create in them an ambition to become good and useful citizens, to own land and cultivate it. He was called to Mexico to fill the place of the late Señor Mariscal.

Shortly after leaving Chihuahua one approaches the smelting works of the celebrated Santa Eulalia mine, which was discovered in 1703, and not far away is a great hacienda comprising more than sixty thousand acres of fine land. On that estate is an adobe palace two hundred feet long and one hundred and twenty-five feet wide. The gates and pillars are of cut stone, finely carved by natives. It has beautiful towers at the angles and a patio within that is as large as the plaza of some towns and much more attractive. This hacienda has a yearly crop of seventy-five thousand bushels of wheat and of twenty-five thousand bushels of corn.

Agriculture was once the great resource of the State, but has given place to mining. Farming is carried on in a primitive way. The land is rich and all kind of fruits grow in abundance. Alfalfa produces several crops a year. Fine timber is found on the mountain slopes.

Escalon is the junction point with the Mexican Northern Railway running to the great mining districts of Sierra Mojada, seventy-eight miles east of one of the largest carbonate camps in the world.

Paso del Norte, now known as Ciudad Juarez in this State, is the connecting link between El Paso, Texas, and the republic. It gets its name from Benito Juarez, the first president of Mexico and during the occupation of Mexico City by Maximilian it was the seat of government.

The people of this city have stood foremost and served as an example for their patriotism and loyalty and it was to them that Benito Juarez owed his great assistance of food and money in 1865, when the Liberal cause was passing through dark and uncertain times.

One of the most interesting spots in the State of Chihuahua is Casas Grandes, a town of a few thousand inhabitants on the San Miguel River. This place is noted for its ruined houses, which are probably the relics of some Indian metropolis. The main features seem to have been three large structures connected by ranges of corridors or low apartments and enclosing several courtyards of various dimensions. The extent from north to south is eight hundred feet, and from east to west two hundred and fifty feet. A range of narrow rooms, lighted by circular openings near the top, and having enclosures three or four feet high in one corner, supposed to be granaries, extends along one of the main walls. Many of the apartments are very large, and some of the enclosures are too vast ever to have been covered by a roof. About two hundred feet west of the main building are three mounds of loose stone, which may have been burial places, and two hundred feet west of these are the remains of a building one story high and one hundred and fifty feet square, consisting of a number of apartments ranged around a square court. For twenty leagues along the Casas Grandes and Llanos rivers are found artificial mounds from which have been dug up stone axes, corn grinders and various articles of pottery, such as pipes, jars, pitchers, etc., of a texture far superior to that made by the Mexicans of the present day, and generally ornamented with angular figures of blue, red, brown, and black, on a red or white ground. The best specimens command a high price in Chihuahua and neighboring towns. On the summit of a mountain about ten miles from Casas Grandes are the remains of an ancient stone fortress which may have been intended as a lookout.

Santa Rosalia is famous for its hot springs, which for curative properties are claimed by those who have used these waters, to excel any known springs in America. They are especially noted for their wonderful properties in cases of inflammatory rheumatism and all blood and skin diseases.

Jimenez is a city of about nine thousand inhabitants and is the railway shipping point for the rich silver mines of the Parral and Guanacevi districts. Archæologists find this town interesting on account of the enormous meteorites found here. The greatest ones picked up are now in the National School of Mines in Mexico City.