born in england, he first went to australia where he was unsuccessful, then he came to the american southwest. pye was working as a teamster hauling goods for the u.s. army when he recognized the greyish mineral weathering out of the rock in a remote canyon as silver chloride or chlorargyrite. he finished his contract, filed a claim and started mining, only to be killed a few months later by the mimbres apache. but his mine continued under new management and the town of chloride, new mexico was founded in the canyon.