Many folks in the mid-to-late 1800’s had their sights set on getting rich by mining gold and silver. The California Gold Rush of 1849 is perhaps one of the most famous stories of its kind. It was that quick-cash mentality that brought nearly 10,000 residents (at its peak) to the nonexistent Tombstone, Arizona in the 1880’s.
In 1877, Pennsylvania-born Ed Schieffelin struck silver. He was a U.S. Army scout with an interest in prospecting precious metals. He left Camp Huachuca where he was stationed to pursue a hunch that he could mine silver twenty miles away. Fellow scouts teased that he would only find his tombstone if he went out on his own.
It was with good humor that he named his first silver mine Tombstone. The thriving town that dotted the landscape in the years following his discovery had the same name.
The still-standing Schieffelin Hall in Tombstone is named after the founder. You can even check out Edwin Shieffelin’s Monument/Gravesite.
The mining was easy and abundant. Only a shovel was needed. It’s estimated that roughly 32,000,000 ounces of silver were mined there (which amounts to a billion US dollars today).
Fires and murders were common. But the real difficulty that the miners faced was water. The lack of a secure supply would be the downfall of Tombstone’s mining. The San Pedro River was 10 miles from Tombstone, and hauling wagons of water with teams of horses and mules was incredibly difficult over the rough terrain.
The water in the mines also became a huge challenge. Until the pumps failed in 1889, they were removing 2.5 million gallons of water each day. The cost of pumping out water, along with the drop in value of silver during 1898-1900, became too much to continue. The mines fell to disuse until they reopened for twenty years at the turn of the century.
