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Alaska Miners Association Phone: 907-563-9229 Fax: 907-563-9225 ama@alaskaminers.org www.alaskaminers.org Northwest Mining Association Phone: 509-624-1158 Fax: 509-623-1241 nwma_info@nwma.org WorldWide Drilling Resource ® is proud to be a member of these mining associations. Women in Mining 866-537-9694 wim@womeninmining.org 57 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® SEPTEMBER 2014 Tombstone Gold by Harry W. Short Engineering Geologist Tombstone is a historic mining town in Cochise County, Arizona. It was found- ed in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the west. Located in the Tombstone Hills (elevation 4530 feet), it is 25 miles west of Bisbee, Arizona. Mr. Schieffelin was warned by the sol- diers at Fort Huachuca that wandering in this area would earn him only a tombstone. When he discovered the rich ore deposits in this area, he named the new camp "Tombstone.” Hollywood made the aura of Tombstone with the world-famous movie Gunfight at the O.K. Corral . It’s a fun place to visit (March 11, 2004), but the tourism seems to have lost the signif- icance of the mining which occurred there, and the hardships en- dured by the early min- ers. Tombstone grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years. Two years after its founding, Tombstone boast- ed a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three news- papers, and an ice cream parlor, along- side 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dance halls and brothels. The town prospered from about 1877 to 1890, during which the town's mines produced $40 to $85 million in silver bullion. In the mid-1880s, the silver mines penetrated the water table and mining companies made significant investments in specialized pumps. A fire destroyed the Grand Central hoist and pumping plant in 1886, and it was unprofitable to rebuild the costly pumps. The city nearly became a ghost town, but was saved because it was the Cochise County seat (until 1929). The city's population dwindled to a low of 646 in 1910; by 2010 the population was 1380. The hills surrounding Tombstone is a geologic structure called a “dome.” It hosts a suite of stratified Paleozoic (544 mya [million years ago]) and Cretaceous (146 mya) sedimentary rocks that have been faulted, folded, and intruded with granite during the Laramide mountain building event that closed the Cretaceous Period. These rocks are named the Bisbee Group. During this significant geologic event, silver, manganese, and other minerals filled the joints and frac- tures in the host bedrock. Secondary minerals associated with the orebodies included lead, mica, clay, cadmium, mo- lybdenum, manganese, arsenic, and tellurium. Between 1879 and 1932, the district produced another 29,843,800 ounces of silver, 35,669,800 pounds of lead and $5,127,300 of gold, besides considerable copper, zinc, and man- ganese. This story would not be complete without mentioning the shootout at the o.K. corral was reenacted when we visit- ed the town. There was a lot of shooting bad guys with n u m e r o u s bullet holes in their torsos fal l ing from the rooftops and dying on the street. This was positive proof the Earps and Doc Holliday were better shots than the Clantons. I found a possible ancestor in boot hill named George Johnson. His mark- er: “Here lies George Johnson hanged by mistake in 1882. He was right we was wrong but we strung him up and now he’s gone.” Harry Harry Short may be contacted via e-mail at admin@ worldwidedrillingresource.com ~ The Centerline 7 1/2” x 10” hydraulic drive duplex mud pump ~ Fits in the place of a common 5” x 6” duplex ~ weighs 1000 lbs less ~ pumps twice the rated flow~at over twice the rated pressure ~ Centerline Manufacturing Co. 903-725-6978 ~ www.centerlinemanufacturing.com ~ Mud pumps for the 21st century ~ Monopumps models rated: 180 gpm Duplex models rated: 300 gpm Triplex models rated: 450 gpm 500 or 800 psi models available in aluminum or iron. U.S. Pat. #6,769,884 and others pending ~ Centerline mud pumps are getting the job done from Canada to Australia, China to Peru ~ Centerline Manufacturing is proud to be your complete stocking source for American Manufacturing mud pump parts!! Don’t miss the best deal of the year - our annual BuyersMeet Sellers Issue! Act Fast! The deadline is October 10 th , 2014. Call for details: (850) 547-0102