Cowpunchers, sheep and goat herders to be trained to find minerals!

What?  Yes, this is an article that appeared in the Williams News, May 5, 1919. I have typed the full article here for your to read. “There is no business which offers better chances for finding a valuable mineral deposit than that of stock raising as followed on the Arizona ranges. These ranges located in the heart of the mining industry are certain to contain many, large, valuable mineral deposits which as yet have not been discovered and are only waiting to be found, opened up and thus make the fortunate discoverer independently wealthy.

The cowpuncher, sheep, or goat herder covers these mineralized sections and must know every foot of the country in which he is operating. These coupled with the fact that the stock take these men into draws, canyons, and other inaccessible places where the veins and mineral bodies are exposed so they can be easily seen and found. This makes the stock raising business a good line of business for finding valuable mineral deposits providing the stockman can recognize valuable mineral when he sees it.

To meet this demand from these up to date stockmen, the Arizona Bureau of Mines has arranged to give free lectures on how to test rocks so that any valuable metals that they contain can be detected. These lectures are to be given in the chief towns of Arizona and it will well repay all stockmen to attend.”

I scanned the rest of 1919 Williams News for any mention of the lectures and when and where they were held but came up empty handed. It leaves many questions unanswered like did the Arizona Bureau of Mines hold these lectures to teach how to determine if there were valuable metals in rocks that the cowpuncher, sheep or goat herder found, how many came to these lectures, where were the lectures or did the Bureau of Mines realize that this was a ludicrous idea? How many owners of sheep and goats would want their herders spending their days souring the landscape for minerals to test?  And if the cowpuncher, sheep or goat herder just happened to find such mineral wealth, wouldn’t they just go off, claim the mine for themselves, and leave their flocks that they were to watch and let the livestock to defend for themselves against predators?