Pictures of claim areas

C:    Laguna Agate
    3.     Pictures of claim areas
        a. El Puerto (El Conejeros)

The name Conejeros refers to a particular area on the El Puerto claim. It means rabbit holes or rabbit borrows and refers to the many tunnels excavated by hand years ago in search of agates found there. The El Puerto claim is in the north center part of mountains that contain the Laguna agate -- see map C-1. The Conejeros area is on a steep slope just over the saddle ridge on the east side of the mountains. It was first mined with equipment in 1995. This area produced some of the finest Laguna agate ever seen in 1995 and 1996. The mining area has been expanded since then and is still producing agate but not of the quality that was produced the first two years.

This picture shows the initial excavation soon after the rediscovery of good agate here.
Here is another view of the Conejeros mine at the height of its production in 1996. At one point, there were over 20 laborers working here.
Here are some workers at Conejeros in 1996 digging more dangerous tunnels, just as they did years ago.
All in a day's work. Piles of agates one worker produced from his hole.
Here is another area of the El Puerto claim known as "Tamales". The area is known as "Tamales" because the workers always ate tamales for lunch there.

C:    Laguna Agate
    3.     Pictures of claim areas
         b. La Alianza

The Alianza claim is in the center of the cluster of 13 Laguna Agate claims (see map C-1). The Gem Shop, Inc. has had a working relationship with the owners of this claim for many years. The agate from this claim is known for its fine banding. “Shadow Agate” or agate with parallax is quite common from this claim. Any color or color combination of banding can be found here. The general size range tends to be smaller on the Alianza claim than on most of the other claims.

Here's Gene, the owner of The Gem Shop, inspecting one of the typical old tunnel workings dug in the 60’s. This picture was taken in 1996.
This is the same area as the photo above several years later. All of the work done here up to this point has been done by hand.
With some engineering and wheelbarrows, large amounts of rock were removed from the side of the mountain in order to get safely to the agate deposit. At one point in 1999 ten workers labored an entire month and did not produce any agate – a testament to the miners who work here. At most claims, workers are paid only for what they produce, which does not encourage engineering efforts.
In 2000 a small dozer was brought in to help remove overburden.
Here is a view from the top looking down on the workings
Here is another view of the Alianza mine from the other side of the arroyo.