McMillenville, Arizona | |
---|---|
Location in the state of Arizona | |
Coordinates: 33°33′17″N110°40′44″W / 33.55472°N 110.67889°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Arizona |
County | Gila |
Established | circa 1876 |
Abandoned | circa 1886 |
Named for | Charles McMillen |
Elevation | 4,442 ft (1,354 m) |
Time zone | UTC-7 (MST (no DST)) |
Post Office Opened | November 12, 1877 |
Post Office Closed | October 12, 1882 |
McMillenville, also known as McMillianville or McMillanville, is a populated place in Gila County, Arizona. Silver ore was discovered by chance in 1876 by Theodore H. Harris and Charles McMillen, and the town formed around the ore deposits.
On March 26, 1876, Harris and McMillen were heading 28 miles northeast of Globe on a prospecting trip. While traveling through the White Mountains Harris got off his horse as he was too hungover to proceed farther. He went to sleep so McMillen stopped, dismounted and sat down on a nearby ledge. Boredom led McMillen to drive his pick into the rock and discovered silver. The pair founded the Stonewall Jackson mine which eventually turned into McMillenville, named after McMillen who discovered the silver. The town grew fast and a year later on November 12, 1877, a post office was opened. At its peak, 1,000 settlers lived there. The town soon was bolstered with several adobe saloons, dance halls, boarding houses, casinos, as well as homes for hundreds of people, public buildings and the mining structures. The town's first bloodshed came in 1880 over a mining claim dispute. Jack Brown the founder of the claim established a camp which another prospector intended to exploit. After Jack Brown and his killer had a long argument, the two met on the main street and fought a duel. Both men fired their revolvers true and they both died from a gunshot wound seconds later. McMillenville's peak was in 1880, the original five-stamp mill was replaced with by twenty-stamps. A new hoisting mechanism was erected for lifting ore out of the shaft. Silver ingots here taken about 100 miles to Casa Grande. The town was booming until 1882 when Geronimo's warriors attacked; it became a ghost town by 1886. [2] [3] [4]
The Apache attack was one of many engagements of the Indian wars in Arizona. It was fought on July 7, 1882. Geronimo's warriors, who had escaped the nearby San Carlos Reservation, were raiding throughout the area. Hundreds of natives fled after the Battle of Cibecue Creek who then went to Mexico or began raided across the Southwest. Hostilities became pitched when locals reported the large number of Apache warriors approaching the town. The women and children were rushed to the mine shaft with a few men for protection, the rest armed themselves and made a position out of a large two-story adobe building. The Apaches attacked with dozens of warriors, they swarmed the small town until they reached the makeshift fortification. There several settlers defeated the attack with accurate fire. Only one American was wounded in the arm. The natives' casualties are not known; the Apache usually concealed their casualties by removing bodies and wounded men from the field. The warriors retreated after cavalry from Fort Apache began to arrive. Several buildings were damaged in the fighting, some from fire. The natives used primarily rifles and pistols with some bow and arrows compared to various firearms used by the settlers. The battle was an American victory with little loss but McMillenville was still abandoned within the next few years. [2]
Almost nothing remains of the mines and mill, and only scattered ruins of the adobe buildings of the town mark the site of McMillenville today. [3] [5]
The town is located off U.S. Route 60, about 18 miles (29 km) Northeast of Globe. [5]
The Stonewall Jackson mine was one of the best producing mines in the area at the time, [6] mainly producing silver, copper and lead. [7]
Globe is a city in Gila County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 7,249. The city is the county seat of Gila County. Globe was founded c. 1875 as a mining camp. Mining, tourism, government and retirees are most important in the present-day Globe economy.
Superior is a town in Pinal County, Arizona, United States. Superior, which is in northern Pinal County, is the oldest town in that county. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town was 2,407. Superior was founded as a mining town for the Silver King and the later Magma mines; silver was mined at first, and then transitioned to copper. Currently, exploitation of the huge Resolution Copper deposit is being explored.
Edward Lawrence Schieffelin (1847–1897) was an Indian scout and prospector who discovered silver in the Arizona Territory, which led to the founding of Tombstone, Arizona. He entered into a partnership with his brother Al and mining engineer Richard Gird in a handshake deal that produced millions of dollars in wealth for all three men. During the course of Tombstone's mining history, about US $85,000,000 in silver was produced from its mines.
The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexican–American War in 1846, the United States inherited conflicted territory from Mexico which was the home of both settlers and Apache tribes. Conflicts continued as new United States citizens came into traditional Apache lands to raise livestock and crops and to mine minerals.
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Gila is a census-designated place in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. It is 48 kilometres (30 mi) northwest of the county seat, Silver City. Its population was 314 as of the 2010 census. The community is located in the irrigated valley of the Gila River in the midst of hilly and mountainous semi-arid terrain. The townsite was sporadically populated by the Apache, Spanish and Mexican colonists, and American mountain men prior to the rise to prominence of the million-acre Lyons & Campbell Ranch. The ranch established its headquarters in Gila in 1890 and was one of the largest ranches in the United States. The headquarters building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Al Sieber was a German-American who fought in the U.S Civil War and in the American Old West against Indians. He became a prospector and later served as a Chief of Scouts during the Apache Wars.
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Silver mining in Arizona was a powerful stimulus for exploration and prospecting in early Arizona. Cumulative silver production through 1981 totaled 490 million troy ounces. However, only about 10% of Arizona's silver production came from silver mining. More than 80% of the state's silver was a byproduct of copper mining; other silver came as a byproduct of lead, zinc, and gold mining.
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Harshaw is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was settled in the 1870s, in what was then Arizona Territory. Founded as a mining community, Harshaw is named after the cattleman-turned-prospector David Tecumseh Harshaw, who first successfully located silver in the area. At the town's peak near the end of the 19th century, Harshaw's mines were among Arizona's highest producers of ore, with the largest mine, the Hermosa, yielding approximately $365,455 in bullion over a four-month period in 1880.
The Battle of Pinos Altos was a military action of the Apache Wars. It was fought on September 27, 1861, between settlers of Pinos Altos mining town, the Confederate Arizona Guards, and Apache warriors. The town is located about seven miles north of the present day Silver City, New Mexico.
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Brunckow's Cabin is a historic cabin southwest of Tombstone in Cochise County, Arizona. It is purported to be the "bloodiest cabin in Arizona history;" between 1860 and 1890, at least twenty-one people were killed there, many of whom are buried on site. Presently, little of the cabin remains except for some foundations and small portions of the walls. A few unmarked graves have been identified, but because of theft, vandalism, and erosion, the site has been heavily damaged.
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Duquesne is a ghost town in the Patagonia Mountains in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona, near the international border with Sonora, Mexico. The town, which is currently under private ownership and closed to the public although the roads are almost all public, was once the headquarters of the Duquesne Mining and Reduction Company and is the site of the Bonanza Mine. Washington Camp is approximately one mile northwest of Duquesne and was where the mine's reduction plant was located.
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