USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 12
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
MINER, THORNE AND ADAMS DIGGINGS
The largest exploring and prospecting expedition Arizona ever has known since the days of Coronado, originated on the tale of a prospector named Miner. He claimed that he was the only survivor of a party that had found wonderful placer diggings somewhere near a hat-shaped hill over beyond the Tonto Basin. From a single shovelful of earth had been panned seventeen ounces of gold. In May, 1871, he was in Prescott, coming with several companions from Nevada, and in that month reached Phoenix from the North with about thirty men. The point of rendezvous was near old Fort Grant, where were collected 267 men, divided into five companies. At the head of the Prescott party was Ed. Peck, discoverer of the famous Peck mine at Alexandria. Other members were, "Bob" Groom, the noted pioneer; Al Sieber, the foremost Indian campaign scout of the Southwest, Willard Rice and Dan O'Leary. Governor A. P. K. Safford commanded the recruits from Tucson and was elected commander-in- chief of the party at the camp near Grant. From Tucson and Sonora came two large companies of Mexicans. From Grant the march was to the Gila, up the San Carlos and thence to Salt River. There was found the hat-shaped moun- tain, since known by the name of Sombrero Butte, and the men prospected widely through the Tonto Creek and Cherry Creek valleys, and over the Sierra Anchas. Returning down Cherry Creek, the prospecting was continued up the Pinto Creek and Pinal Creek valleys. Finally in disgust the different parties separated at Wheatfields and returned to their homes. Miner, at the time, was thought to have been mistaken in his bearings, but members of the party later became convinced that he was merely a liar.
Possibly connected with the Miner tale that led Safford and his party very far afield, was the lost Thorne mine. This story was based on the adventures of a young surgeon named Thorne, who, having cured the eye troubles of a couple of Apaches at a post whereat he was stationed, was induced to visit the Vol. 11-6
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Indian village where there was an epidemic of the same disorder. He was blindfolded, a procedure that usually obtained in stories of this sort, and event- ually reached the village, not knowing its direction. After he had conquered the epidemic, he was placed upon a horse and taken to a deep rock-walled cañon facing a high ledge of quartz that glittered with flecks of gold. Below, in the sand of the wash, was almost a pavement of gold nuggets. Thorne pre- tended that the find was of little value, but furtively took all the bearings he could. In the distance he saw a high mountain, crowned with a peculiar rocky formation like a gigantic thumb turned backward (a description that might fit Sombrero Butte) to the eastward of the Cherry Creek Valley. Though the Indians pressed handfuls of the nuggets upon him, Thorne still persisted in his pose that the stuff was worthless and refused to take any, convinced that he could again find the treasure. He led two expeditions into the country, but found no less than four such formations such as he had marked, and the bonanza never was discovered, and Thorne afterwards was denounced as an impostor. It is a fact, however, that the Cibicu Indians of the Cherry Creek Valley knew of the existence of some rich placer field. On one occasion, Alchisay is known to have pawned a nugget worth $500 for $10 worth of supplies, and later to have redeemed the gold, of which he seemed to know the full value.
In the desert somewhere west of Yuma, many expeditions have searched for the lost "Peg-Leg" mine, said to have been discovered by a one-legged indi- vidual named Smith, about forty years ago. Some there were who thought the mine in Arizona, but whatever its location, it has never been found, and may have been only in the imagination of a rum-soaked prospector.
Prominent among the "lost mines" stories of Northern Arizona was that of the "Adams Diggings." Most indefinite are the details, and the various locations indicated lie anywhere from the Colorado River through to Globe. Adams, understood to have been a San Bernardino colony Mormon, in 1886 heard from a Mexican a story of a rich gold deposit, and forming a party of twenty-two, struck eastward to a point supposed to have been near Fort Apache, where the "Diggings" were found. The story continues that after working for a while, eleven of the party started for the Pima villages for supplies. They failed to return and nine more, driven by impending hunger, took the same trail, leaving in camp only Adams and two others. The three, finally driven out by famine, started out and found on their trail, the bodies of all their comrades, who had been murdered by Apaches. The trio appear to have suc- ceeded in returning safely to San Bernardino and, in 1875, to have started, as members of a party of twelve, to return to the lost bonanza. Jas. C. Bell, later of Globe, with two companions joined this party near Prescott and were made members, while four more joined at Fort Verde. The lapse of time had made Adams very uncertain in his location, but he remembered that it was in a deep cañon running in an easterly direction, at a point where a gold ledge was sharply defined on the sides of the gulch, and near two black buttes. Search was made down as far as the Gila, near San Carlos and thence up to the headwaters of the Gila and back again to Fort Apache, but there was no success, and still undiscovered are the ashes of an old cabin wherein Adams told Bell, was buried gold dust worth at least $5,000.
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MINING THE INVESTOR, NOT THE MINE
However rich Arizona mines have been, there is a suspicion that, before the days of copper, their net proceeds would hardly equal the amount of money furnished by ignorant investors toward the development of prospects that have never amounted to anything. Still worse, many of these enterprises have been most unblushing frauds, the money stolen from the unwary after advertising campaigns that claimed enormous richies for the mine that happened to serve as bait, used by schemers, who found their victims in the eastern states of the Union. Today such work would hardly be done, for the United States authori- ties keep close watch upon any extravagant advertising, and make investigation as to the basis of the claim. One of the frauds in 1899 grew to such large pro- portions that Gov. N. O. Murphy considered it his duty to issue a formal letter of warning, addressed to outside investors in Arizona mines. This letter brought down a storm of protest, and Murphy was accused of a jealous desire to ruin Arizona mining. Within a few months, however, it was demonstrated that his action had been dictated by a true sense of local patriotism, The particular swindle to which he referred was the Spenazuma mining project, developed by "Doc" Flowers, who already had made an enormous fortune in the sale of proprietary medicines. The Spenazuma, which was exploited as the greatest mine in the world, was in Graham County and was a very ordinary mine indeed. Ore samples that were sent east and that were piled on the mine dump for the inspection of committees of stockholders were brought from other mines of far greater value in the Black Rock district.
The exposé came through a newspaper man, Geo. H. Smalley of Tucson, who furnished Governor Murphy with the information that led to the publicity given. But Flowers sold stock, at advanced prices, even after his methods had been shown up in eastern journals. Flowers could not buy Smalley off and soon thereafter had to quit operations in the Southwest.
One amusing feature of Flowers' operations on the Spenazuma was a fake stage hold-up, thoughtfully provided for the benefit of a number of prospective investors. He hired a number of cowboys to hold up the caravan of coaches, but the defenders succeeded in driving off the bandits, who, later, however, couldn't keep from joyously narrating the features of their employment. Flowers was a man of true Wallingford stripe and found opportunity for mak- ing money on every corner. In 1890, while under indictment on a charge of selling fraudulent stock, and while under bond for $50,000, he floated in Phila- delphia a company for the promotion of a method of making gold. He was arrested on several charges of grand larceny, but he succeeded in escaping to Canada. Slow-footed justice at last came to him, as late as December of 1914. After extradition from Canada, he went to trial at an eastern point, and at the age of 70 years was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. If he had stolen a pig his sentence would, probably, have been at least five years.
In 1892 Dr. H. H. Warner of Rochester, New York, an individual famed for his observatory, his bitters and his pills, bought of John Lawler and Judge Ed Wells the Hillside group of mines in southwestern Yavapai County, paying $50,000 cash on the price of $450,000. The property then was stocked under the name of the Seven Stars Gold Mining Company. Ordinary stock was sold at $1 a share, but beyond this was issued a block of 100,000 shares at $5, on which
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Warner, then believed worth millions, personally guaranteed annual dividends at 13 per cent. Warner failed soon afterward and the bubble burst and the mine, with much added development, went back to the sellers, despite the protests of the stockholders.
In clearing up the affairs of the George A. Treadwell Mining Company, which had a weird sort of reduction plant near Humboldt, it was claimed by stockholders that the promoters of the company on stock sales aggregating about $1,000,000 had cleared up a "profit" of $500,000, while not more than $100,000 had been spent on the property. One of the promoters, a New York lawyer, was said to have been paid counsel's fees of $36,000.
One Eastern firm of brokers secured bonds or options on a number of Yavapai County mines, of the "has-been" class, of former leaders in the silver production of Arizona. These old mine workings were cleaned out to an extent. and some of the eleverest of advertising, mainly beautifully printed circulars and letters, was sent broadcast, inviting investment, while plans of the most gorgeous description were announced of reduction works that would make rich the miners of the entire country. But little was done after the stock-selling campaigns. With a stock seller it mattered little whether his mine had any worth or not. He never did more mining than was necessary to make a show- ing for his campaign. This condition,. however, never has been peculiar to Ari- zona. Such schemes were worked much more generally, and with even greater success to the promoters, during the days of mining activity in Alaska and Nevada.
One individual who had a mine near Prescott issued a unique prospectus full of quotations from the Bible and of glittering generalities coneerning the wealth that was to be secured in the marvelous mine exploited, which later seems to have dropped from the public eye. Within the prospectus appears the following gem :
Come, little brother, and sit on my knee, And both of us wealthy will grow, you see ; If you will invest your dollars with me, I will show you where money grows on the tree.
One early-day promoter issued a prospectus wherein was set forth, "experts agree that sheet gold will be struck at no great depth." A three-foot vein usually was enlarged to a 100-foot dyke and few of these writers permitted their ore to run less than $100 to the ton. Some of them, even far down in Sonora, were declared on the same mineral belt as the United Verde and dime-novel tales usually were recited concerning the discovery of these wondrous bonanzas.
Early in 1899 there was excitement along the Grand Cañon, where had been staked out a large area of the lime-carbonate capping of the region as valuable for platinum. The bubble was punctured by Prof. W. P. Blake, director of mines of the Territorial University, who after careful assays reported that the "ore" sent him was a carbonate, containing only silica, calcium, magnesia, iron and a little alumina. Not a trace of platinum could be found, though similar roek elsewhere submitted was reported to have returned values of $300 a ton in platinum. While deploring the influence of his report upon the prospectors who thought they had found wealth, he said, "the people of Arizona generally
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do not propose to profit by ignorance, pretense or misrepresentation." It is probable that the excitement all started through efforts made to assure trail holdings down into Cataract Cañon.
Another notable swindle was that of the Two Queens and Mansfield Mining companies. The former had several prospects, near Winkelman, about 100 . miles southeast of Phoenix. The latter had a mine in the Patagonia district of Santa Cruz County. The Post Office department secured the arrest of several Kansas City (Missouri) stock brokers, who had been selling shares in the two companies, by means of extravagant full-page advertising. As is usual in such cases, strong defense was made on the basis of testimony taken in Arizona, but the defendants finally were convicted and were sent to jail in May, 1909, though, as usual in such cases, they received relatively light sentences.
Another typical instance concerned a temporary resident of Wickenburg, Arizona, who had bought a mining claim a few miles from that town. He sold at least $100,000 worth of stock in several villages along the Hudson, near West Point, and, in order to show his good faith, brought out a Pullman carload of selected stockholders to view the wonderful mine from which he was to make them fortunes. The mine was viewed, he being the only witness testifying con- cerning its richness, more stock was subscribed on the spot and the party went rolling eastward convinced. The following day, Sheriff Hayden of Maricopa County appeared on the same ground with an attorney and formally sold, under a judgment of debt, all the property owned by the promoter or his company in that vicinity. Hayden ever since has been filled with regret that he permitted the attorney to delay him one day on the sale, or he would have been on the ground at the same time as the investors' party.
THE GREAT DIAMOND SWINDLE
A company with a capital of $10,000,000 was organized in San Francisco in 1872 for the exploitation of a diamond field somewhere north of Fort Defiance in Northeastern Arizona. The reputed discoveries of the field were a couple, Arnold and Slack, who exhibited in New York and San Francisco some mag- nificent rough diamonds and some very good rubies. The San Francisco com- pany included a number of the wealthiest men of the city, of large experience in a mining way. They sent out some agents who returned with more diamonds, picked up from the surface of the ground. Just the location of the find was disputed, however, for it was told that locations made north of Fort Defiance were merely for the purpose of diverting attention, when in reality the field whence the diamonds came was south of the Moqui villages. The whole scheme was a fraud on a gigantic scale. It was uncovered by Clarence King, the noted western geologist, who first demonstrated that the diamonds were not of the same character, bearing characteristics both of the South African and Brazilian fields. King visited the Arizona field and confirmed his own belief that it had been salted with stones brought from abroad. It is probable that the two "dis- coverers" were merely tools of much more wealthy men, who expected not only to get back the gems that had been "planted," but to sell stock to the unwary small investor. There was another fake diamond "discovery" down on the Gila, not far from Yuma, but this was on a much smaller scale and excitement died even more quickly.
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A BASKET SOON EMPTIED
One of the few ephemeral boom camps of Arizona was Quijotoa, sixty-five miles west of Tucson, by the side of a mountain shaped like a basket, the name coming from the Papago word, "kiho," meaning basket. The first locations were made early in 1879 at the bottom of the hill, renamed Ben Nevis by the Scottish Alexander McKay, one of the pioneers. May 11, 1883, Chas. Horn or Mckay discovered rich croppings at the summit of the hill and then the excite- ment began. It was claimed that five tons of the ore gave a return of $2,500 at the Benson smelter. Tunnels were started into the hillside to cut the ledge at depth, but failed, for there was no ledge. In the language of a San Francisco mining man, the deposit was "merely a scab on top of the mountain." Mckay did give a hond on the property to the Flood-Fair-Mackey-O'Brien syndicate of San Francisco at a price of $150,000, but the option was not taken up at maturity. A half-dozen companies were formed in San Francisco, each with ten million dollars capitalization, for the working of the Quijotoa mines, and the news went broadcast that in Arizona had been found another Comstock. As a result, thousands of men flocked in, despite warnings that the mines were only in the development stage. Around the original Logan townsite were four or five additions. In January, 1884, at Quijotoa, were only a couple of tents, ten miles from water. Two months later, several thousand people had come and there were many marks of a permanent town, including a weekly newspaper, "The Prospector," published by Harry Brook. The time the boom broke is indicated best by the fact that the printing office was moved to Tucson in the fall of 1884. Soon thereafter, J. G. Hilzinger of Tucson bought the mines, a mill that had been moved over from Harshaw, and all the other property of the principal corporation for $3,000.
CHAPTER XXXIII MINES, PIONEER AND MODERN
Mohave was First in the North-The Old Vulture-Romance of the Silver King-Ed. Schieffelin and the Discovery of Tombstone-Riches of the United Verde-Desert Bonanzas-How the Vekol Was Found.
Following the line of least resistance, much prospecting was done in the late '50s northward from Yuma along the Colorado. Placers were worked only fifteen miles above the Gila at the Potholes, about where the present Laguna dam has been placed. The old town of La Paz owed its existence to placer min- ing in the gulches to the eastward. Forty miles above Fort Yuma, in 1858, a prospector named Halstead discovered the Colorado River copper mine, claimed as very rich, though it failed to stand the test of time. Several tons of ore were shipped to San Francisco, and the property was bought from Halstead by Wil- cox, Johnson & Hartshorn, who owned a steamer plying on the Colorado, and with whom were associated Hooper, a Fort Yuma merchant, and Lieutenant Mowry.
Twelve miles east of the Colorado and a short distance from Bill Williams Fork lies the Planet, one of the oldest copper mines of Arizona and one that still shows signs of activity. It was worked as early as 1863 by a San Francisco company, which for a while operated two small furnaces on oxide and carbonate ores and which proposed shipment of ore by sailing vessels from the Colorado's mouth to Swansea, at a cost estimated at $25 a ton, for ore that averaged $300 a ton. Heavy ore shipments were made to San Francisco. The Springfield company also operated a copper furnace about the same time on ore from the Orion mine.
In 1856 Lieutenant Humphries reported he had found gold, silver, copper and lead in the country east of the Colorado on the northern road.
Judge Jas. M. Sanford, with John Brown of San Bernardino, built the first ferry at the Mojave crossing of the Colorado in 1861, and in the fall of the following year left the river with twelve men to hunt for gold diggings heard of to the westward. Only four of the expedition are said to have returned. Sanford spent his last days at Williams.
The Mojave Mountains again were explored in the summer of 1863 by a party headed by Chas. W. Strong, representing New York capital. The same region was visited and discussed scientifically the following summer by B. Silli- man. The San Francisco District of Mojave County is one of the oldest in Northern Arizona and early in the '60s small mills had been erected at Hardy- ville for handling gold ores. Early established was the Wauba-Yuma mining
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district, twenty miles east of Hardyville. The name given was that of an Indian chief. Howard Coit, later for years caller of the San Francisco Stock Exchange, was recorder of Wauba-Yuma District and owned one of the very few claims that have endured.
EARLY-DAY MOJAVE MINING DISTRICTS
The miners of Northwestern Arizona in the early sixties were soldiers from Camp Mojave, off on brief furlough, or discharged soldiers of the California Column. That they were men of education and of mining experience is shown by the records they kept, still available, stored in the neat recorder's office at Kingman. The official pioneer records at Kingman probably are the best pre- served in all the state.
As early as January 1, 1863, there had been a meeting of miners of Colorado district, held in the San Juan Company's office at El Dorado Cañon. The dis- trict was organized at a meeting January 8. William Caley was elected presi- dent and reference made to the election of a Mr. Lewis as recorder, to fill an unexpired term that began June 1, 1862, showing prior action along the same line. There had been 661 locations in this district by the end of 1863.
November 13, 1863, there was a meeting of miners at Soldiers' Springs, whereat George Okey was elected chairman and John Comerford, secretary, and there was formed San Francisco Mining District, running twenty-five miles along the Colorado and fifty miles to the eastward. Each locator was granted a claim 200 feet long and 150 feet on each side of the lode. It was ordered that thie books of the district be kept at Fort Mojave or at Silver Creek, "the posi- tion of the district being in an Indian country and away from protection." Robt. A. Rose was elected the first recorder. On the last day of the same year, Rose was succeeded by W. Walter. Within the district the first claim record was the Nevada Lode, November 23, 1863, the locators John Comerford, George Okey, W. S. Pearson and Robt. A. Rose. A number of locations were made along this same Nevada lode, by the Union, Lincoln, Todd, Hancock, Stanley and other companies, some of the appended names being R. C. Drum, De Witt Titus, D. J. Williamson, John Stark, W. E. Strong, J. I. Fitch, R. P. Nason, Charles Atchison, John Murray, D. W. Ridley. Sixty claims had been placed of record by the close of the year. The first deed was from W. B. Jeffries to M. G. Moore and A. E. Davis, both parties resident at Fort Mojave, conveying for the sum of $95 the Union original location.
Now included within the Oatman District is the old Moss mine, located by John Moss in 1863 and now under bond to the United States Smelting and Refining Company. The surface ores were very rich. Two tons taken out in 1865 returned the owners $185,000. In latter days golden riches have been uncovered in the Tom Reed and Gold Roads mines. The croppings of the latter in the River Range Pass were crossed by the main road that ran westward to Fort Mojave and Hardyville, but it was not till years afterward that the mine was located by José Jerez, a Mexican prospector, "grub-staked" by Henry Lovin of Kingman. They sold for $50,000, but the mine thereafter has pro- duced annually not less than ten times its cost.
Some time before 1874 there were two small smelting furnaces at Chloride, in that year one of them already being reported in ruins. Lode mining at
EARLY PLACER WORKINGS NEAR PRESCOTT
POLAND TUNNEL, NEAR PRESCOTT Eight thousand feet in length
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Chloride Flat was started as early as 1864 on claims at Silver Hill, but it is told that the first miners, three in number, were killed by Haulpais, one mur- dered at the windlass and the two others stoned to death in the shaft. Other miners in the same locality were killed or driven off and for a few years mining in Mohave County was considered a rather unhealthful occupation. One of the smelters at Chloride was the Baker furnace, placed close to the Schuylkill claims. The mines around Cerbat were worked as early as 1863, at date that gave the name to the Sixty-three mine, two miles northwest of the camp. . In 1857 the first effective quartz mill in the county was built by Davis & Randall, near Hackberry, on a mine that had been discovered in October, 1874, by Wil- liam Ridenour, S. Crozier and two others. They had been prospecting in the Grand Cañon and, after attack by the Indians and losing all but their lives, managed to reach Mineral Park, thereafter to discover the Hackberry claim, one of the richest of the early mines. Another little mill was started at Mineral Park on Washington's Birthday in 1876.
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