Baking Powder mine

The Baking Powder mine is located in Big Rosa canyon about two miles west of the Rosedale mine. There were many prospects in this area with some workings, but none yielded any significant production.

The Mining Reporter journal (Vol. XLVI No. 1, 1902) announced the formation of the Baking Powder mine in late 1901 with $75,000 of startup capital. The listed owners were R. Jackson, H.F. Ketter), A.N. Edwards and W.W. Edwards, all investors in El Paso, Texas.

A.N. Edwards (Ambrose Newton Edwards, 1871-1963) and W.W. Edwards (Walter White Edwards, 1870-1938) were brothers being about 31 and 32 years old when the prospect began. Walter Edwards moved to Rosedale late 1901 to serve as the mine manager; brother Ambrose and the other investors remained in El Paso.

In May 1902, Edwards reported ore from the bottom of their 70 foot shaft assayed at $46 per ton and very encouraged. By August, the shaft had been extended to 100 feet deep with drifts in two directions following a vein four feet in width. The ore dump contained an estimated $9,000 worth of gold ore awaiting processing. Building a smelter is being considered by the venture if profits hold.

The Baking Powder mine was described in the Santa Fe New Mexican on December 19, 1902:

Most of the mines on these SCHS Mining pages are those that were successful and produced paying ores, or at least had some measure of success. With successful mines came prospectors hoping to also "strike it rich." In some cases, mining companies were formed and investors secured to finance a mining operation riding on the reputation of the nearby successful mines. Many of these failed to find or produce paying ore, while others failed by simply exhausting the investors money, whether intentionally or through mismanagement. The Baking Powder mine seemed one such mining enterprise.

Mine Sale. On Sept. 27, 1908, Socorro County Sheriff Anicito Abeytia

held a Sheriff's sale at the front door of the court house. Up for public auction was "all the right, title and interest of the said defendants in and to the Baking Powder Mine and Mining Claims situated in the Rosedale Mining District." The result of the sale was not reported. There may have been no bidders, often the case with a known bankrupt mine with no promise of paying ore. Walter Edwards likely did not recover his losses, only receiving full title to the property and to the insolvent mine.

A bit later, another Sheriff's sale was held to satisfy Samuel Graham's suit. This sale sold most of the equipment remaining at the Baking Powder mine site. Again, the result of the sale was not reported nor the equipment put up for sale.

It should be noted that during this time, there were numerous notices of Sheriff's sales in the Socorro Chieftain to satisfy judgements against other failed mining ventures in Socorro, Kelly, and Mogollon. During the boom days of mining, a lot of people made a lot of money. A lot of people also lost a lot of money in the early 1900s as many mines went into decline or promising mining ventures ended up being only speculative claims.

Following these two Sheriff's sales in late 1908, the Baking Powder mine was no more. There are no production figures for the venture, but the history of the mine suggests very little paying gold was mined and produced.

The incorporation charter indicated the headquarters was in El Paso, Texas with an office in Rosedale, New Mexico Territory. The three Board members of the newly formed corporation were W.R. Jackson and the two Edwards brothers.

To investors, incorporation was usually a sign the venture was sitting on profitable ore. The initial offering of $600,000 (about $1.8 million today) further implied they found the "mother lode" for substantial profits and dividends. Shortly after incorporation and an influx of investors, mine manager Walter Edwards reported he would soon be hiring to put a force of men on the property.

There were other prospects in Big Rosa Canyon hoping to tap into the same rich vein the Baking Soda mine seemed to have found. For example, immediately to the north was a prospect worked by Samuel Graham. By 1903 a 40 foot shaft had been sunk to reach the ore. The following year, he was working 100 feet deep, though no records of how much ore, if any, was worked. In 1905, Graham sold his prospect to the Baking Powder mine. It is not known if the Baking Powder mine worked this prospect any further.

Troubles Ahead. From 1905 until 1907, there was virtually no news on the operation of the Baking Powder mine or associated prospects like the periodic news reports from the other mines in the region. The silence ended in late 1907 when two lawsuits were filed against the Baking Powder Mine.

The first suit was published in the Socorro Chieftain, first appearing in the Oct. 5, 1907 issue and ran for several months. The suit was brought against the Baking Powder Mining Co. by mine manager Walter Edwards for $1,200 of unpaid wages and assessment costs. This was no doubt a difficult law suit to file as Walter Edwards was, in effect, suing his brother as one of the other principals in the company. Not paying your brother at least a year's wages was proof enough that the mining company was insolvent.

In 1908, another suit was brought against the company by Samuel Graham – the man who sold his prospect with the 100 foot deep shaft to the Baking Powder mine in 1905, for which he was never paid, or not paid in full for the sale.

Apparently, the Baking Powder Mining Co. of El Paso, Texas made no attempt to settle these claims, another indication the company had no money and producing no paying ore for some time. Mining ventures living off of investor money, even when it was clear the mine was not producing, was common fraud at the time. Regardless, the Baking Powder Mining Company was obviously insolvent with no available funds whether through fraud, mismanagement or poor allocation of funds. No newspaper articles in the Socorro Chieftain, Santa Fe New Mexican, or even the El Paso Herald, were found to further describe the lawsuits.