TO THE MINERS

O THE MINERS! The men whose labors gave us this picturesque, industrious, progressive copper city-Bisbee.

Sixty years ago a tortuous canyon whose rocky tree-covered slopes, rising high on either side, gave no evidence of habitation; today it is a modern city whose quaint busy streets snake off with the contour of the mountain to their natural end, whose homes cling hazardously, grotesquely to the steep canyon slopes, tier above tier terraced toward the sky.

During the summer of 1877, three Indian Scouts from Camp Bowie were making their way through this isolated canyon. It was used as a pass by marauding Apaches, traveling from their haunts in the Chiricahua mountains on raids into the Sonora valleys of Mexico. The Scouts came upon a spring and decided to set camp. The water was not to their liking but poor water was better than no water so they drank it. They became ill from its effects.

Jack Dunn, one of the trio with a flare for prospecting, decided to search farther in hopes of finding better water and, incidentially, look the ground over. He wandered leisurely over the sides of the gulch. Suddenly he came upon a familiar formation. Upon close examination it proved to be an outcrop of rich looking ore. Hurrying to his companions, he displayed samples of his find. They immediately broke camp and hiked up the canyon, setting up at the new location. Incidentally, good water was found near at hand.

Next morning they staked claim, the first ever located in the gulch. They named it The Rucker, after Lieutenant Rucker, one of the trio.

Returning from Camp Bowie, Dunn immediately financed a grub stake, burros, and equipment for a miner and prospector named George Warren, and sent him to the gulch to prospect farther. It was agreed Dunn was to own half interest in any new claims located.

Two months later Warren staked the Mercy mine and filed the claim in his own name. Whether he kept his partnership agreement with Dunn is a matter of conjecture. Warren at any rate prospered; led a riotous life drinking and gambling. His newly acquired wealth soon was squandered. It is told he bet his entire holdings against a trivial sum he could run a certain distance up the rugged mountain side, afoot, faster than a man could get there horseback; and lost. He lived the remainder of his days in semi-poverty, the last few years on a pension from the mining company. Dunn seemed to have passed out of the picture of early Bisbee.

With news of these rich strikes came prospectors, and more prospectors. Soon a bustling camp was established, tents, shacks, and shelters of every description perched on the canyon slopes. The camp was named Mule Gulch, for the Mule Mountains which held these vast deposits of copper. Opinions differ as to the origin of the name. Some have it that so many wild mules in these hills in early days was the source of its name. A wagon train using thoroughbred stock supposedly was attacked by outlaws, the mules breaking away and mingling with the wild horses that roamed the area. Others say a formation in these mountains resembling the head of a mule is the reason for the name. Regardless of the origin, this peculiar name has ever been identified with these mountains.

With the influx of prospectors, more claims were staked. In December of 1877 the rich Malcro, named for one of its owners, was discovered. A year later the Malcro was relocated the Copper Queen, which later proved to be a part of the richest copper mine in the world. In

Paul Bunyan in Arizona

(Continued from Page 11) to be a fortunate choice. The head frame was a magnificent structure, so high that one was compelled to take three looks to see up to the crown block, but once seen certainly worth the effort. No opinion has ever been ventured on the diameter of the sheave, but one guess would have been of little account. One can scarcely comprehend the tremendous hoisting equipment required to carry out the contemplated program. Paul intended to keep on sinking and made his plans accordingly. First there was the matter of power, unlimited power. So he threw a rock-fill dam across the nearby Colorado River. The face of the dam was constructed of immense boulders which were soon cemented together by silt into a mass which surpassed in strength the walls of Black Canyon itself. This dam was used until the mine began to furnish its own power when it became obsolete. However it would be standing today, had it not been necessary to demolish it with explosives to prevent flooding of the mine when they lost stope 13 N. on the 10 level. But we are getting ahead of our story, and only mention this at present to explain the origin of the name of the new dam. Without a knowledge of these facts, it might be difficult to understand why a dam built under Hoover, dedicated under Roosevelt, in Black Canyon, on the Colorado River, forming Lake Mead should be called Boulder Dam, but some of these enormous boulders may still be seen down the river, and they lent their name to both structures.

Work on the shaft progressed until the 5-mile level was reached. At this point Paul had planned to start work, but on cross-cutting about eight miles to his ore body he found that he was still in the oxidized zone. He continued down to the 10-mile level, and tried again. This time he found ore, and started a drift north. Soon he was stoping and taking out ore on a scale hitherto unheard of. Meanwhile sinking continued. At this point let us digress for a moment.

Paul's mine superintendent was a German who had come up with him from the other job. The story goes that he wandered into camp on the Verde saying that he had become lost while prospecting in the Superstition Mountains. He seemed to know mining so Paul had hired him and he had worked up to be mine-boss. This Lost Dutchman, as he was called, became the center of quite a controversy in the southern part of the state in later years. It was rumored that he had struck it rich in the Superstitions and was living a hermit's life there. The legend persists today, and from searching for the Lost Dutchman himself, the hunt developed into search for his alleged mine, also known as the Lost Dutchman, so now no one knows whether he is looking for the Lost Dutchman or the Lost Dutchman's Lost Dutchman, or for both, or for neither, or why, and the entire matter is rather confusing. As a matter of record, this particular man became Paul Bunyan's mine super and lived to a ripe old age, aiding in carrying one of the most successful mining operations of all time to a very successful conclusion.

At the 25-level the excessive length and weight of cable required became a real problem. Paul went into conference and decided to try out a new idea. Accordingly, he spliced both ends of the cable and made an endless cable, and from that time forth no trouble was experienced. Since by this time he was using all of the compartments, he believed that he could save power and expedite operations by running the skips in pairs counterpoising one with the other. Thus the skip tenders became elevator operators, and the hoist men were made starters. Then by using highpressure cylinders which could be filled at the lower levels where the air pressure was tremendous and transported to levels of lesser pressure where drilling machines were being used, he was able to dispense with the huge compressors, and so the mine became selfsustaining. At this point service from the dam was discontinued.

Meanwhile Paul continued work on the various levels. On the 10 he drifted across the Utah line. On account of the distances traversed all of the mine trains carried pullmans and were streamlined to minimize the effect of high air pressure. An incident occurred on the 10-level at this time which illustrates how far-reaching consequences may re-