From the earliest times, surface ore in this area attracted Native Americans, who used the natural copper to make ornaments, trade goods, and weapons. In 1799, during the Spanish colonial period, an Apache Indian showed Jose Manuel Carrasco an outcrop of copper. Carrasco, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Spanish army, staked a claim and began to mine the copper in 1801. Don Francisco Manuel de Elguea, a wealthy Chihuahua merchant, purchased most of the mining claims from Carrasco in 1804. Soon, caravans of pack mules and wagon trains took the copper to Chihuahua City, a distance of 400 miles, where it was used in the Mexican mint. Elguea died in 1806, but his estate controlled the property for more than half a century. For nearly 200 years, miners, geologists, and engineers found this great ore body both fascinating and frustrating.