Tombstone: The Mining District That Would Not Die

Tombstone: The Mining District Too Tough To Die

Following the lead of Jefferson Mining District, miners in the vicinity of Tombstone, Arizona re-organized the Tombstone Mining District on April 2nd, 2012. Another organizational miner's congress is being held on April 30th, 2012, at High Noon, at the OK Cafe on 3rd and Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona. The miner's congress is being held to choose officers to establish a Board of Directors and to welcome new members. Currently, gem miner Frank Lavoi is serving as Director, pro-tem, who states:

"The TOMBSTONE MINING DISTRICT was resurrected today in its first organizational meeting in 100 years. District Membership is not limited to Mining Claim owners, but is open to local residents & all with an interest in their 1866 Mineral Estate GRANT, acquiring or investing in mining claims, or having involvement in local control of local resources. Members of the Tombstone Mining District are available to answer questions which may remain after interested parties research this web site: http://jeffersonminingdistrict.com/
First Monday of each month, meeting at noon in Tombstone."

Lavoi goes on to thank several individuals and organizations, including SWOMA, Jefferson Mining District and SWOMA Legal Researcher Hal Anthony, for making it all possible.

Ed Schieffelin, photographed in Jacksonville in the 1890's. Rich silver lodes were discovered in what would become the Tombstone Mining District by Ed Schieffelin, a drifting prospector who grew up along the banks of the Rogue River here in South Western Oregon. Schieffelin Gulch, near the town of Rogue River, is named for his parents who homesteaded there in 1857. Schieffelin mined with his uncles on nearby Foots Creek and later at Yankville (near what is today Rand) in the Galice District, but despite the excitement generated over the discovery of the Big Yank Lead, mining success eluded him in Oregon and he wandered afoot into the Arizona desert which was then occupied only by hostile Apaches. At the time, Schieffelin was working his way into the Dragoon Mountains, less than a dozen miles from the hideout of the Apaches led by Cochise and Geronimo. Before wandering into this area, some soldiers at a nearby fort had told Schieffelin that the ""The only thing you will find out there is your tombstone". As a joke, Schieffelin named one of his newly discovered silver claims "Tombstone". Awash in wealth, Schieffelin lit out for Los Angeles where he lived in luxury amongst an orange grove. By 1895, he grew tired of living in the city and returned to South West Oregon.

Says one local writer, "When he drove his own blue Concorde stagecoach into Woodville in 1895, none of his old friends recognized the 200-pound, blue-eyed stranger with the flowing beard and long black hair. "I was raised across the Rogue River," he told the gathering crowd, "right at the mouth of Schieffelin Gulch. I'm Ed Schieffelin." After some backslapping and some whiskey drinking, Schieffelin was on his way."

Two years later, Schieffelin was living in a small cabin on Days Creek (some say Coffee Creek) in Douglas County. He was found dead in the doorway by Alex Orme, the county sheriff and Ed's friend. Scattered around his cabin were samples of some peculiar blue quartz and crushed samples of the same that were riddled with small flecks of gold. The last entry in Ed's diary read: "Struck her rich again, by God!"

His rich discovery remains lost.

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