The Story of Santo Domingo
Below is the story of one of Peru's most fabulous goldmines. There have been plenty of heroes and villains involved along the way (some people even laying claim to both titles).
First Hand Accounts
| Purchase of the mine | The story of WL Hardison's purchase of the mine. |
| High in the Andes | The Josephine Wood tells the story of the mine. |
| Gordon W. Sharpe | An adventuous young Canadian visits the mine in 1965. |
Chronology
| 1890 | Quechua Indian, Mariano Quispe, searching for cinchona "fever bark" (the source of quinine) and gold in the region of the upper Inambari River discovered a large nugget on a tributary called the Huaynatacuma. Quispe, returned to his village of Macusani and showed the nugget to a local merchant, Francisco Velasco. |
| 1890 | Velasco and a wealthy acquantance, Manuel Estrada, offered Quispe four head of cattle to show them the discovery site. The return to the site took ten days. Quispe, was never seen alive again. His family never received the livestock. During the following dry season the merchants constructed a small stamp mill on an artificial flat. They named the mine Santo Domingo for Sunday when Quispe had first seen his reflection in a golden mirror. During one three-month period Velasco and Estrada took from two of their four tunnels more than 12,000 ounces. |
| 1896 | W.L. Hardison of Union Oil and Chester Brown, went to Peru to scout out an oil field. They decided not to pursue the oil prospects but heard about a fabulous gold prospect in the north of the Puno department. The prospect turned out to be of little value, but they passed a small working gold mine on the way called the Santo Domingo. They stopped on their way back and recognized the richness of the site. The owners were offered $360,000 for the mine, which was accepted. |
| 1908 | The Peruvian government offered Inca Mining Co. 2 million acres of land along the Tambopata River, as long as they constructed a mule road from Tirapata to Astillero (the highest navigable point on the Tambopata). By 1908 the road was completed. |
| 1909 or 1910 | Chester Brown gave up his position of General Manager and returned to the United States. |
| 1914 | C. P. Collins sold the major portion of shares for the Inca Mining Company to another partner from Bradford, Senator Lewis Emery (1839-1924). When Emery took over the mine he was 75 years old. He lived and worked at the Santo Domingo himself, often attending the duties of a common miner or pushing the laden ore cars. Emery died in 1924. |
| 1927 | Clarence Woods, a US mining engineer and manager of a tin mine in Bolivia, was returning by train with his wife from a vacation in Cuzco, Peru and heard about the mine. Woods inspected the mine six months later and found it ‘right and good’ but thought the operation inefficient. He tendered an offer to Emery’s family. Woods’ employer was not interested but Emery’s descendents accepted his terms; so Woods took the option himself. In July 1928 Clarence Woods arrived at the Santo Domingo. After twenty-two months the mine was paid for and Woods had $60,000 in the bank. |
| c. 1940 | Clarence Woods turned over the Santo Domingo mine to his son Clarence "Lee" Woods and returned to the States in the early 40s. |
Last updated October 9, 2012