Cochise College Student Papers in Geology
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Roger Weller, geology instructor
Tombstone, Arizona
Kathleen Pennington
Physical Geology
Fall 2006
Early Tombstone Geology
Tombstone “the town too tough to die” is thought of as a historical town of gunslingers. To me, its real toughness comes from the men who prospected and developed a product with worth enough to establish a town, the men in the field of mining. This area in the now Tombstone Hills was home to the Apache Indians whose base in the Dragoon Mts. was not far away. Depredations by the Apaches slowed down the area’s development in mining and ranching.
One man who did persist in spite of the Indians was Frederick Brunckow from Prussia. Working as a geologist in 1857, Brunckow ventured into the Huachuca Mts. He followed visible outcrops of mineralization on the east slopes of these mountains and followed them across the San Pedro Valley to the Tombstone Hills. Near the San Pedro River he discovered a 6-ft wide vein of argentiferous lead. With the help of the Williams brothers, a shaft was sunk, silver was found, and small town for 20 Sonoran laborers and their families developed. In 1860 this all ended when Brunckow was killed by 11 of his laborers.
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Arriving in 1877 at Ft. Huachuca when the Indians were still active, Edward Schieffelin began to prospect the eastern end of the San Pedro Valley. Soldiers and others warned him that he would only find his own tombstone in those hills. Schieffelin being persistent since a small boy kept following his dream of being a successful prospector. He began looking in the Mule Mt. canyons, but went on to the small hills 22 miles north where he found outcrops of silver chloride. Ed looked for mineralization with a rifle in one hand and pick in the other. For a while he was actually hired to protect men doing assessment work to keep up the Brunckow claim. From that vantage point he could see ledges in the hills running NW/SE.
He went on to find and claim two mines called…the Tombstone and the Graveyard. Going on to Tucson, he filed on the claims and looked for backing. As none was found, Ed next went to find his brother Al slowing down to do odd jobs to eat and shoe his burro. Al wasn’t too interested in the project but did introduce Ed to Dick Gird, a well respected, self-taught civil engineer and assayer. Dick became interested when assaying the specimens and talked Al into joining he and Ed in prospecting the Tombstone area.
Returning to the Tombstone area these three men went on to find the Lucky Cuss, Tough Nut, West Side, East Side, Ground Hog, Defense, Owl’s Nest, Good Enough, Tribute, & Contract Mines and then formed the Tombstone Mining District in 1878. Williams and Boyer found the best producer of the times, Grand Central and were to split with Schieffelin and Gird for free assay work. They reneged but when shot at gave the Contention Mine which became the 2nd best producer. Many more men came in to find mines, followed by the moneyed men to develop the area.
Mills sprang up in the area along the San Pedro River as Tombstone lacked water at its beginning. Milling began with the Washoe Process developed by the Janin brothers. Rock was pulverized into powder which water turned into paste; mercury (captured the silver and gold), salt and copper sulfate were then added; mercury was then heated and vaporized out of the amalgam; resultant gold and silver were melted into bricks of bullion. Later milling used the greatest innovation in the world of silver, cyanide processing.
Tombstone ores were varied and complex:
Oxidized lead carrying lead carbonate and wulfenite.
Oxidized lead-zinc ores carrying lead carbonates, zinc carbonate, zinc silicate.
Manganese ores carrying manganese oxide, low value lead carbonate.
Sulfide ores carrying galena, zinc blende, cuperferous iron pyrites.
Gold (mostly native) and Silver (horn silver).
As time went on problems arose. Mining got down to the water level (630 ft.) where they found most silver was above that level and gold was mainly below in sulfide ores. Now 4 compartments were needed per shaft – 2 to bring ore up and 2 for water pumping equipment. In 1909 6 million gallons of water a day were being expelled. All of this eventually led to bankruptcy of the Tombstone Consolidated Co. leading to Phelps Dodge buying out the mines. Other problems were fires and floods in the mines and town, closing of near by smelters, location of the mining town, fluctuation of ore prices and needs, wars, shafts needing retimbering, rising labor costs, state and federal imposed pollution and environmental standards, and on and on until mining was no longer feasible.
Edward Schieffelin’s perseverance led to the development of one of the most important silver mines in western history. Many famous mining and financial men followed him in leaving an important legacy and employment for many people. Although Ed and Al Schieffelin sold out their interests in 1881 for $600,000 ( Gird sold out the next year for a bit more), they left after helping to build, at that time ,the most important city in the Arizona territory, a city of 7,000-10,000 people. Ed went on to prospect other areas but chose to return his body to Tombstone for its burial in prospecting clothes, canteen, and pick. What a legacy one person can have! And why do we remember the town only by its gunslingers?
References:
Photos: Native Silver by George Weller
All other illustrations by Fay Loomis
Facts:
Destination
Tombstone by Edward Schieffelin, compiled by Marilyn F.Butler, 1996
History of Mining in Arizona, chapter 10 by Hollis Cook, 1987
History of Mining in Arizona volume 3, chapter 11 by Robert L. Spude, 1999
Images of America- Tombstone by Jane Eppinga, 2003
Tombstone, A.T. by Wm. B. Shillingberg, 1999
Tombstone, Arizona “Too Tough To Die” by Lynn R. Bailey, 2004
Other Internet resources:
http://econgeol.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/34/7/790
http://skywalker.cochise.edu/wellerr/geology-SEAZ/tombstone/Tombstone-list.htm
Cochise College
http://econgeol.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/33/6/675