Pima County Mining Records, Volume II
Although reference to the Pima County Mining Records has been made on several earlier occasions in this work, we return to them here because of their relevance to underscoring the relationship between the main players in the scam to be perpetrated at the Virginia Mining District. They illustrate that this association went back for at least two years prior to them arriving at what would become the VMD.
The four names of those present at the organization of the Virginia Mining District in Februruary of 1870, (Brown, Arnold, McCallen and Harris) comprise the core of those involved in the earliest claims in the VMD. An examination of earlier documents provides us with some insight into how some of these people came to be associated with each other. These earlier documents include Volume II of the Pima County (AZ) Mining Records. In these records, beginning in 1868, we find the names of those who would also be associated with the founding of the Virginia Mining District. Prominent among these names is that of Thomas R. Harris.
On June 20, 1868, Harris, along with Abraham Lyons, John Anderson, A. M. Johnson and J. F. Stone, located and claimed the “Harris Lode”, about three-quarters of a mile south of the parade ground at Camp Bowie.¹¹ In November of that year Harris and fourteen other people – including Charles H. Lord – made a claim for 3,000 feet (200 feet per person) about one and a half miles west of Camp Bowie, in the Apache Pass Mining District.¹²
The Harris Lode appears to have been profitable; it received several mentions in the Weekly Arizonan. For example, it was reported that the Apache Pass Mining Company, owners of the Harris Lode, had entered into a contract with “parties from Pinos Altos” to have crushed ore treated.¹³
More interestingly, we know that Philip Arnold knew of the Apache Pass mine, and had examined specimens of ore from there in August of 1869.¹⁴
In January of 1870, “a Mr. Brown” arrived in Tucson,¹⁵ and on March 5th it was announced that “Mr. Brown” had made arrangements to purchase the Apache Pass Mining Company for the sum of $125,000. Arnold is described as being the Agent for the San Francisco based company purchasing the Apache Pass Mining Company, and also as a skilled miner.¹⁶ This is possibly the point at which Harris became associated with Arnold and Brown for the first time.
Harris’ name appears again in the Pima County mining records. In May of 1870, together with Philip Arnold and Elijah S. Junior, he located the “Aztec Tin Mine” in the Stein’s Peak range of mountains,¹⁷and, most notably, in February of that year he was one of a group of seven men who claimed a strip of land on the San Simon River. The strip was seven miles in length and extended for one-eighth of a mile in width on each side of the river. The other six claimants were B. W. Harpending (Ben Harpending, Asbury’s nephew), Geo. Roberts, P. Arnold, W. D. Brown, James McCallen and George Walton. This claim was made just 5 days after the initial meeting for the formation of the Virginia Mining District.¹⁸
Harris’ interests at the Virginia Mining District (VMD) were discussed in the Chapter titled ” The Town With No Law” (Part II, Chapter 7). He took his own life at Ralston City in August of 1870, and left behind a tangle of paperwork relating to his various claims in the Virginia Mining District as well as the claim for the mill site on the San Simon River . He also had other claims in that County made in conjunction with Philip Arnold and Charles H. Lord. Did Harris’ suicide bear any relation to his association with the fraudsters and the false and unmet promises made for the VMD?
Were The First Claims Legal?
As mentioned in the Introduction, it was thought that the very first claims in the Virginia Mining District might have been recorded in Pima County, AZ, as they are absent from Grant County records. They were not, and it is quite possible that they never existed other than perhaps in the records of the Virginia Mining District Recorder of the time. They were never entered into County records, neither in either Arizona nor in New Mexico.
From records that do exist, and from an article which was published in the Scientific Press in July of 1870,¹⁹ it is possible to deduce the names of at least some of these missing claims.
Grant County’s Mining Locations, Notices and Deeds, 1 (1870) makes frequent mention of several ledges and claims, the original location deeds of which are among the missing records. The names of these include the “Arnold” ledge and mine, and the “Roberts” mine. Those mines, which were re-located by others in June and July of 1870, (as discussed in “Claim Jumping”, Part II, Chapter 8) were all on either the “Brown” or “Harpending” ledges, the location deeds for which are also missing.
To briefly recap that Chapter: In each case of relocation, the relevant Deed refers specifically to the original locations having been carried out illegally by way of non-compliance with the mining laws. Complainants were under the impression that the original claims had been entered into County Records at Pima, thus invalidating them, and refer to the original claimants as “Harpending & Co., of San Francisco.”
The Scientific Press article includes a sketch map (see last installment) of the various mines and ledges, which, as well as those listed above, also shows the locations of the “Safford”, “Capital”, “Bull Run”, “Devin”, “Winter’s”, “Ophir”, “Elisa’s”, “Onondaga”, “Jackson” (also referred to as the “Stonewall Jackson”), “Potosi”, “Gen. Lee” (also referred to as the “R. E. Lee”), “Jefferson”, “Washington” and “Bowman” mines. The text also refers to the “Red Cloud”, “Yokohama” and “Typhoon” mines.
Mining Locations, Notices and Deeds, 1, (1870) contains information on sales relating to the “Arnold”, “Jefferson”, “Capital”, “Gen. Lee”, “Potosi”, “Roberts”, “Washington” and “Ophir” mines, all of which transactions are recorded as having been executed on February 24, 1870,²⁰ but with the addendum that they were not actually entered into Grant County Records until a much later date – some in September of 1870, and some the following month. This irregularity, together with the absence from County Records of the original location claims for any of these ledges and mines, is in direct opposition to W. D. Brown’s statement that Philip Arnold had accompanied him specifically so that the first claims would be made according to the law.
©2007-2024 Jim & Erica Parson
¹¹Pima County Mining Records. Volume II, Notice Number 100, Page 69. Located at Pima County Recorder’s Office, 115 N. Church Ave., Tucson, AZ 85702-3145.
¹²Ibid. Notice Number 101. Pages 69-70
¹³Weekly Arizonan. July 3, 1869
¹⁴Weekly Arizonan. August 28, 1869
¹⁵Weekly Arizonan. January 29, 1870
¹⁶Weekly Arizonan. March 5, 1870
¹⁷Pima County Mining Records. Volume II. Notice Number 104. Page 71
¹⁸Ibid. Notice Number 102. Page 70.
¹⁹Scientific Press. Volume XXI. Number 5. July 30, 1870.
²⁰Mining Locations, Notices and Deeds, 1 (1870). Pages 322, 325, 327, 334, 337, 339, 347 and 350, respectively. One of the Deeds of Sale (“Capital” mine, page 327) states that the original location was made “on the second day of February 1870” and that it was “recorded in the office of the Recorder of said Virginia Mining District.” (NMSRCA)
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