All but the Gold Spring Mine, were on Gold Hill. Although there is several placer mines along the Humbug Creek leading to Columbia (Figure 10).

According to Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources database of mines there is a BEACON LIGHT MS 1396, UNPAT. file 914A, Columbia topo map, N34 02 46 W112 17 37 Township 8N, Range 1E, Section 7, quarter SE. (Ref. Kevin Hart, Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Recourses)

In reviewing Topographical maps there used to be a trail from Columbia to Castle Hot Spring some 6.16 miles away SW. Shortly after leaving Columbia, a short distance south on Humbug Creek the trail took off toward Castle Hot Spring (Figure 10).

George Walters owned the claims at Columbia prior to Mr. and Mrs. Losee. George Suber was the caretaker prior to Larry and Betty Gill, and Mr. and Mrs. Losee purchasing the claims. It is believed George Suber lives in or about Yarnell, Arizona, the last we have been able to determine. At this printing we have not been able to reach Mr. George Suber.

T H E C O L U M B I A M I N E S

29 April 1985

This property consists of 23 mining claims located in Township 8 North, between Range 1 West and Range 1 East, bisected by the Gila Bend and Salt River Median, in the Bradshaw Mountains north of Morristown, Arizona

Access to the property is from the intersection of Castle Hot Springs Road and Arizona Highway 93 (Phoenix to Wickenburg). Where Castle Hot Springs Road crosses State Highway 74 it becomes an unimproved graded dirt road. The road is easily traversed by any vehicle for a distance of 27.1 miles when it becomes much less easily traveled, and should be traveled in a four wheel drive (high clearance) vehicle for the remaining four miles. At least two hours and 15 minutes should be allotted to make the journey to the claims.

Columbia, Arizona was an active mining town at the turn of the century (1900). The claims were acquired by George Walters in the late nineteen twenties and he resided on the property and mined it for various minerals until the late nineteen seventies. Many of the claims have been extensively worked, and there is evidence of the presence of long time residents in the area, including several gravesites.

A review of affidavits filed with the Phoenix Office of the Bureau of Land Management reveals that all assessment work required to maintain title to the claims has been done effective to September 1, 1985. The file also reveals that ten individuals have examined the file maintained on these claims since January 1983. These individuals live in various parts of the United States

Claim markers were difficult to locate. For that reason, it could not be determined if one mine was on the Owl claim or on the Harrison M. claim. It is assumed that one mine, which has collapsed to within six feet of the adit was on the Owl claim. In one of the mines on the Harrison M. claim, a visible vain of gold bearing quartzite about a foot deep was plainly visible which thickened as it ran back into the mine where mining was suspected. No attempt was made to estimate the richness of this ore due to lack of tools and assay equipment.

There is several building on the property. The Walters residence is well built, 1,158 sq. foot structure dating from the fifties. It has foot thick concrete exterior walls, a slab floor, and a corrugated sheet metal roof. There is an attractive stone fireplace and chimney, tow bedrooms, bath, kitchen, an attached garage and workshop. The home has ample cabinets and closets. It has a wash house with an outside shower built adjacent to the house.

The house is furnished with beds, table, chairs, sofa, overstuffed chairs, electric kitchen range and a working refrigerator. There is evidence of occupancy as late as March 1984, probable by persons doing assessment work.

Near the main house is a tool shed for the storage of hand tools, truck repair, etc. It is wired to provide for the use of power tools, and there was evidence of some assay work having been done there. Nearby is an old International truck which has been scavenged for parts, and is now useless to a mining operation. There is one other structure near the tool shed which may have served as a garage or storage building.

A building on the Coolidge claim adjacent to the Coolidge Mine appeared to be much younger than the main house. It could not be reached without a four wheel vehicle, but, viewed through binoculars from the Luck mine, appeared to be a two bedroom house or bunkhouse.

There is a bunkhouse with kitchen and two bedrooms on the old Columbia townsite surrounded by an assay building, tool shed and a cook house. Nearby is a windmill which provided water to the community. The Humbug Creek flows adjacent to the townsite and appears to provide an ample water supply. There are also corrals and watering basins for pack animals and/or cows.

There is a crusher on the property which may be usable. There is also a ruin of a rock walled building which probably served some very early mining party. This ruin appears to be more than a hundred years old.

The roads on the claims are in good repair for four wheel vehicles, and can readily be used immediately without further work being necessary. Since road building is a major cost in a mining operation, the significance of good roads on the property should not be underestimated.

Since the geologist’s report recommends keeping the property for further development, and since the price of gold is predicted by substantial economists to rise due to a widely expected monetary inflation within the next five years, this property offers an opportunity to capitalize on these economic conditions.

PERSONS WHO HAVE REVIEWED THE BLM FILES ON THESE CLAIMS

E. P. Larson 3 Jan. 1984

15601 No. 19^th Ave.

Phoenix, AZ 85023

Carolyn McDowell 6 Jan. 1984

8935 West Peoria 17 Jan. 1984

Peoria, AZ 85345

Carl Anderson 6 Mar. 1984

P. O. Box 270270

Tampa, FL 33688

David R. Nielsen 26 Mar. 1984

15 South 1250 East

Bountiful, UT 84010

Frederick P. Schwartz 26 Apr. 1984

3142 Scenic View Dr. #8

Elko, NV 89801

James A Hutchinson 27 Aug. 1984

P. O. Box 1949

Glendale, AZ 85311

Joe Stocks 14 Dec. 1984

1911 Murphy Lane

Moab, UT 84532

Larry D. Robinson 18 Dec. 1984

12419 No. 29^th Place

Phoenix, AZ

Ray DeMoss 3 Jan. 1985

2739 No. Pierce

Phoenix, AZ

James E. Craddock 26 Apr. 1985

759 North 550 East

Orem, UT 84057

The last assessment affidavit was signed by E. P. Larson, address cited above, in behalf of the present owners, Richard D. and Jo Ann Losee.

EXPLORATION OF HUMBUG MINING DISTRICT

Forest Brayshaw

January 1974

Humbug Mining District

Sections 13 & 18, Township 8 North, Ranges 1 East to 1 West. Yavapai County, Arizona.

Area:

1 placer claim, 22 lode claims, 496 acres.

Ore Type:

Approximately half of the claims extend into Humbug Creek, there fore suggesting placer mining. Some of these claims also have hard rock ore. The remaining claims are lode or hard rock. Placer sampling indicates gold from 0.5 to 2.0 oz. per ton, or yard. Silver runs from 0.5 to 2.0 oz. per yard and a trace of platinum. There is reason to believe that in some areas of the old stream bed gold could go as high at 10 to 15 oz. per yard with higher values of silver and platinum. Sampling of all ore piles, shafts, and open cuts on the lode claims indicates values of gold from 0.5 to 12 oz. per ton. Some samples have gone as high as 20 oz. per ton. A table of samples taken from the claims may be found on page 7.

Recovery Method:

A total of 2,000 lbs from all 23 claims was hand crushed to 100 mesh. 12 samples (2 lbs each) were run each day for 83 days. From each 2 lb. sample 60 grams were taken and panned. The gold was recovered with mercury. 2 milligrams of gold = 1 oz per ton.

Concentrates:

The black sand from all the concentrates was saved and run through a low temperature plasma. On most samples it has increased the recovery from gold and platinum. It is not yet know why it doesn’t work on all samples. In most cases it has increased the values 1.5 to 2 times.

Placer Recovery:

In trying to determine the best method to use for placer recovery, a Pan-O-Matic Model 850 was used on 4,000 lbs. of placer ore. 2,000 lbs. were run with water and then the machine was converted to run dry and another 2,000 lbs were run. The wet method is approximately 25% more efficient in recovery and at least 50% faster than the dry method.

Silver:

Some silver is present in both the hard rock and placer ore. The average ratio of gold to silver seems to be about 100:1 for the placer ore. The average for the hard rock is much higher, with silver sometimes going higher than gold.

Platinum:

This metal has been evident to both hard rock and placer but no quantitative analysis, has been made doe to the small amounts of ore handled.

Areas to be Mined:

Based on the recovery of gold from samples taken, the best placer mining seems to e on the North Field, Owl and Star Placer claims. These three claims are all within 600 feet of the bunk house. There are other good areas, but these are close and are quite easy to get into. When the time comes for hard rock mining the Harrison, Yankee Maid 1 & 2, Gold Path and Lunan 1, 2, 3, & 4 are the best claims.

Method of Mining:

For placer mining a backhoe with a front loader can be used to remove the overburden and stockpile the pay dirt. The backhoe can also be used for quite a large part of the hard rock mining.

Water:

One or more wells must be dug in order to run the necessary recovery equipment. To have a 8” well drilled to a depth of 200 feet will cost approximately $2,000.00. The last rain we had at the mine produced some good evidence of where water could be found at depths of 30-40 feet. These wills could be dug with a backhoe in a very short period of time and will produce enough water for the entire operation.

Conclusions:

There have been quite a few nuggets taken from Humbug Creek over the past 65 years. I have found a few myself so I know they are there. Placer gold, or free gold, is washed out from a rich deposit and carried down stream for a distance, there to be covered over with rock and sand. Whenever I find a nugget my first thought is: “I wonder where that came from? In taking placer samples from just north of our claims to 12 mile south of our claims I have noticed one very evident fact: the higher values of placer ore are within our claims. This means that the free gold being washed into Humbug Creek comes from Gold. Mt. and our claims cover the entire west side of that mountain. It’s the west side that drains into the creek. Some of the hard rock samples I have taken from drainage areas on Gold Mt. have gone as high, as 400 oz. per ton. I have some samples that show large amounts of free gold. I believe the question is no longer: “Is there gold here?”, but rather what is the best way to find it and recover it?

Figure 24

Windmill at Columbia, Arizona Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Claim No. Samples Avg. per ton

Uncle Jim No. 1 10 0.5 oz.

Uncle Jim No. 2 10 0.5

Coolidge 35 1.0

Golden Glint 10 1.0

Star Placer 25 1.0

Owl 10 2.0

Harrison 75 3.0

Lucky 50 2.0

Blaze 50 2.0

T.N.T. 50 2.0

Red Star 50 2.0

Top Notch No. 1 50 2.0

Top Notch No. 2 50 2.0

Gold Cliff 50 2.0

North Field 75 3.0

Yankee Maid No. 1 75 3.0

Yankee Maid No. 2 75 3.0

Gold King 50 3.0

Gold Path 100 4.0

Lunan No. 1 25 2.0

Lunan No. 2 25 2.0

Lunan No. 3 25 2.0

Lunan No. 4 25 2.0

Figure 25

Columbia Claims (Lode) 1987. Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

DIRECTIONS FOR FINDING COLUMBIA, ARIZONA

THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS WERE WRITTEN IN 1974.

SIGNS, LANDMARKS AND ROADS CHANGE OVER TIME.

WE ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CURRENT ACCURACY OF THESE DIRECTIONS.

Proceed to Morristown, Arizona from Phoenix on Arizona Highway 93 (US 60/89).

Turn north (right) on Castle Hot Spring Road. This road does not appear on the Arizona Highway map. Proceed north on Castle Hot Springs Road which becomes an unimproved, graded road within less than a mile where it transects Arizona Highway 74. After traversing 20.5 miles of Castle Hot Springs Road, a fork is encountered marked with a sign “Castle H. S.”. Take the right fork and proceed on the wide graded road another .95 miles where an unmarked turn is encounter which must be ignored.

The nest opportunity to turn off the road occurs 2.5 miles at the fork for the Champie School. Take the right fork at this point and proceed .4 miles to the next fork. Take the right fork and proceed an additional .9 miles to where the road appears to end at a “T”. This intersection in unmarked, as are most of the intersections. Turn left at this point and follow the road (locally termed the “Morristown Road”) and travel 1.9 miles to a gate which is the entry to the VX Ranch. Pass through the gate, close it, and take a right fork which does not appear to be a road. It looks more like a place where the stock go to water at the creek which you must cross, and where the road becomes considerably less hospitable.

Follow this “road” for 2.1 miles where a fork occurs which is the access road to the Humbug mine on the left and the Columbia Claims on the right. Again, the road seems to disappear as if crossing a creek bed. If a windmill does not appear within three tenths of a mile, you have taken the wrong road.

Proceed on this trail another 1.6 miles to the main gate of the Columbia claims. After passing through the gate and closing it, drive carefully to the main house, about a tenth of a mile.

THESE DIRECTIONS WERE WRITTEN IN 1974.

SIGNS, LANDMARKS AND ROADS CHANGE OVER TIME.

WE ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CURRENT ACCURACY OF THESE DIRECTIONS.

PRIMARY REPORT

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY OF THE COLUMBIA CLAIMS

HUMBUG CREEK, YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA

Prepared for

MR. RICHARD D. LOSEE

Prepared by

BERGE EXPLORATION INC.

September 1977

PRIMARY REPORT

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY OF THE COLUMBIA CLAIMS

HUMBUG CREEK, YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA

Mr. Richard D. Losee of Bullock and Losee Jewelers, (currently Losee Jewelers) Provo, Utah, has acquired the George W. Walters Claim Group at Columbia, Arizona in the Humbug Mining District. There are in the group, a total of 22 load mining claims and one placer mining claim. All claims are unpatented. The claims are listed below:

Load (sic) Claims: Lunan

Lunan No. 2

Lunan No. 3

Lunan No. 4

Gold Path (Cougar)

Gold King

Yankee Maid (Hard Times)

Yankee Maid No. 2

North Field

Gold Cliff

Top Notch

Top Notch No. 2

Harrison M.

Lucky

Red Star

Hilda

Owl

Blaze

T. N. T.

Golden Glint

Coolidge

Uncle Jim No. 1

Uncle Jim No. 2

Placer Claim: Star Placer

The claims were acquired from Mr. George Walters who presently resides on the property with his wife and acts as a care taker for the Losee’s.

The claims are located along Humbug Creek, around the old town of Columbia. Most of the mineral showing and old mines are located on the east tide of Humbug Creek, just west and southwest of Gold Hill.

Mines were observed on the Lunan, Gold Path, Yankee Maid, Yankee Maid No. 2, Red Star, Lucky, Harrison M. and Coolidge Claims; and workings were observed on most other claims. Much of the work is obviously near the surface as mine dumps are either small or nearly non-existent. Veins which were observed were thin, but appeared to be quite continuous. The thickest vain observed was at the Lucky Mine where it appeared to be about 3 feet thick.

Old reports indicate that the mining commenced about 1880 and was carried on intermittently to about 1908. The ore was ground in arrastres and panned or sluced to recover the gold. Later C.E. Champie operated a 4 stamp mill at Columbia from about 1900 to 1905. Little activity in the area was present until about 1932 when ore was again mined for a couple of years. Test shipments from surface veins and tunnels in the 1930’s netted from 207 tons of ore, and average of 1.5 oz. gold and 3.5 oz. silver and 3.5 percent lead. Ore has been mined from the canyon bottom up the mountain side for a vertical distance of over 1,000 feet. Veins here are on line with the Tip Top Mine located 3 ½ miles northeast of Columbia and there are old mine workings observed throughout most of the intervening distance. The Tip Top Mine was mined to a vertical depth of 1,200 feet. The evidence above indicates a vertical extent of ore deposition of at least 1,000 feet. Ore shoots are not expected to extend for a great distances, but the length may be over a couple of hundreds of feet.

The mineralized veins extend through the Pre-Cambrian rocks and seem to cut all rocks present, except those rocks which are in recent origin; ie, alluvium and volcanic rocks. Data reported and observed would seem to indicate the origin of the ore bodies and their vein systems as post-Yavapai Schist, and post-Bradshaw Granite, but Pre-Tertiary sediments and volcanics. In all probability, the veins were formed at the close of the period of the Bradshaw Orogeny in Pre-Cambrian Time, or they were formed in conjunction with igneous activity in early Tertiary time.

Mr. George Walters indicated that his experience on the properties indicated about ¼ of the vein system would be mineralized with ore grade mineralization, while ¾ consists of ore grades too low to be economic or where the veins are too thin to be mined economically. The better ore shoots are located where two vain systems intersect or where the vein cuts more competent rock types. The shattering of the rock prior to mineralization seems to be the most important factor in the establishment of ore bodies.

The country rock of the area is composed of muscovite schist’s and associated meta-sedimentary rocks. Interspersed, in concordant masses with the mica schist are quartzite and intermediate rocks. These rocks have been disrupted and intruded by quartz-feldspar pegmatite. In places, black tourmaline was observed in the pegmatite veins and dispersed into adjacent meta-sediments.

The veins of gold-bearing quartz cut all rock types, and become more prominent in the quartzite and pegmatite. They seem to pinch in the schist and swell in the more brittle rock type. Most ore minerals have been destroyed by oxidation; however, galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite and native gold were observed. The oxidized minerals recognized were malachite, azurite, wulfenite, and a variety of iron oxides. Part of the native gold appears to be primary and much appears to be of secondary origin.

The vein systems observed appears to strike in two principal directions. One system appears to run nearly north-south with a tendency to drift northwesterly. The second system has an east, northeast strike. The veins are nearly vertical with the Lucky vein appearing to have about a 70 to 80 degree dip. The rake of ore bodies within individual veins was not observed. The handing wall in the Harrison M. vein dipped northward at about 50 to 60 degrees where observed in the mine. In the Harrison M. Mine, the vein appears to have been off-set by later date faulting and the eastern extension was not found by previous mining.

The composite sample of vein material collected from the Lunan, Harrison M and Red Star Mine dumps was ground in a crusher of Columbia and assayed for gold, silver, lead, molybdenum and tungsten. The assay report is attached to this report. It should be emphasized that this sample is indicative of ore rejected while mining as conducted on the properties and should not be considered to represent true ore. The first figure was from a placer grab sample and probably is of little value either as to grade or potential. A proper placer sample would require the processing of about a yard or more of gravel and the assay of the concentrate were obtained.

The load sample indicated 0.064 oz Au/ton, 0.48 oz. Ag/ton, 0.78% Pb, 0.05% Mo, and 0.05% WO3. This composite sample should only be considered to represent waste, rejected in initial mining.

RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that the claims be retained, and later patented if possible to gain both mineral rights and also surface rights. Assessment work should be diligently accomplished by the owners, with sufficient surface disturbance; ie, road building and excavation to provide proof of labor. It is further recommended that the possibility of a joint venture with a mining company be considered. Selection of a joint venture partner should be done with care as many properties are destroyed if proper mining and geology are not provided. The claims should not be allowed to lapse in any case.

September 16, 1977 (Signature)

DEFORREST SMOUSE

Division Geologist

DIARY

The following reproduced pages were notes by George Walters, made in this

Diary Note Book.

The following DIARY was recorded by George Walters in 1934 on the dates indicated. It is believed these notations were made shortly after he purchased these claims. When he found a spot the previous owners had missed, he mined and shipped it, similar to a clean-up operation. It is comprised as a log of samples and shipments.

DIARY
and Daily Reminder
A Page a Day for 1935
Yankee Maid Group (North Mines)
Columbia, Post Office
South of Humbug on Humbug Creek

601 Harison (sic) Ledge - 64 ft. Tunnel 1934					Date on pages Jan 2-3, 1935
Date sample taken	Sample taken "in" from Adit entrance		Width of Vain		Oz. of gold per ton
3/16	16 ft	In	8 inch	W	Assay	1.86
4/12	24 ft	In	6 inch	W	Assay	1.58
5/3	38 ft	In	8 inch	W	Assay	1.12
5/30	53 ft	In	8 inch	W	Assay	1.44
6/8	59 ft	In	12 inch	W	Assay	2.08
5/8	12 tons to Mill				Assay	1.49
6/20	22 tons to Mill				Assay	1.34
	34

North Harrison Ledge 1934					Date on pages Jan 4-5, 1935

3/16	Cut	High			4 inch	W	Assay	2.04
4/12	Cut	High	15 ft	In	5 inch	W	Assay	1.83
5/2	Cut	High	99 ft	In	3 inch	W	Assay	0.83
5/30	Cut	High	46 ft	In	4 inch	W	Assay	2.26
6/18	Cut	High	52 ft	In	4 inch	W	Assay	0.64
5/30	Cut	Low	15 ft	In	4 inch	W	Assay	1.83
5/8	16 tons to Mill						Assay	1.29
6/2	6 tons to Mill						Assay	1.54
	22


Lucky Tunnel 1934					Date on pages Jan 6-7, 1935

4/16	12 ft	In	6 inch	W	Assay	2.09
4/16	29 ft	In	5 inch	W	Assay	1.14
4/16	38 ft	In	5 inch	W	Assay	2.34
4/16	49 ft	In	6 inch	W	Assay	2.18
4/16	86 ft	In	4 inch	W	Assay	1.10
4/16	South Ledge Face				Assay	0.76
6/4	Old Ore Pile 3 tons to Mill				Assay	3.19

119 Lucky Claim High 1934					Date on pages Jan 8-9, 1935

4/8	Face		4 inch	W	Assay	2.25
5/12	15 ft	In	5 inch	W	Assay	1.89
6/1	29 ft	In	4 inch	W	Assay	2.49
6/18	26 ft	In	4 inch	W	Assay	2.22
		Cut Low
5/12	Face	In	3 inch	W	Assay	2.11
6/11	12 ft	In	4 inch	W	Assay	0.1
6/19	34 ft	In	5 inch	W	Assay	2.26
5/16	6 tons to Mill				Assay	1.84
6/10	5 tons to Mill				Assay	1.63

164 Lucky Claim 1934					Date on pages Jan 10-11, 1935

2/19	Cut in Face			12 inch	Ch	W	Assay	0.48
3/3	Cut	10 ft	in	14 inch	Ch	W	Assay	0.48
4/11	Cut	24 ft	in	14 inch	Ch	W	Assay	0.79
5/1	Cut	36 ft	in	18 inch	Ch	W	Assay	0.37
6/14	Cut	51 ft	in	16 inch	Ch	W	Assay	1.13
5/2	22 tons to Mill						Assay	0.54
9/12	32 tons to Mill						Assay	0.69
	54

159 Lucky Claim 1934					Date on pages Jan 12-13, 1935

2/22	Cut			6 inch	W	Assay	0.86
4/12	Cut			8 inch	W	Assay	1.83
5/2	Cut	32 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	1.44
5/30	Cut	44 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	0.54
6/18	Cut	52 ft	in	6 inch	W	Assay	3.02
5/8	16 tons to Mill					Assay	1.64
6/18	22 tons to Mill					Assay	1.28
	38

172 Top Notch Claim 1934					Date on pages Jan 14-15, 1935

3/16	Face		6 inch	W	Assay	0.50
3/28	17 ft	in	6 inch	W	Assay	0.68
4/18	23 ft	in	7 inch	W	Assay	0.36
5/2	29 ft	in	7 inch	W	Assay	0.42
4/16	8 tons to Mill				Assay	0.53
5/16	11 tons to Mill				Assay	0.48
	19

178 North Star Claim 1934					Date on pages Jan 16-17 1935

5/2	Face			6 inch	W	Assay	2.74
5/24	Cut	12 ft	in	6 inch	W	Assay	1.84
6/3	Cut	18 ft	in	6 inch	W	Assay	2.44
6/4	6 tons to Mill					Assay	2.05

161 Top Notch Claim 1934					Date on pages Jan 18-19 1935

2/18	Cut	Face		5 inch	W	Assay	0.40
3/2	Cut	16 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	1.12
4/12	Cut	20 ft	in	6 inch	W	Assay	0.88
5/2	Cut	29 ft	in	7 inch	W	Assay	0.68
5/30	Cut	36 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	0.93
6/20	Cut	42 ft	in	5 inch	W	Assay	0.53
5/16	18 tons to Mill					Assay	0.69
6/18	14 tons to Mill					Assay	0.59
	32

171 Gold Path Claim					Date on pages Jan 20-21, 1935

3/1	Face			8 inch	W	Assay	0.74
3/18	12 ft	in		5 inch	W	Assay	1.66
4/20	28 ft	in		7 inch	W	Assay	1.61
5/14	36 ft	in		7 inch	W	Assay	0.3
4/19	12 tons to Mill					Assay	0.94
5/20	14 tons to Mill					Assay	0.86

167 Golden Glint Tunnel 1934					Date on Pages Jan 22-23,1935

5/10	East of Winch			2 inch	W	Assay	2.04
5/10	West of Winch			3 inch	W	Assay	4.03
5/10	22 ft	in		4 inch	W	Assay	0.22
5/30	Top in Stope					Assay	1.24
6/10	Top in Stope					Assay	0.66
6/10	West from Winch	2 ft down				Assay	3.78
6/10	13 ft back from	Face		3 inch	W	Assay	1.42
6/12	12 ft in Winch					Assay	3.16
6/18	5 tons to Mill					Assay	2.48
	5

167-148 Top Notch Claim					Date on Pages Jan 24-25, 1935

3/19	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	1.52
4/16	Cut		8 inch	W	Assay	1.19
4/29	Cut		8 inch	W	Assay	0.88
5/18	Cut		8 inch	W	Assay	1.27
6/1	Cut		8 inch	W	Assay	0.98
6/15	Cut		10 inch	W	Assay	1.08
6/19	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	6.48
5/14	24 tons to Mill				Assay	1.04
6/17	29 tons to Mill				Assay	0.99
	53

161 - 147 Top Notch Claim 1934					Date on Pages Jan 26-27, 1935

3/12	Old Cut		10 ft	in	6 inch	W	Assay	1.65
3/30	Old Cut		29 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	3.07
4/12			34 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	1.64
5/2			51 ft	in	5 inch	W	Assay	1.52
6/12			59 ft	in	5 inch	W	Assay	2.02
6/18	Stope		32 ft	in				0.84
5/3	17 tons to Mill						Assay	1.83
6/18	19 tons to Mill						Assay	1.29
	36

169-110 Cugar (sic) Tunnel 1934					Date on Pages Jan 28-29, 1935

5/20			20 ft	in	4 inch	W	Assay	3.50
5/20			46 ft	in	5 inch	W	Assay	0.18
5/20		Winch	12 ft	down	4 inch	W	Assay	0.83
		Winch	23 ft	down	5 inch	W	Assay	2.48
		Winch	32 ft	down	5 inch	W	Assay	2.18
6/12	4 tons to Mill						Assay	2.48

170 Golden Blaze Claim					Date on Pages Jan 30-31, 1935

5/12	Face – in Old	tunnel			6 inch	W	Assay	0.8
5/28	3 ft – in from old	face			6 inch	W	Assay	2.56
6/10	8 ft – in from old	face			6 inch	W	Assay	2.00
6/18	10 ft – in from	old face			6 inch	W	Assay	1.35
6/18	5 tons to Mill						Assay	1.74
	Tunnel in 75 ft

150 Top Notch 1934					Date on Pages Feb 1-2, 1935

3/12	Face of old tunnel		4 inch	W	Assay	0.63
3/30	12 ft	in	6 inch	W	Assay	1.69
4.16	29 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	0.28
4/30	42 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	1.18
5/20	56 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	0.94
6/20	68 ft	in	8 inch	W	Assay	0.78
4/12	16 tons to Mill				Assay	1.11
5/10	22 tons to Mill				Assay	0.83
6/17	28 tons to Mill				Assay	1.26
	66

155 T and T Claim 1934					Date on Pages Feb 3-4, 1935

3/18	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	0.46
4/2	Cut		8 inch	W	Assay	0.88
4/30	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	1.23
5/16	Cut		8 inch	W	Assay	1.12
5/14	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	0.83
6/19	Cut		4 inch	W	Assay	13.94
5/10	6 tons to Mill				Assay	1.02
6/16	8 tons to Mill				Assay	1.24
	14

165 T and T Claim 1934 - 260					Date on Pages Feb 5-6, 1935

3/12			5 inch	W	Assay	0.54
4/1			8 inch	W	Assay	0.92
4/24			8 inch	W	Assay	0.48
5/11			5 inch	W	Assay	0.72
6/2			7 inch	W	Assay	0.92
4/15	14 ton to Mill				Assay	0.56
6.1	29 tons to Mill				Assay	0.64
	8 tons to Mill				Assay	0.58
	51

156 T and T Claim 1934					Date on Pages Feb 7-8, 1935

3/18	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	1.44
4.2	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	0.88
4/24	Cut		8 inch	W	Assay	1.19
5/12	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	0.14
5/21	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	0.10
5/29	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	0.42
6/10	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	1.48
6/19	Cut		6 inch	W	Assay	1.74
5/11	24 tons to Mill				Assay	1.09
6/16	27 tons to Mill				Assay	0.84
	51

Assay Ledger					Date on Pages Feb 9-10, 1935
Not worked				Shipments Yankee Maid

Gold	Lead			Tons	OZ	#
0.66	9.30			6	0.38
1.88	0.02			3	0.82	111
0.16	0.60			26	0.64	161
0.58	5.00			24	0.28	166
0.20	0.30			29	0.82	173
0.30	2.74			4	1.40	111
0.24	9.10			6	0.74	165
0.42	3.68			2	1.52	148
0.52	0.38			18	0.58	1?3
0.44	3.40			5	0.22	111
0.24	0.06			9	1.61	171
0.54	0.06			7	0.42	161
0.10	0.22			27	0.48	165
0.74	2.48			4	0.42	165
0.20				11	0.28	175
0.16	17.84			5	2.25	117

7.38	55.18			186	12.86

16 = 73715	15=55.28			80 tons to ? at cut $60

Assay Ledger					Date on Pages Feb 11-12, 1935
Never Worked

3.16	Gold
0.03			7.34
13.94			55.28
1.74			18.89
0.02		36]	81.51	[2.26

18.89				72
				95
				72
				0.31
		Total Assay =			2.26

		Yankee Maid Group

				Date on Page Feb 14, 1935

Smelting	6.50			Editors Note: Hand written notation of expenses.
?	5.40			Editors Note: Hand written notation of expenses.
deduct	4.00

24	3/3	W-Neaueall
1/600.00

Baran
2 Red Rooms
1 Price Room
New Storage
Mrs Whyte

				Date on Page Feb 16, 1935

Tom Claisen		8 1/2	34	Editors Note: Hand written notation of expenses.
Justyn		6 1/2	30	Editors Note: Hand written notation of expenses.
Whyllen		6 1/5	26
F Roley		7 1/2	30
M and Roley		8 1/2	51

Board $10.00 for each man
K.B. Jackson $60.00 in
W Pd $1.50 Roley
Ne H $30.00 Roley
$1.00 Roley

NOTE: To the best of our ability we transcribed the information as written.

Cut High =		Sample taken from ceiling.
Cut Low =		Sample taken from floor.
Cut in Face =		Sample cut from end (face).

Adit =		Mine opening with only one exit.
Tunnel =		Mine opening with more than one exit.

COLUMBIA EXPERIENCE

By: Allan Hall

My one opportunity to meet George Walters at Columbia occurred in the late 1970’s when my friend and mentor, Travis Hill, and I were returning from a 4WD outing in my old Toyota Land Cruiser.

We had been on some rough trails in the Wasson Peak area in the Bradshaw Mountains and planned to end the trip on a trail that heads south along Humbug Creek.

There is a point on this trail where it forks to the left (toward Columbia). Knowing that we could connect to another trail that would take us through Tip Top, we opted for that route.

As we neared Columbia we saw a man holding a shotgun, standing in front of a closed gate.

Travis and I had developed the habit of carrying business cards with us when we explored the back country.

We both worked for Valley National Bank and felt that if people knew we were willing to identify ourselves with a reputable company, it might open opportunities to visit with them and learn a bit of history in the process.

It was another way of saying “We won’t damage your property!”

I stopped about 50 feet in front of the gate. Travis and I waved to the man and got out of my 4WD – business cards in hand.

He walked toward us with the shotgun cradled in his arm. I don’t know what was in Travis’ mind, but I recall thinking that “a moment of truth” was at hand.

We walked toward the man and introduced ourselves. He identified himself as George

Walters and asked us where we were headed.

George Walters said that four wheelers had been causing him a lot of problems recently on his road between Columbia and Gold Hill, where he had mining operations.

As a result, he had installed a gate and was no longer allowing people through the area.

Once Mr. Walters was comfortable with our presence he relaxed (much to our relief), and struck up a conversation with us. He explained that a lot of 4-wheelers had been driving through his property “hell bent for leather,” and were tearing up the road. He said that most of these drivers were trying to prove to themselves how fast they could make it up the hill, without regard to what they were doing to the road. He was also concerned that one of his ore trucks would collide with a 4-wheeler and he was no longer willing to put up with that risk. He also said the constant re-grading of the road was expensive.

Our conversation shifted from the road to his connection with Columbia.

Mr. Walters started on that subject by describing what happened the night Columbia was destroyed.

He said that, evidently, most of the Columbia residents were in the saloon(s) that night. It was a windy evening and apparently a fire (camp fire/cooking fire?) got out of control.

The wind quickly spread the fire and essentially burned down the whole town. That night Columbia ceased to exist. I think Mr. Walters told me the fire was in the 1920’s

Because ore production had been on the decline for some time, Mr. Walters said that most of the townspeople simply “picked up and moved”.

A few years later (unknown date), Mr. Walters bought up the claims around Columbia and reopened some of the mines.

As I recall, he was operating three mines at the time we met him. These mines were producing gold, silver and lead.

At the time of our meeting, Mr. Walters was in his 70’s. His most striking physical characteristic was his very deep and weathered tan.

His skin almost seemed like leather – as if he had spent his entire life working outdoors.

Travis and I respected his desire to keep the road closed to “outside” traffic, so we retraced our route back to the fork and made our way home.

In any case – he still had the shotgun!

Aside from the brief journey through the history of Columbia, the meeting with Mr. Walters left an impression with me that has lasted through the years.

That is – respect the trail that you are on. Unless you are driving a road grader, someone else will have to repair the damage you create with irresponsible driving.

RODNEY “PUG” DALTON JR. REMEMBERS

Pug worked in and about the Columbia mining district for several years in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. He knew many of the mine owners, workers and has very found memories of Newt White, a former well known landmark resident of the area. The following are quotes from a Telephone interview with limited editing.

“Sodi-pop”

One of the local residents, I can’t remember “Sodi-pops” last name, all I remember is “Sodi-pop.” Newt is the one that told me about him. Newt claimed “Sodi-pop” had a lot of money and he liked to drink “Sodi-pop”, that’s how he got his nickname. One day “Sodi-pop” went to Phoenix and on his way back he got killed.

Newt always figured that they killed him for his money. Newt said there was no way “Sodi-pop” would have taken his money with him. Newt always told me that money “Sodi-pop” may have had, has to be buried somewhere around where he lived and that was right there on the first deck, you know, up above where the old town of Columbia was. Across the creek up on that deck there is an old chimney there on the Gold Hill side. Newt told me if I could ever find one of those bottles, I could name my own price and retire.

Hershell M. “Curly” McKibby

Curly was a miner working a claim about one mile north of Columbia. Troy Gillenwater informed us that Curly was born on May 15, 1908 and passed away on September 8, 1985 at 75 years old. His house and workings are well known in the vicinity and his mining efforts stretching over many years. He was living at his home (his cabin) at the time of his passing.

Curly’s House

You will have to hike up the creek to get to Curly’s from the Columbia house. I’m going to say a mile, you can’t miss it as he has a rock deck and a rock house, he’s in the middle of a big curve, in fact the creek goes up and by his place, goes up and makes a big old “S” right there on the creek. Curly used to have his big ole shaker screen on that “S”. I guess he was trying to find the ever elusive gold. I have people tell me, finding gold up there was very limited with little reward and I think he died just before I got up there and I didn’t get to meet him. No one has admitted finding the Mother Lode in Humbug Creek yet.

GEORGE WALTERS SHOT JUDGE

I was talking to someone the other day, and they said old George (Walters) shot a Judge about halfway off the hill between the mill operation and the old town of Columbia, there is a flat area about half way and that’s where it happened, over some mining claims that they had a little problem with. They said he was a Judge in Phoenix, and they had a little problem over the claims and the Judge went to pull a gun on George and George shot and killed him on the spot. Some question as to the position and authority of the person, he may have been Judge or Justice of the Peace. It is rumored that the person was drunk when the confrontation happened.

GEORGE WALTERS SHOT BIKER

George Walters may best be described as a considerate, compassionate, as well as a benevolent person. Whoever George’s theory on trespassing was straight forward, once he posted the “No Trespassing Sign”, he meant it! To which, this gave him the right to shoot anyone that paid no heed to his signs or disrespect to his property or holdings. Figure 2, of this book is an example of one of George’s posted signs. With the caption; “Any perceived theory on the sign painter’s ability to spell does not diminish their ability to shoot trespassers”.

Case in point, Richard D. Losee described; one day a biker gang crashed the gates, breaking the locks, deciding to invade Columbia. They then informed George they were taking over! George’s response was swift and deadly. Pulling his 44 magnum, George shot the lead biker off his motorcycle, killing him before he hit the ground. To which all plans of the biker gang were instantly rewritten and were dispelled post haste. It is said within 2 seconds of George killing the lead biker any trace of the rest of the gang had vanished in a cloud of dust, never to be seen again, at least in Columbia.

Some indicate George may have been a former member of the Arizona Rangers Law Enforcement group. We tried to contact them to verify, but they have never returned our telephone calls. This may or may not account for his deadly accuracy and no none sense demeanor. George would easily be classified by Bull Riders as “about half tough!”

Allan Hall

It is interesting that you mention a shooting in the area of Gold Hill.

I was varmint hunting with a friend, one morning in the area below Columbia, along Humbug Creek. We heard on the radio that there had been a shooting north of us that was being investigated by the sheriff's department. At the time, the report only said that a miner had shot someone on his claim. From the description of the news account, we believed that we were only two or three miles from where the incident took place.

The year was somewhere around 1966 to 1967.

That incident, plus that fact that I have been shot at on two other occasions, has always made me a bit cautious about miners. Another reason why I carry my trusty 9MM ...

Two Miners

By: Pug Dalton

Did you ever hear about a couple of miners getting caved in up there?

Local miners tried to dig them out of the mine, until they gave up seeing it was a hopeless effort.

It was years later . . . there was a story the two miners were in Old Mexico, I can’t even remember who told me this, but there were a couple of miners that supposedly it was these two miners that they figured the mine had caved in on and they tried to dig them out. Then they showed up in old Mexico with a stalagmite and stalactite of solid gold. I’m repeating what I was told.

Nancy and Lucy Walters

Nancy and Lucy (born September 9, 1930) were George and Marguerite (Walters) daughters. I’m pretty sure Nancy is still alive, and I don’t know about Lucy. I saw Nancy . . . she used to stop by all the time when we were building that mill. Lucy I saw one time and she was pretty sour about the whole thing. They were a lot older than I was. I think when I was up there, which was almost 20 years ago wasn’t it, 18 years ago? That can’t be that long! 1990, geese that’s been a long time hasn’t it? You know I’m guessing. They would have been in their 50’s when I last saw them. I’d guess they are in their 60’s 70’s now or around that age.

I don’t remember Nancy’s married name, I just remember meeting her a couple of times. The one time I met her it was in Utah and she had a big old nugget that was laced with gold, kind of a specimen deal.

George and Marguerite Walters - Final Resting Place

I guess Joe Stocks and Lucy; they brought George and Marguerite, what was George’s last name (Walters)? I heard it today and I think it was Walter or something. But I guess Lucy brought their ashes (Mr. George & Mrs. Marguerite Walters) up on Gold Hill Mountain. George (Walters) had a cabin up on top of Gold Hill at their Cougar Mine. The Cougar Mine is shown on the USGS Columbia Quadrangle map. Located at the point of Gold Hill Mountain overlooking the region, it is an extremely beautiful spot. (Figure 33)

Prior to his death, George Walters went up there and worked their Cougar mine, Marguerite Walters would stay down in Columbia at their house. The cabin and buildings have blown over up on the mountain. It was up on the point of Gold Hill Mountain anyway when I was working at Columbia, Lucy, I think it was Lucy, she brought George and his wife’s ashes there and the spread them up there on Gold Hill, up there where that little cabin was.

I’m told that when they opened the containers containing the ash remains of Mr. and Mrs. Walters, there were some bone’s remaining. The bones of Marguerite Walters were larger than the bones of Mr. Walters? Don’t know if she was larger then him or they mixed up the remains. Regardless their remains are sprinkled at the Cougar Mine at the point of Gold Hill Mountain.

Beacon Light Mine

Neal: I’ve been trying to document the Beacon Light Mine for 3 years since Dave Burns told me about it and Kevin Hart provided the exact coordinates to the site. To me it appears to be slightly north of the actual peak of Gold Hill. Dave Burns told me at one time there were quite a few structures at the site. I’ve never seen a road on any map that shows how you could get to it.

Pug: I know the Walters had a cabin on Gold Hill at their Cougar Mine. We have one mine that we opened up called the T.N.T. Mine. The road that goes around to it, I think its on the topographical map, but on the road to the T.N.T. sets on the deck, just take it back out . . . would that be to the east, southeast I guess, it would be out to that point and that’s where the cabin was that George Walters stayed in. I guess when Mrs. Walters was up there visiting him one day when she found that rock, it was about the size of a softball. While he was mining she found the rock with all the gold in it. Lucy subsequently ended up with it. And I’ve seen it, it was very impressive. I didn’t want to touch if cause if I dropped it she would probably killed me.

It’s strange how life guides your destiny. The map I had, had a lot of my exploring in it. You know there is one place I headed up there so may times and I got sidetracked and went somewhere else and I’ve never went up there. I was going to go up there last year and the person Mrs. Losee had up there, he didn’t want anybody to go in there so we ended up going back to town. So I don’t know what’s up there at that place, but for some reason every time I try to go up there, something has turned me around.

It’s a horrible, horrible spot to get to I can tell you that! But it’s pretty ironic that every time I try to go up to it something happens and I end up going somewhere else. I guess I’m not supposed to go up there.

I sat there and talked with Newt, golly I talked with Newt four or five times about it. I even loaded Newt in the gosh damn jeep one day and took him up there. He pointed out a lot of things to me and the one place I was looking for he kept telling me, he’d be looking as we couldn’t see it, I finally figure out what he telling me, you had to try and figure out where he was standing and looking to figure out his direction.

One day I ran into a cowboy and the cowboy told me where it was. The cowboy’s could care less about the gold. In fact the guy over on the other side of Gold Hill (Tip Top Side) I got to talk to him one time, and I asked him “you didn’t ever mine for that gold did you” he says “nope, all them miners had to have something to eat, I made my money with beef!” I guess at one time there was about eight thousand head of cattle on the Tip Top, five at Humbug and three at Gold Hill mining just before the war started. At least that’s what I’ve heard anyway.

Neal: When you’re giving references where you and Newt were, is that the old road that goes up from Columbia to Tip Top?

Pug: That’s the road I helped build and was working on the mill over there where Dave is at (Humbug). I helped build that mill where Mrs. Losee is at (Columbia). I also did a lot of assessment work for that whole area up there. I drove a cat up there and did some work for Nick Caruso (Sp?) up there at the Acquisition. I’ve done a lot of hiking up there, I love that place up there.

I remember working that road with a cat all the way from Columbia up and around and back into the Acquisition. I did a bunch of cat work over there for Nick at the Acquisition Mine.

Figure 26

Acquisition Mine c. 2007 Photograph courtesy: Bruce Colbert

Champie Baby Grave

Pug Dalton met some really old people that came up one day, when we were building that mill at Mrs. Losee’s and you know there was about thirty of us there working and you know all the old people there, and nobody would go talk to him and I closed the whole operation down, I shut down and went over there and talked to him. And they told me if you go building here, and they were from the Champie’s and they directed Joe Stocks to the grave and Joe relayed the information to me and I went up and reclaimed a little baby, somebody that had got bit by a scorpion when they was a baby.

Pug stated: Everything I’m saying is just what people have said to me and I don’t know how true any of it is. The one thing I do know on that grave, is there was old people (Champie family) and that’s where they told Joe Stocks it was and he gave me the directions to the location.

We sat that stone on the kitchen table at the Walters house at Columbia, we must have worked on it for a week or two. We ground on that marker with a Dremel Tool if I recall correctly, we had the born date and death date and can’t remember the first name but I remember it was a Champie.

Newt (White) had me go into meet Joe (Champie) one time. Newt kind of . . . before they started doing that mining at the Humbug . . . you know, I took those people the samples to get them interested to go up in there to Newt. They were supposed to buy Newt a pickup.

Figure 27

Photograph courtesy: Cathy Cordes

Guy Scott, Henry Cordes, Newt White at Cordes, Arizona c. 1960

Newt didn’t want them to go in there, you know I talked to him and you know . . . but I used to go over there to Newt all the time to check on him . . . chuckle . . . Did you get any stories about Newt, he was a treat now.

Newt helped run those power lines in there through Cordes. He was on the crew that brought that power in there.

Newt’s Typical Breakfast

Newt would eat a pound of bacon, and I think it was eight eggs every morning for breakfast.

Newt’s Small Shot

In the evenings he’d have a small shot. One evening I went over to Humbug to check on him and he asked me if I wanted a small shot with him?

I said to Newt “A shot, you don’t drink do you?” Newt said “I like to have a small shot in the evening” so I said “I guess if it’s a small one I’ll have a small one with you”. Chuckle . . . he grabbed his cane and said “this here stuff, is the stuff I share with people that come by that like to drink my whiskey”.

Figure 28

Then he said “over here though, is my special stuff”. He had this other stuff – gallons of it – he drags this out and grabs this big ole glass, and fills it with whiskey. You know one for him and one for me, then he put a little splash of water in it.

I said “Gosh damn Newt, what are you trying to do kill me”. Newt said “well it’s a small shot”. Newt had one of them every night I guess. I could hardly drive out of there after drinking my “small shot”.

Newt was a hoot, I really liked him. I caught him hanging off the cliff one day in his pickup. He had driven off the road and he was high centered on a boulder and he’d been setting there on his butt trying to dig the rocks out from under his truck with his cane half the day. So I said “Gosh dang Newt, let me give you a little help”.

Figure 29

Newt’s artificial left leg, notice hole which was his vault.

Photo by: Neal Du Shane

Newt’s Vault

Newt had his left prosthesis made out of wood. In it he had a hollow place where he stored money. When he was young, he worked at the Champie ranch when it was a dude ranch. He sometimes drove the guests to town and brought back supplies, including cash for the guests when they would cash checks. He carried the cash in his wooden leg.

On the left is a photograph of one of Newt’s old prosthesis. Notice the hollowed out hole about half way up from the ankle. It is now on display at the Cordes store, operated by Cathy Cordes. You can be sure its Newt’s as it has his vault built in it (we checked, it was empty!)

Disrespect

There can be very disrespectful people out there . . . Like I was telling you the old guy over by the Tip Top, I got to talk with him a little bit one time, and there was a bunch of us headed over to the Acquisition Mine (Figure 26) and I’ve really wanted to go back over there and talk with that guy. He was . . . well I can’t describe him. Really a special person.

He went to town one day to get groceries and supplies, when he come back, somebody had went in there and just tore the hell out of his place. Stole all his guns, they even ransacked it. He was old enough they just took him back to town, never to return to his former home again.

The only thing over there now is a small camper type trailer that looks to be a ranch line shack for cowboys at the intersection of the roads leading to Tip Top, Columbia, Acquisition and Packer. There is nothing left but a shed, trailer and some corrals. In 2007 there was a Caterpillar parked there that they evidently kept the road Tip Top Road open with.

Another time we were setting there talking with him and it was kind of neat cause, we’d be setting there talking and all of a sudden some type of critter would show up. He would just stop, if he was talking or who ever was talking, he’d get up and he’d go over and if it was a bucket of grain, you know, the mules, horses, whatever, he’d give them a bucket and he’d come back and set down.

If he was talking when he left he would come back, he would start his sentence exactly where he left off as if he never left. If someone else was talking when he came back he set down and looked at them and everybody would be talking about something different.

This happened a few times. I could tell he was a little bit irritated about it, one time he came back and he didn’t say nothing, but when he left he was in the middle of a sentence and he was thinking we was a bunch of impolite individuals anyway, was the impression I was getting.

When he sat down everybody started talking something again and I started talking about the same thing that he started when he left. I was the only one he’d talk to after that.

He was one of the big ranchers over on the Tip Top side. That’s one of the things I said “man you must have never mined that gold.” He got a big grin and told me “all them miners needed something to eat, and he made his money selling them meat” . . . I think he said he ran . . . I don’t know where I got five thousand cattle in my mind . . . but he ran a bunch of cattle and he did damn good feeding them.

You know the Beacon Light Mine . . . ah . . . the story that Dave Burns told you, is where George Walters was working, that’s the mine, I’ve been wanting to go to all these years. I know exactly where it is. Well I don’t know exactly where it is, I just know the draw where it is, and the story I got from the Beacon Light is it’s the profits of the mine that started the First National Bank in Phoenix.

I went up there and Dave might have heard it from Newt, because I kept going over there to get Newt to zero me in on it and he could never do it. I ended up talking to a cowboy one year and he ended up telling me where it was.

I’ve looked and I know where it’s at. It’s either on the south side of that draw or the north side of it, not sure which. But that thing is straight up and straight down.

The guy that owned the Beacon Light had a whore house, a saloon and a boarding house at the mouth of the mine. Them miners, when they went into that mine he paid them when they come out and he’d get back every ounce of gold that came out of that mine. It was such a horrible place to get to, once you got there was absolutely no place to go. He had the whore house and saloon where the miners would get drunk, go to bed. The next day they’d be broke and they’d walk in there and do it all over again.

There are mines up there all over the place. I went in on one day with my cigarette lighter and I went in that thing and kept flipping the lighter on – I don’t know how far I walked in it but I turned around and all I could see is a pin hole for light at the end. I got to thinking what in the hell am I doing?

I went in another mine up there and the whole damn place started shacking and it was full of snakes. I knew there was something alive in it when I found it. Next day I went back with a light and I figured it was going to be pigs. All night I was thinking when I go in there and if I run into some pigs, I’ll stand up against the wall and shine my light down the drift to show them the way out.

All the time I’m thinking pigs and I’ve been walking past snakes, they were everywhere! What an idiot.

I guarantee you, the miners that were working those mines that rock was so hard, I sat there hacking it with a rock pick and I couldn’t hardly get a flint piece off of it. All I could get is sparks I can tell you those guys up there had a lot of salt in there systems.

Figure 30

Photo courtesy: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Columbia test sample shed, crushing plant, cement bin, Agglomerator. c. 1980’s - 1990’s

There is this story the Pug tells about mining for gold:

This old prospector coming down the hill from the Mountain.

He’s got his mule, picks, shovels, bed roll etc.

He meets this young miner at the bottom of the hill with his mule, picks, shovels, bed roll headed up the mountain.

The old miner says “howdy there partner, where you headed?”

The young miner points at the mountain and says “there is gold in them hills.”

As the old miner walk’s away he turns and says “there’s honey in road apples too but it take’s a bee to get it.”

NEWT WHITE

By Dave Burns

Newt (Figure 27) ran away from home in 1922 when he was 14. His father was ruthless, who took him out of school and put him to work in a saw mill for 90 cents a day, then took Newt’s pay. Newt came to Arizona to become a cowboy, went to work for Charlie Champie at his ranch on French Creek. Became a pretty good wrangler, and was riding the rough stock.

When Newt was 16, he was riding far from the Champie ranch when his horse spooked and threw him. He had a lariat around the saddle horn, his foot got caught in it, and he was dragged and stomped quite a distance, through Cholla cactus and rocks. His horse came back to the ranch without him, and they had to track him to find him. So he lay there all day, mostly unconscious, until they found him in early evening.

They packed him into Phoenix to Good Samaritan Hospital. The left leg was stomped too badly to be saved. He eventually recovered, got most of the Cholla thorns out, and got a wooden leg. He didn't let it slow him down much.

I asked him once how he mounted a horse, with his left leg like that. He said he just grabbed the saddle horn and jumped into the saddle, simple as that.

He got a job as a mill operator I think it was at the Constellation Mine near Yarnell or Wickenburg. After working there a few months, he asked for Saturday off. When asked why, Newt said he needed to get his leg worked on.

The foreman said that if he had known that Newt had a wooden leg, he never would have hired him. But he won't pass up another one. Newt was the best mill operator they had ever had.

His leg did keep him out of World War II.

I remember a couple of Tip Top stories Newt related to me.

Newt worked with the cyanide process there. I think they were removing pillars in the mine and reprocessing tailings. He talked about going in the mine when they were pumping out the water.

When it came time to shut the mine down, he had noticed that the tank rakes wouldn't go all the way down, and measured the depth of the solution. Turned out there was a substantial buildup of concentrates in the bottom of the tanks. They tested very rich. A final big profit was made by cutting holes in the bottoms of the tanks and removing the concentrates. I always wondered if he had kept his mouth shut he could have come back later and got rich. Guess that just wasn't Newt’s way.

He must have worked occasionally as cook. He told about when the game warden stopped by one day. He was cutting the tops off carrots, tossing them out the back door, while talking with the warden. The warden looked out the door and saw a deer eating the tops. "Guess there isn't much poaching going on around here," said the warden.

Courtesy: “Ranch Trails and Short Tales” by: Claire Champie Cordes

Edward Newton White’s grandfather was a scout on a wagon train from Missouri across the Oregon Trail, finally landing in Lowell Range, Oregon. They had many close calls with the Indians; for many days they were afraid to build a fire. At night the wagons would form a circle and the animals and people stayed in the center for protection.

When they arrived in Lowell, Grandfather White married the girl he had admired all along the trail, Sally Hobbs, and Irish-German girl. From this union, eighteen children where born, the last was Newt’s father. He turned out to be a restless, adventurous man who worked as little as possible.

After he married Newt’s mother, Newt and a sister (Annie May White, buried at Copperopolis, AZ Cemetery) were born.

Figure 31

Figure 32

Figure 31. Newt White, Brother. Figure 32 Annie May White, Sister - Headstones

Photographs and enhancement courtesy: Neal Du Shane

Figure 33

Photograph Courtesy: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Columbia in foreground at bottom of hill. Ore processing at top of hill.

TROY GILLENWATER - MEMORIES OF “CURLY” McKIBBY

Hershell M. “Curly” McKibby was 68 years old when I first met him in 1975. I was friends with him until his death on September 8, 1985 at the age of 76. Curly was born on May 15, 1908. His Social Security card was issued in Michigan before 1951.

I met Curly purely by accident. I was into mining history in the Southern Bradshaw’s as a teenager. I had hiked and stumbled across Humbug strictly by accident, hiking completely overland, then hiked from there up to Prescott.

I had a Topographical Map and saw where there was another ghost town by the name of Columbia just south of Humbug. It dawned on me with all the mining activities in the area there had to be something along Humbug Creek between Columbia and Humbug.

In 1975 I went up there with a friend of mine and we hiked that section and came around a bend and discovered Curly’s cabin and saw smoke coming out of the chimney and couldn’t believe someone could live out there in this remote area.

At the time I was 15 years old, he (Curly) came running out of the cabin with a pistol, saw me . . . I was on the opposite side of Humbug Creek. Actually he came out of the cabin without a pistol, saw me went back in the cabin and came out with the pistol, and came splashing across the creek. I had my hands up, screaming “I don’t mean to be trespassing, I’m just passing through!” Of course my friend had turned around and was running in the other direction. But I wasn’t about to turn my back on this guy, because I hadn’t done anything wrong!

Curly finally ran within 10 feet of me, and it dawned on me he simply couldn’t hear what I was saying, I was a little bit agitated and the octave of my voice raised I’m sure.

With all the blasting in the mines Curly had done over the years he was hard of hearing, he just couldn’t hear me.

We struck up a friendship then and there, and became very close friends. Then eventually I went away to college and I convinced my university professors to allow me to come up and spend the winters with Curly, to write about it and that’s what I did. I did that for the winters of 1979, 1980 and 1983.

Curly’s claims were the Black Rock Claim, and Red Rock Claim, I’m absolutely sure of that.

BLACK ROCK & RED ROCK CLAIM’S

Figure 34

Figure 35

Black Rock and Red Rock Lode Claim forms, Courtesy Troy Gillenwater

I met Newt White from time to time. Newt, you know, he was an amazing man, I didn’t know it at the time. You know when you look back on how you were as a teenager your perceptions change over time.

Curly didn’t really get along that well with Newt; Curly suspected Newt was taking money from him. So I got a little bit of an unfavorable feeling toward Newt, however now that I look back on it, I mean even if that were true, Newt deserved it for hauling up all the groceries and other things, that he did, just taking care of Curly. Newt was always friendly and nice to me.

I did meet another fellow when I stumbled into the area by the name of “Harry”. Harry was 88 years old when I met him. He lived in a tiny “Tear Drop” trailer in Columbia and Newt looked after him as well.

I remember when I started coming regularly to see Curly; I’d stop by and see Harry. Every time I’d meet him I’d say “Harry how are you” and Harry would reply “God Dammit I’m still alive”, he was mad he was still alive. Harry couldn’t see or hear very well and didn’t have any teeth. Harry loved birds though; Newt would bring him huge sacks of bird seed because there were billions of quail by Harry’s house.

Harry’s trailer was up on the upper level by the main house of the Walters. There was a period of time when there way no one there at the main house after the Walters moved out and Harry kind of looked out for the property.

I met George Walters sometime around 1975. I didn’t know what a great man he was either. I knew he saw us climbing up on the western slope of Gold Hill, he got on horse back and came on up after us, asked us what we were doing? George was very nice and cordial and then invited us back to his house, and his wife fixed us a wonderful breakfast. That was my only dealing with him and his wife; he was quite old at that time.

Curly told me about George Walters shooting the person (Judge) . . . Curly was there; at least Curly told me he was there. I think it was in the mid 1960’s. I believe the person was a Justice of the Peace and he was drunk according to Curly.

There is a grave up on the west slope of Gold Hill of an O.E. Perry. I could find it, it’s on the Southwestern slope, there was a road, I’m not sure it wasn’t the main road from Tip Top; there was a shack not far from this grave site.

Richard D. Losee confirms the grave, Dick one time was at the structure and killed a rattlesnake. Dick was out exploring his claims, walked into the dim and dank structure, on the inside of the stone walls were shelves that were used for storage, sticking out about two feet from the walls. On one of them he saw what looked like an Arizona tourist souvenir ashtray with a pink coiled pink rattlesnake beside it.

You guessed it, the rattlesnake was for real. After Dick got a stick and gave it a nudge, he and the rattlesnake did the double two step to the front door then outside, Dick proceeded to shot it with his snub-nose .38 detective special with custom wooden handles, loaded with six buckshot bullets.

As Dick remembers the structure, it was made out of stone. It sets on the right as your going up Gold Hill. As Dick recalls the structure could have been where they kept the powder that the BLM set off in the winter of 2007.

Troy Gillenwater continues: You know where you describe the confluence of Humbug Creek and Rockwall Gulch. Rockwall splinters off into Swilling and Carpenters Gulch. Right in there I build a make shift structure when I lived with Curly those three different winters. I’ve been all over that area and never found the Champie babies grave. That doesn’t mean it didn’t exist but I never found it.

There was this guy that was a few years older, I’d say five years older than me and I’m 46. He appeared out of nowhere one day and he was strange. He stumbled into Curly and Curly didn’t much care for him. He was a religious sort, almost a fire and brimstone type of person. There are a lot of characters in the back country.

Spooky being where Curly was and how remote it was. You never know who’s coming up or down the creek.

I’ll look back through my notes as I’m sure I have his name. In fact when he found out Curly had died, he looked me up and wanted me to finance his efforts to patent those claims for himself. He gave me a manifesto of all these expenses, which include things like Oozy Machine-guns, it was bazaar. I thought “Who Are You!” But then again I was pretty suspicious of Curly in the beginning as I’m sure he was of me.

Have you run across a person by the handle “Horsethief Thompson?” No, but that could be our guy who was stealing the horses in Prescott and turning them in for the reward money.

I think that’s the guy. Curly talked about him a lot. The Horsethief Basin was named for him near Crown King.

CURLY’S HELICOPTER ENCOUNTER

When I was a freshman in college, I convinced this young pretty Mormon girl to come down and meet me in Crown King. Then I hiked up from Curly's to Crown King to meet her, then she and I hiked down to Curly’s.

This was in the winter of 1980 so it was one of the worst floods in recorded history. The day we arrived at Curly’s it started to rain. It didn’t stop raining for two weeks. Her parents grew concerned of course, as she was long overdue.

Her parents some how got a hold of my father. My father was the attorney for Channel 3 television station in Phoenix. My dad somehow got Channel 3 to bring their helicopter up to Curly’s Place to check on us.

On that morning Annie and I are in the tent and we hear this helicopter coming through the clouds. The weather was terrible, it was raining and it was scary. We jump out of the tent and we see this helicopter coming out of the clouds. It was so close I could see my dad looking out the window of the helicopter.

All of a sudden I hear gun fire, blam, blam, blam-blam and I look up on the ridge and here is Curly kneeling firing at this thing.

Turns out Curly thought they were claim jumpers, Curly was paranoid about claim jumpers. I run up where Curly was kneeling, I didn’t wrestle him but grabbed the gun from him yelling “no-no-no”.

After Curly calmed down, we started talking about helicopters, he had never seen one so close. He later asked me if I’d pick one of those up for him. “Got To Get Me One Of Those.”

Curly never moved from his cabin. At one time Curly was essentially squatting on the unpatented mining claims. He kept those claims current until he died, for probably a decade after he died, I kept them current. But eventually I tired of it and let them lapse.

NIPPER, KIPPER AND SUSIE

Curly is actually buried on his claims . . . I found him; he had died in his cabin. It was a very odd story. When he died, at that time he had thirteen little dogs. When I first met him he had three little dogs, Nipper, Kipper and Susie were their names.

Over the years he would loose one of the dogs to a mountain lion or they would just disappear so my father brought him up a male or a female, the opposite sex of the dog he had still surviving. They had this tremendous amount of off spring.

What would typically happen, is that I would walk up to Curly’s cabin and I’d call out to him, the dogs would come running out, and he’d come running out with the pistol, he couldn’t see very well so I’d call out to him and as soon as he’d recognize my voice he was fine, he’d put the gun away.

One day I went up to Curly’s Place, the dogs came running out but Curly doesn’t. I knew something bad had happened. I had also been thinking about this exact situation, how was it going to be when and if, I found him?

At this point in Curly's life I was only up there every month in a half to two months. I thought how horrible it would be, to find him, if he had died a month and a half earlier.

It was September 8, 1985 at about 4:00 PM. Long shadows were already cast upon the ground when I discovered him.

As it happened I walked up to the cabin and peaked inside, he was lying there face down on his bed. I went inside the cabin and I went over to him, there was a hot cup of coffee, on the table next to him . . . he was dead. I’m not convinced he didn’t hear me coming. I’m not sure how it happened but he had just died within minutes of my arrival.

I hiked back out to Columbia, then drove to Castle Hot Spring resort and awoke Bud and Dorothy Mullins and called the Sheriff’s Department. Whenever someone dies like that, they have to have an inquest. I waited until about 3 in the morning for the Sheriff’s Deputies to arrive. Then we drove back to Columbia and hiked back up the creek and retrieved the body.

CURLY’S INTERMENT

Curly was taken to Prescott and cremated. I retrieved his ashes in a cardboard box from the Yavapai County Coroner. We buried Curly’s ashes on his claims near his cabin, at the foot of his favorite Saguaro. For a burial urn, we used Curly’s “Lucky” mining pan. We waited for sunset, and then a friend of mine played Neil Young’s “Old Man” as the sun went over the horizon. Since Curly rolled his own cigarettes and stored Jack Daniel’s whiskey for special occasions, each of us at the funeral rolled and smoked one of Curly’s cigarettes, took a pull on his last bottle of whiskey and spoke a few words. Afterwards, we had a giant party out there at his cabin. I must say it was the most meaningful funeral I have ever attended.

DOGS ADOPTED

I rounded up all the dogs and took them to a kennel in Tempe where the owner tried to adopt them out. After several months went by without any takers, I called a local television station, went on the air and told the story of Curly and his dogs. Within five minutes after the program aired, all thirteen dogs were spoken for!

CURLY McKIBBY’S DEATH CERTIFICATE

Figure 36

Courtesy: Troy Gillenwater

the daily utah CHRONICLE

Tuesday May 28, 1981

‘Curly’: introduction to the desert

Editor’s note: Troy Gillenwater, a University English major, has a favorite hermit in the Arizona desert from which stories flow abundantly. Following is Gillenwater’s account of his encounter with “Curly,” an area hermit and goldminer.

By Troy Gillenwater, Special to the Chronicle

In early spring he’ll find gila monsters sneaking into his rock cabin searching for food. In early fall come the rattlesnakes. The slither in at night, seeking warmth from his cast iron stove which fills the cabin with scent of burning mesquite. Scorpions and tarantulas and centipedes – he’s found them, too. The crawl on his mattress, hide in his shoes and between the rocks in the cabin’s jigsaw-like stone walls.

His name is Curly, and he’s a goldminer. He is also a hermit and lives isolated in a desert wilderness.

A half century ago, as a young man prospecting for gold, Curly first wandered into the cactus-covered Southern Bradshaw Mountains of Arizona. He hasn’t come out since.

I first met Curly by chance. I was looking for abandoned mines, ghost camps and old graveyards – they’re everywhere in the Bradshaw Mountains – and I hiked into a secluded ravine. There on a bank of a small creek I met the old man.

That was more than three years ago. But just last winter I went into the Bradshaw Mountains to live. I lived near the old prospector and shared with him the desert wilderness he says he’ll never leave. And it was like stepping into a time warp. As if time within the rugged canyons and granite-hewed desert peaks was somehow slower, somehow a hundred years behind what was happening out beyond the mountains. I was living among the rattlesnakes and mountain lions. The ocotillo and palo verde. Washing and drinking from creeks, cooking over a fire. I never traveled without a sidearm in the Bradshaw Mountains.

I built my cabin on a small flat just downstream from Curly’s. According to the old man, a character called Horsethief Thompson had once lived there too, but that was a hundred years earlier. Curly said Horsethief Thompson was having some trouble with the territorial law so he chose to give up his horse-stealing and try to settle down. I remember Curly explaining with a wry grin, “Well . . . Ol’ Horsethief, why he never stoled a damned horse in all his life. Maybe he borrowed a few illegally, but he never stoled nothin.”

And Curly told me more, in fact for three months, acting as an interpreter of sorts, he explained the way of the desert, of its strange inhabitants, and of it weird, succulent plantforms – the cactus.

CURLY McKIBBY PHOTOGRAPH

Figure 37

Hershell M. “Curly” McKibby, c. 1980’s courtesy: Troy Gillenwater

Curly showed me which cacti bear edible fruit – the prickly pear and saguaro – and which cacti contain the most accessible water for survival – the barrel. I learned that if you’re hiking through the desert and unsure of directions, find a compass barrel cactus and look which way its leaning. “Thems always point a feller southwest.” he promised. Freshly ground mesquite beans make a good meal and dried saguaro ribs make good fire starters. Green mesquite wood burns the longest, catclaw burns the hottest. He showed me how to pan for gold, how to cure and jerk deer meant, and I think most import, he showed me how to take the desert as it is.

Curly introduced me to the gila monster, a large venomous lizard that sometimes grows up to two feet long. Its size alone is frightening, but once I saw the lizard’s beaded orange and black skin, I understood why it’s called a gila monster. They look like monsters, but despite their appearance, and their bite, Curly calls them his pets. He has two of them which visit in spring. Once during an unusually warm March afternoon, Curly and I were eating quail stew when the two gila monster crawled inside the cabin. I heard hissing sounds and saw the lizards wiggling across the rock floor. My first reaction was to run. Me second reactions was to run faster. Then Curly told me what to do. “Just set still . . . thems ain’t gonna bother ye none.” But I watched suspiciously as they zigzagged around the cabin, peeking into crevices in the rock walls and crawling under the old man’s cot. They hissed a lot, spitting out their long and narrow tongues, but soon they slithered back out the door. Curly finished his stew.

Rattlesnakes don’t bother Curly either. He said, “That once a feller gets to know ‘em . . . hell, thems aint so bad. Why I’ve even hand ‘em hibernatin’ in me walls. Them rattlers keep the pack rats an’ other varmints away from me cabin.” Curly invited me to come visit in the summer when the rattlesnakes are all over. “Thems make for a pretty good feed,” he said.

We talked a lot. And listening to Curly was like reading from a book of Arizona history, except even better. Better because somehow while hiking along a certain mountain ridge and knowing what happened in that canyon down there, or on that creek below, it gave me a better feeling of how the 1800’ prospectors really did live and of the hardships they encountered.

On those purple, star-clustered nights common to Sonoran deserts, we sat outside and I listened to tales of how Crazy Woman Canyon, Fort Misery, Rattlesnake Gulch, and Skull Valley came to be called. On a creek bank in the 1870’s a group of Frenchmen began placer mining deep in the Bradshaw Mountains despite warnings that hostile Yavapai Indians were still roaming the canyons. When the Frenchmen discovered several rich pockets of course gold, they were so excited they let their guard down. And that’s all it took. A band of young warriors rushed down and it was a massacre. But as Curly tells it, one of the Frenchmen who was left for dead actually survived. Through horribly maimed he managed to ride mule back to Wagoner where he told of burying a Dutch oven full of gold nuggets beneath a saguaro with three arms, one of which points north. Several days later the victim died. The gold has never been found, but on the west bank of a creek called French Creek, seven unmarked graves make a person wonder.

And that’s what I liked the best – the wondering and wandering. Many times I’d load up my pack, strap on a gun belt and strike out. For three, sometime four or even five days I’d scrabble over the desert mountains, weaving a path between ghost towns, abandoned prospector’s shacks, and once, to a nameless little cemetery where graves were eulogized by tall saguaros. One epitaph read: “C. W. North – He Located His Last Claim”. It was the suspense and adventure, the self-reliance that I like most while roaming through the desert.

I learned a lot out there. From Curly I learned about the desert, and from the desert I learned about myself. I realized that somewhere within the desert’s hostile exterior, within its mesas, mountains and canyons, there lies a certain solitude and harmony – a mediation between myself and the desert environment.

I never saw it clearer than one night while sitting alone near a fire. Gold Hill, a big mountain was to the east; a range of jagged mountain peaks and disordered shelves, to the west. Camping on a large flat where bits of Indian pottery were strewn everywhere, I rolled out my sleeping bag between two boulders covered with petroglyphs. I remember looking through the flickering orange flames of my fire and recognizing the shapes of scorpion, snake, lizard and bighorn sheep etched on one of the boulders. Above the fire’s leaping sparks, the bluish-white glow of moonrise slowly emerged over Gold Hill. Coyotes started yapping. I was lonely, yet at the same time, more content than ever before.

GILLENWATER DONATES $1,000.00

TO THE BLACK CANYON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Reprint from BCHS - Summer Newsletter – 2007

Edited by: Neal Du Shane

When Hershell “Curly” McKibby, a Bradshaw Mountain prospector, died at age 84, in 1983, he left all his worldly belongings to a young college student. Sounds like an odd pairing, but when Troy Gillenwater was 15, he was out hiking through the Bradshaw’s, approximately eleven miles west of Black Canyon City, when he saw smoke. As he rounded the bend of the creek, in his investigation, he was confronted by old Curly brandishing a pistol!

“You a claim jumper?”, Curly shouted.

“No, no absolutely not. I’m just hiking form the Columbia Mine to the Humbug Mine.” the boy responded. Gillenwater said it took a few hours for him to convince old Curly he wasn’t there to steal anything. What ensued was a close, eight year friendship, in which Curly traded stories of his encounters for supplies, which Troy, his brother and their dad would occasionally “pack” in to Curly’s cabin. Curly told Troy that before he started bringing him his staples, he used to hike over to Rock Springs to stock up for the winter.

So, not having any family, that anyone knew of, Curly left all his possessions, which he said had no value, to his only real friend, Troy Gillenwater. And, Troy put everything in boxes in his garage for over twenty years, then took them to Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg. They stored them for a while, but really didn’t have the room to set up a display. So, when Gillenwater heard about the Old Cañon School Museum in Black Canyon, he called Historical Society president, Bob Nilles, who said he would be happy to set up a display to honor Curly.

This was just what Gillenwater was looking for. And, to show his appreciation, he joined the Black Canyon Historical Society and donated $1,000.00 to help set up the display of Curly McKibby’s life.

“ HARRY ”

By: Richard D. Losee

The first day we arrived at Columbia, the gates were all locked, signs were posted “No Trespassing”, the gates had a bell on them if you started messing with them, high security stuff. George Walters had to let us in, when we got to the house where the Walters lived; there is this old tear-drop type trailer parked. Basically a two person horizontal camper, you flipped up the rear and stood outside to do the cooking. Not more than four feet high, eight or nine feet long, Harry lived in that trailer.

Harry basically walked the area. Harry wasn’t quite as weathered as Curly, but Harry was always out in the sun.

Harry wore kaki short pants similar to those you wear when you’re on a safari, that kind of a look. He always had these short tan pants, probably the only pants he owned. He wore a Pith Helmet and he was always at Columbia when ever we were there. I don’t remember his last name and not sure I’d know it if you told me what it was.

CACHE La POUDRE

Figure 37

Setting off stored powder at the Golden Glint Mine at Columbia, AZ. Photograph courtesy: Neal Du Shane

“Cache La Poudre” roughly translated from French means to store or hide the powder (Poudre) in a secure, little known, not easily found, hidden location (Cache).

It should go without saying perceived abandoned mines are dangerous and should not be entered under any circumstances.

It is a felony to trespass on mine property. In addition to mining equipment, materials may be stored at these remote sites with the intent of the owner to once again work the mine at a future date.

Case in point, on February 22, 2007 at 1:19 PM, ATF and BLM coordinated setting off a Cache of blasting powder at that Golden Glint Mine. The cache of powder was remnants of mining operations and it is believed the powder had been stored in a secured cement vault and presumably for future use by the mine owners.

I was in the area, working on the pioneer cemeteries and graves at Old Columbia and the Cemeteries at and around Columbia (5 in total). As I approached Columbia ore processing operation I noticed many vehicles including a Forest Service fire truck parked at the property. Surveying the area I didn’t see smoke or flames so figured something was up as normally hunters don’t bring a fire truck with them.

Columbia and Humbug have become my adopted communities; I called Larry Gill and asked if there was a party of hunters staying at the house? Larry indicated not that he knew of but asked if I could tell what they were doing. Said their vehicles were at the main building but I could hear voices on Gold Hill Mountain but couldn’t see anyone. Larry asked that I go talk to them to see if I could determine what they were doing.

A couple of people came down from Gold Hill in a side by side, two passenger ATV, I called across the valley and asked them to meet me at the main gate. As I waited at the gate a woman walked up the driveway and instantly I saw the ATF logo on her t-shirt. We verbally danced for a while with no resolve as to what they were doing and I could tell there wasn’t going to be one either. She assured me they would be out of there within an hour or so. I explained I was the adoptive watch dog for Columbia and the ore processing area and reported to the caretaker’s things I observe when I’m in the area.

Went to the “T” intersection and called Larry Gill in Phoenix and explained my conversation with her. Larry said “Oh I think I know what they are up to”. Further explaining that there was a dynamite cement casement at the Golden Glint Mine that contained some powder and had powder stored in it. On occasion he would use a little of the explosives in his mining endeavors. Larry is certified and licensed to work with explosives. Larry believes someone had been out four wheeling and discovered the cement casement and reported it. With the heightened security since 9/11 it is reassuring to know they do pay attention to these reports, further someone doesn’t get hurt in an accident.

I proceed to Humbug and met with good friend Dave Burns. Dave had guests that he was giving his historic tour, so I asked if it was okay for me to go up to the El Pero Bonito Mine. On my way back to Humbug from the mine, I had stopped to take pictures in a saddle of the mountain. With camera in hand I heard a loud explosion, turning to the east I saw the plume of dark brown smoke billowing up from the mountain side (Figure 37).

Subsequently three more blasts were observed over the next three hours. That cache evidently was of considerable size based on the amount of blasts that took place.

Three separate blasts were set off to accomplish the destruction of the powder. From my perch approximately 2 miles away it was a significant KABOOM which gave me insight as to the conditions miners in those days had to endure (Figure 37).

There is a huge amount of information that has been lost regarding Columbia and the claims surrounding this area, because no one who lived there is any longer available. Some have passed away and others we haven’t been able to locate. It is possible the family of George Walters may have saved his papers? It is possible the present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Losee, may have accumulated documents or claim maps or knows someone that has historical references. Our research continues to find additional information regarding the history of Columbia and the mines in the area.

The road that leads up the side of the mountain on the east side of the creek is extremely rough due to the extensive monsoon rains in 2004. In addition, the road will take you to the Tip Top road about 3 miles farther east. I’ve observed both ends of this road and if the middle is as rough as the two ends, this is a road to proceed with extreme caution and do it only with additional vehicles JUST IN CASE you have a problem!

CAUTION

In 2007, five of us traversed the road from Tip Top to Columbia on three ATV’s and one UTV. Unless you are into rebuilding roads, going up from Columbia to Tip Top is IMPASSABLE. From Columbia up Gold Hill the first mile has an average elevation gain of 23%. Throw in some 30% grades and two 41% grades. To equate this, for every 100 feet you travel horizontally you gain 41 feet or you climb a four story building in 100 feet. If that isn’t challenge enough the road has washed out with deep ruts resembling steep canyons.

Our fearless group has been dubbed “The Columbia Long Riders” after successfully coming down this route, but that’s another story and I digress.

We wouldn’t recommend the road from Tip Top to Columbia in a 4 X 4 as it is too rough and narrow. If you do it on an ATV or dirt bike, take ample help – you will need it! I’ve been on extreme roads in Colorado including Black Bear Pass and Arizona and this road tops my list. Once you commit to this road, there’s no turning back! Back country roads in Arizona can change from day to day depending on rain and weather conditions.

Conversely, I’ve traveled back country roads that were on the verge of being impassable one week, then a month later ride the same route at 40 miles an hour after someone had improved and graded the route. You never know what you will find in the back country good, bad or indifferent, be prepared for anything. Don’t be foolish and know when to quit and turn back. No dishonor in getting home safe and sound.

DIRECTIONS

From the northwest end of Lake Pleasant Regional Park, travel left on Castle Hot Spring Road until Cow Creek Road, turn right, proceed until Columbia Trail (Approximately 10 miles on a gravel high clearance road) turn right follow this road for approximately 3 miles. At a “T” intersection some three miles, you have a choice, left to Humbug approximately 2 miles, right to Columbia approximately 3/4 miles. Then follow the BLM trail down to the Humbug Creek, turn right for approximately 1/4 mile, you will cross back over to the east bank of the creek. The historic town of Columbia rests on the west side of the creek. This is private property on the west side of the creek please don’t trespass (Figure 2).

Figure 38

American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project

CEMETERY INFORMATION

COLUMBIA CEMETERY

Yavapai County, Arizona

From Lake Pleasant, Cow Creek Rd to Columbia Rd, R to “T” intersection, R to GPS reading

First of three locations: Latitude N34 02.129, Longitude W112 18 691

	BURIALS =	6				3/4/2007
Marker	SURNAME	FIRST NAME	MIDDLE NAME	BIRTH DATE	DEATH DATE	COMMENTS

N	DOE	Jane		Baby		Verified interment
N	DOE	Jane				Verified interment
N	DOE	John				Verified interment
N	DOE	John				Verified interment
N	DOE	John				Verified interment
N	PERRY	Orville	E	Sep. 9, 1874	Feb. 17, 1955	Un-Verified interment
6
2nd burial: E. of Humbug Creek - S. of Columbia Cemetery - Approx. 40' past gate & cattle guard on right side of road leading up the mountain - In March of 2006 a headstone & metal enclosure remains. Possibly there are other (4 or 5) burials outside this metal enclosure.
Second Location: Latitude N34 1.979, Longitude W112 18.534
	BURIALS =	1
Y	NORTH	C.	W.	1867	2/14/1934	"Location of His Last Claim"
1
RESEARCH:		Dave Burns, Gene Simonds, Larry Gill, Reba Wells Grandrud, Cathy Johnson, Teri Thorpe, Neal Du Shane

3rd burial: On left side of driveway leading to the main gate. This is of a teen-age person or a small adult. Area is enclosed with rock marking the burial - no headstone or marker was found.
Third Location: Latitude N34 02.093, Longitude W112 18.891
	Burials =	1
N	DOE	John				No information

RESEARCH:		Larry & Betty Gill, Dave Burns, Neal Du Shane

Contributor: Neal Du Shane

Material may be freely used but not changed for in any way, by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied
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This file was contributed for free use.
Contributor/Archives by: Neal Du Shane - © All rights reserved
n.j.dushane@comcast.net

CHAMPIE MILL CEMETERY

Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
CHAMPIE MILL Cemetery
A.K.A. ALLEN'S MILL Cemetery

Yavapai County, Arizona

From Lake Pleasant, Cow Creek Rd to Columbia Trail, R to "T" intersection, R to GPS reading

Latitude N34 02 32.00, Longitude W112 18 32.70 (WGS84) Elv. 2,283

	Burials =	19				11/7/2007
Marker	SURNAME	FIRST NAME	MIDDLE NAME	BIRTH DATE	DEATH DATE	COMMENTS

Y	McKIBBY	Hershell "Curly"	M.	May 15, 1908	Sep. 8, 1986	Hermit that lived in this area for over 60 years.
Y	CHAMPIE	Joseph	C.?	Feb 20, 1894	Sep. 19, 1898	Male child that was stung several times with a scorpion in its diaper.
Rocks	DOE	John				Adult male
Rocks	DOE	Jane				Adult female
Rocks	DOE	Johnny				Child male
Rocks	DOE	Jannie				Child female

	19

NOTE:	On the point of Columbia Creek and Rockwall Gulch. Currently a one mile hike to reach the confluence of the two water sheds. A trail leads you up to the Chample Mill Cemetery.

Contributor: Neal Du Shane,

Historian: Dave Burns, Troy Gillenwater, Rodney "Pug" Dalton.

Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this
message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from
the contributor of the file.

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit
or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations
desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain
the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of
the submitter, and contact the archivist with proof of thins consent.



This file was contributed for use of
Contributor/Archives by: Neal Du Shane - All rights reserved
n.j.dushane@comcast.net

NOTE: It is believed after their cremation George & Marguerite Walters ashes were cast to the winds at their Cougar Mine at the point on Gold Hill Mountain.

NOTE: Mr. Perry is believed to be buried on Gold Hill. (Figure 60)

HISTORY OF CHAMPIE SCHOOL 1928-1978

according to Phoebe M. Baird, Newt White and Mary Jones

In 1928, there were approximately 40 permanent residents of the Castle Hot Springs community. It boasted a fine, well-equipped wooden school building, with an average daily attendance of nine pupils. The school was the center for social activities for the local people.

It was not the original school building to serve the area. During the winter of 1928, a new structure was finished. Everyone in the neighborhood, including guests at the hotel and other winter visitors, was invited to a get-together in the school yard to celebrate its completion. They came on horseback and were enjoying: this moonlight picnic when a restless youngster lit a candle inside the building and accidentally ignited the lovely new school. The resulting blaze demolished the building in minutes.

Before the last blaze and flames died away, a group of guests from the Castle Hot Springs Hotel agreed then and the to contribute sufficient money for a new school building, and so funds were immediately available to rebuild.

Doubtless the unfortunate boy who caused the fire has never forgotten the experience as he was shunned by the other children thereafter.

Classes the remainder of that year were at the house next door to the school.

Until 1946, electricity was unknown in the Castle Hot Springs area, except in a few cases where there were small generators. In the late fall of 1946, the Central Arizona Light and Power Co., now known as the Arizona Public Service Co., completed a high line, bringing in electricity. Its installation was the most arduous undertaking by the company up to that time.

For more than 20 years, there has been a Post Office in the home of Mrs. Pearl Champie Hurd in the house next door to the school. Mrs. Hurd was the postmaster.

At “mail time”, the local gentry gathered in Pearl's living room and exchanged the gossip of the day, while she sorted the incoming mail.

In earlier days, the Post Office was operated at the hotel. Pearl Hurd had been a pillar of the Castle Hot Springs community since 1916. She was brought in as a young teacher by Charles and Elizabeth Champie, a pioneer ranching and mining family.

The school well was drilled in 1946.

Before that time, water from a spring in Ash Creek flowed through a pipeline by gravity to the school.

The Champies came to this area in 1882. Pearl arrived at Cast1e Hot Spring by stage, which by that time was a bus operated by the hotel, with Shade Hardee, who lived in Morristown, as driver.

This· was the first regular bus route in Arizona, and was started by E. Cadwallader Smith, operator of the hotel in 1908.

Previously guests had arrived at the hotel by stage coach, making· a stop at Bittercreek, where the stage had a change of horses on the 32-mile trip from the California highway. At Bittercreek, there was a phone connected to the hotel to report if the stage had reached the half-way house. Sometimes travelers stayed overnight at the halfway house for a rest, continuing the journey in the morning. This information is according to Newt White and A. M. Gold, former stage driver, who still appears each year at the Pioneers’ Reunion in Phoenix.

The toll road from Phoenix came through the area where Lake Pleasant is today, along, the Agua Fria River above the mouth of Castle Creek, around Silver Mountain to Wagoner and on to Prescott and Wickenburg -- this was the road going northwest from Phoenix.

Mrs. Hurd's arrival at Castle Hot Springs was memorable because somehow the letters containing arrival details went astray. She and Mrs. Fred Cordes of Glendale, one of the Champie daughters with whom she was traveling, expected to be met by Charles Champie Jr., and escorted to the Champie home several miles away.

Both girls were dressed in fashionable black taffeta suits and wore high heels. When they got off the bus, there was no one to meet them, so they started to walk down Castle Creek. They recalled that “our feet were killing us” by the time they say Charlie Riding along in his “City Clothes” to meet the stage to go to Phoenix, where he expected to meet them.

He put both girls on his horse and walked beside them the rest of the way. Pearl recalls she was wearing bright yellow fancy garters which she bad some trouble keeping concealed.

Charlie Champie eventually became this teacher’s husband. Some years later, he was the victim of an automobile accident at six points in Phoenix, the corner where the fairgrounds stands.

In those days, the main business of the Castle Hot Springs area was running cattle, raising Angora goat’s .and "wranglin" dudes, as winter visitors used to be called. One of our roads still is called "Dude's Hill,"

Occasionally there is a flurry of mining activity here in gold, silver and copper, and a little "'salting” is not unknown.

Winter visitors who visited the hotel and dude ranches loved the region, not only for its climate but because it is virtually the only remaining area in the state where good hotel accommodations combined with lots of open riding country are available.

Now the hotel, after a disastrous fire that destroyed the Palm House in 1976, no longer operates as a hotel, open to guests. It is the property of the state -- the Talley's gift to Arizona State University, used primarily by groups from the University as a place to hold seminars for large groups

The outdoor hot pools of water at the hote1 have been formed in the mineral canyon at the site of the hot springs flowing from rocky crevices at the rate of 400,000 gallons every 24 hours. As the water passes over the dams and through the man-made pools, it cools from 125 degrees to 90 degrees, providing a choice of hot, medium or 90-degree water to bath in

The Tonto Apache Indians, an unfriendly tribe discovered the springs. Oddly enough, it is said that although they drove other Indians away, the allowed the sick of enemy tribes to bathe in the “medicine waters.

Castle Hot Springs is an oasis with an elevation of 1,971 feet in a palm-shaded valley, surrounded by high mountains formations.

By act of Congress, Castle Hot Springs is one of only two places where the American flag is permitted to fly 24 hours a day from the top of a very high mountain overlooking this ”Shangri-La”.

It is sad after over 70 years of elite hospitality that it is no longer open to the public,

The Champie School is in a dead end canyon bounded on the north by French Creek and the south by Ash Creek, so named because this creek is lined with native Arizona ash trees.

French Creek in early days had an Indian village on it, and even today pottery chards and arrowheads can be found. The Indian village fire was never allowed to die out. Pottery was made here, and it was an early defense area with ruins of an Indian fort up stream. The area is above the Davison’s ranch barn where pottery baking took place.

The "French" in the name also has historic meaning. French placer miners worked the French Creek for gold and about every six weeks about $40,000 worth of gold was transported to Wickenburg, and when the mining party did not show up in town, a search party was sent out. They found all the miners were massacred.

Soldiers followed the Indians to Bloody Basin, so named because of the bloody encounter, and all the offenders were killed on Skelton Ridge except on girl about age 12. The soldiers returned with her to Fort Whipple in Prescott, and she grew up at the Fort.

Castle Hot Springs at one time was called Bloody Springs because of Indian fighting, and because the red rock, which is red because of iron ore, looked like it was stained with blood.

In this area originated the famous “Barzona" cattle, custom-bred to adapt to rough desert mountain terrain. Development of this crossbred strain started on the Bard Ranch in 1940. In 1948 the breeding herd was moved to the Bard Ranch at Kirkland, the present site of all Bard Ranch operations.

Old time cattle people here include the late George and Lawton Champie, the late Irene Evans, late Casey Jones, James Norman, Mrs. G. Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. George Walters, Newt White, Mr. and Mrs. Jack White, Mr. and Mrs. Brad Johnson, Mr. and. Mrs. Del Layton and Mr. and Mrs.. Scott Layton.

Newer Settlers are Mr. and Mrs. Cal Sutton, Mr. and Mrs. L. Dodd, Mr. and Mrs. Henderson. Mr. and Mrs. Rousow, Mr. Freeman, Cynthia Earl, Mr. and Mrs. R. Hines, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Brown, managers of Castle Hot Springs Hotel, Mr. and Mrs. R. Bates, manager of Davison Ranch, Mr. and Mrs. Davison, Mr. and Mrs. R. Hankele, Mr. and Mrs. F. Miller, highway maintenance man, Mr. and Mrs. J. Walker and their families. Mr. and Mrs. Shanahan, new arrivals and the Roberts family, and Mary M. Jones, teacher at Champie, 1977-1978.

Today the Champie School has nine pupils and one teacher. All grades from kindergarten to grade eight are taught in the one-room school.

The teacher lives in an apartment of three rooms adjoining the classroom. Her kitchen serves also as school kitchen to prepare lunch for the children. Her living room is also a “Study hall.”

Children came to school on horseback, by family car, and some walk. Because of our location and distance, this one-room school continues to exist because it is impossible to go to the nearest school. We are in Yavapai County, district 14.

High school pupils drive to Wickenburg, a 32-mile trip twice daily - - a real ordeal! - - and almost impossible if heavy rain has washes running. Others attend and live in Phoenix during the school week, and come home on week ends

The children at Champie are very secure, having their brothers and sisters with them, and receive individual instruction here. They learn to work independently and can fit in any grade level by ability because the school is really an ideal multi-level-un-graded classroom situation. The big kids help the little kids. It is an “extended family.”

The school board members are Mr. N. White, president; Mrs. C. Sutton, clerk and Miss Lola Johnson (Bard,) who attend to the administration of the school.

Dr. E. Hunt, country school superintendent, administers the city and rural schools of Yavapai County and his headquarters are in the courthouse in Prescott, Arizona.

Our district pays tuition for 13 pupils attending Wickenburg, special education and high school. We also have one correspondent student living at a remote mine.

Because of its remoteness in the Bradshaw Mountains, this area is not gaining in school population. Fifty years ago, Champie had nine children and today, 1978, we have nine children.

Our registered voters number about 45.

An estimate of our area population is about 66 now.

Note: If early residents find errors in this 50-year history, remember that I relied on people’s memories and sometimes that is not completely correct. Any omissions were not deliberate.

Mary M. Jones head teach of Champie School, 1977 - 1978

COLUMBIA STROLL TO

“CURLY’S PLACE”

Sunday October 28, 2007

Photo courtesy: Troy Gillenwater

Curly’s Place on October 28, 2007 - Photo courtesy Kevin Hart

The interest for the Columbia Stroll was more than expected. Lots of interest in the area and specifically Hershell “Curly” McKibby and his historic former home. Referred to as “Curly’s Place”.

The convoy from Lake Pleasant consisted of nine vehicles of various types and we picked up 2 vehicles along the way. In total the unofficial head count was over 30 people that made the Columbia Stroll to Curly’s Place.

A portion of the group of 30+ in front of historic Columbia Saloon. Oct. 28, 2007

Photo courtesy: Bruce Colbert

We parked at the former home of George Walters, now owned by Richard D. & Joann Losee, which was the mill site for many of the mines in this area. The actual ghost town of Columbia sets on the banks of Humbug Creek just over the hill to the east from the mill site. The property is currently on private land and is posted, please don’t trespass. There is a BLM road that will take your about half way to the creek and is so marked about a ¼ mile before reaching the locked gate to the mill property.

Mill with Columbia at the bottom of the picture.

Photo courtesy: Kevin Hart

Unfortunately Larry and Betty Gill, the caretakers of this property had come down with a 24 hour flu and asked Dave Burns the caretaker at Humbug to play host for the Columbia Stroll. Dave is a very astute historian of this area and was an excellent guide.

Structure at Columbia believed to be a saloon, Photo courtesy Lee Hanchett Jr.

Starting the Columbia Stoll, historical sites were pointed out by Dave and the remains of the Ghost Town of Columbia. Unfortunately all remaining structures and equipment were removed by BLM some years ago. There is one stone house and a fireplace or two still standing on the east bank of Humbug Creek across from Columbia.

Dave Burns, Photo courtesy: Bruce Colbert

As we proceeded up Humbug Creek to the North, the original road has long since been washed out so you walk the creek bed, which was dry when we were here. There were various structures and mining equipment along the one mile hike that gave reflection of prosperous years that made this area a strong but small mining community.

It has been learned from Larry Gill that three individuals are working the creek for gold and they have posted their claim. We saw some evidence of their workings as we strolled to Curly’s Place.

Humbug Creek, Photo courtesy: Lee Hanchett Jr.

Early miners to this creek so named it HUMBUG as this was a negative term, (Bah Humbug) meaning there was no or very little gold in this creek. All the pioneer miners that worked this creek scoffed at any hope of finding large amounts of gold here and they left the area with empty pokes. However some amounts of rich minerals were found at Humbug and Columbia on Gold Hill.

The Tiger and Oro Belle mines and others were large producers farther up Humbug Creek near the beginning of the creek. Bradshaw City sat on Humbug Creek and was one of the largest towns in Arizona at the time.

It would seem every mile or so along Humbug Creek in this area there were small grouping’s of people, starting with the town of Humbug, Champie Mill, Columbia etc then about one mile down stream from Columbia is another well preserved but abandoned home and mine.

Much of the mining pioneer exploration was done by Charles Champie and his wife Elizabeth (Lizzie). Who lived at Humbug then Champie Mill and was involved in the development of the Champie Ranch in the area. It is evident pioneers had to be “Jack’s of all trades” back then to survive. They had a use for everything and discarded little. Contrary to our “throw way society” today.

Boiler at the Lunan Mine close to Allen Mill/Champie Mill on Humbug Creek 10/28/07

Photo courtesy: Bruce Colbert

There is still an old boiler and flywheel visible near Allen’s Mill and in early years was referred to as Champie Mill. There was a spring that helped provide water for the mining operations, but little remains other than and adobe wall and stone walls scattered about.

Iron flywheel at Lunan Mine, Photo courtesy: Lee Hanchett Jr.

The former road up to Rockwall Gulch to Swilling Gulch is still visible along the hill side and has had no maintenance in years. The road is no longer goes through for vehicles, possibly by hiking you could follow it to the Acquisition Mine, Tip Top, Gillett ending up at Rock Springs some 12 miles distance away. This would retrace the route Curly went for supplies in his youth.

Allen’s Mill on Humbug Creek – Photo courtesy: Bob Cothern

Troy Gillenwater states that Curly was 19 when he came to this area. Curly was born on May 15, 1908 in Michigan and lost his family in the Typhoid Epidemic. After this incident, he went to live with an Uncle that was a miner. They headed off to South America to seek there fame and fortune when Curly was a young lad. Not finding it, they proceeded to Alaska and worked the Gold Fields (presumably the Yukon Territory) then returned to California. Crossing overland to Walsenburg, Colorado, coal was the main mining activity there. On their sojourn they crossed over the Bradshaw Mountains and both he and his Uncle observed the mining opportunities there. After working in the Walsenburg area they decided to head to the Bradshaw’s.

Troy Gillenwater welcoming everyone at “Curly’s Place” after 20 Years. Oct. 28, 2007

Photo Courtesy: Tom Kenson

Dave Burns at Grave of Joseph Champie.

Joseph, the 8 month old was stung to death with a scorpion in its diaper.

Photo courtesy Bruce Colbert.

“Curly’s Place” Notice the extensive rock work Curly engineered.

Photo courtesy: Bob Cothern

At 19, the year would have been 1923; seven years before the Stock Market crashed on October 29, 1929, there presumably were ample opportunities here along Humbug Creek. Curly filed on two patented claims, the Red Rock and Black Rock Lodes. Set up housekeeping and exploring his claims along Humbug Creek. Curly eked out a paupers existence but none the less would have his life no other way. Living with no electricity, running water, bathroom, using Mesquite wood as his source for heat and cooking he had no modern conveniences. Curly in his younger years had to hike to Rock Springs to get supplies. He had burro’s that helped carry his needed supplies for the trip back.

Photo courtesy: Troy Gillenwater

We have a copy of a letter that states Curly was offered an opportunity to live in Prescott as a ward of the County but he turned it down to live his life as a hermit. Can’t say that I blame him after seeing his former home along the banks of the Humbug Creek. Curly had acquired the skill of dry wall stacking and there is evidence of his trade all over the place. A real monument to their talents to make do with what they had in those days. Curly it is evident was somewhat of a pack rat, which wasn’t uncommon. One never knew when they might have use for an item. It was a full day hike to Rock Springs and back.

Curly’s ability to work with rock seems to have been a love/hate affair. As an example, the floor in the house was dry laid rocks by Curly. If for some reason one of the rocks would get misaligned and he would stub his toe, there would be a hour long outburst of profanity that would embarrass a Shanghi Sailor. Then extrusion of the offending rock, to which it would take Curly hours to find the exact correct rock to replace the one that stubbed his toe. Troy’s best advice was to stand clear of Curly when all of this was going on.

The actual porcelain cup containing steaming hot coffee was on the table next to Curly’s dead body when Troy Gillenwater found Curly on September 8, 1985. It is thought that Curly expired from a heart attack moments before Troy arrived. The cup is now on display in the Black Canyon Historical Society.

Photo courtesy: Neal Du Shane

Troy at one time gave Curly a battery operated television. To Troy’s knowledge it never worked. But one day when Troy arrived he could tell Curly had something on his mind that he had to share with Troy to get it off his chest. Curly asked Troy “remember that TV you gave me, well I decided to fix it.” The only tool Curly had in his tool chest was a hammer. Plus factor in Curly’s eye sight was very poor; in fact he was legally blind. Needless to say there were bits and pieces of the TV laying everywhere. That was the terminal demise of the TV.

Headstone of Hershell M. “Curly” McKibby final resting place,

Chiseled in a rock by Troy Gillenwater c. 1985-86.

It reads: “Curly 1908 – 1985”

Photo courtesy: Bob Cothern

Along the hike on Humbug Creek we discovered several graves and one historic Pioneer Cemetery which we dubbed “Champie Mill Cemetery”. One of Charlie and Lizzie Champie’s children, 8 month old Joseph Champie, was stung by a scorpion in its diaper in 1898, before they could figure out why the baby was crying. Rodney “Pug” Dalton and some of his mining associates created a headstone as a marker for the baby at the request of the Champie family in the 1980’s.

Headstone of Joseph Champie – Photo courtesy Bruce Colbert

and enhanced by Neal Du Shane

It reads: “Joseph Champie Born Feb 20, 1894 Died Sept 19, 1898”

Editors Note: In 2008 Champie family members indicate Joseph was 8 months old when he died from the Scorpion stings. The death date would be incorrect on this marker.

L-R, Neal Du Shane and Troy Gillenwater discuss historical events at Curly’s Place

Photo courtesy: Bruce Colbert

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My gratitude to: Dave Burns, Richard D. and Jo Ann Losee, Betty and Larry Gill, Kay Beckman, Gary Grant, Joyce Du Shane, Bruce Colbert, Kevin Hart, Rodney “Pug” Dalton Jr., Troy Gillenwater, Diane Bains, Bob Nilles, Bob Cothern, Tom Kenson, Clairann Cordes Allan, Betty Hastings and Allan Hall, for their assistance, research, contributions and cooperation in making this project possible.

PHOTO ALBUM

Figure 39. Cook House c. 2000. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 40. Boiler at mine near Columbia. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 41. Building beside windmill at Columbia c 2000. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 42. Bunkhouse at Columbia, AZ c. 2000. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 43. Bunkhouse at Columbia, AZ c. 2000. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 44. Windmill, water tank and shed at Columbia, AZ c. 2000. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 45. Post Office building at Columbia, AZ c. 2007. Photograph by: Neal Du Shane

Figure 46. Photograph courtesy: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Post Office - east bank of Humbug Creek, Columbia, Arizona

Figure 47. Post Office Columbia, Arizona. Photograph by: Neal Du Shane

Figure 48. Fireplace of a former home in Columbia, AZ. c. 2000. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 49. Exploded powder cloud from Golden Glint Mine. c. 2007 Photograph by: Neal Du Shane

Figure 50. Mill operation above Columbia, from the Golden Glint Mine on Gold Hill Mountain c. 2000.

Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 51. “Facilities” Shower on Left, Outhouse on right Columbia, Arizona c. 2000.

Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 52. Water tank, windmill, building at Columbia, Arizona c. 2000. Photograph courtesy: Kevin Hart

Figure 53. L-R Unknown, Jo Ann Losee, Richard D. Losee. Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 54. Looking North - Columbia’s Main St. – Windmill, cookhouse, bunkhouse, mineral shack.

Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 55. L-R Unknown, Unknown, Richard S. Losee

In front of the Yankee Maid office (Mineral Shack). Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 56. Ball Mill Ore crusher - Columbia, Arizona. Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 57. Cookhouse Columbia Arizona. Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 58. Coming down Gold Hill headed to Columbia. Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 59. Hard Rock Mine, Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 60. Grave of O.C. Perry 1874 - 1955, Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Photo enhancement by: Neal Du Shane

Figure 61. Interior of George Walters home. Photograph Courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 62. George Walters used this building as a shop. Columbia, AZ.

Photograph Courtesy Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 63. George and Marguerite Walters home, Columbia, AZ.

Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 64. Ball Mill and shaker table, Columbia, Arizona

Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 65. Single room Bunkhouse Columbia, Arizona – Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 66. Mineral Shack - Columbia, Arizona

Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 67. Grave of Col. C.W. North “His Final Claim” Columbia, Arizona

Photograph courtesy: Mr. & Mrs. Losee

Figure 68. Photograph Courtesy: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Merril, Crowe stripper and lab. Columbia, Arizona

Figure 68. Photograph Courtesy: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Cement bin, gravel plant – Gold Hill in background. Columbia, Arizona

Figure 69. Photograph courtesy: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Corral at Columbia, Arizona

Figure 70. Photograph courtesy: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Ball Mill, Columbia, Arizona

COLUMBIA AND CLAIMS FOR SALE

In 2007 the property and claims at Columbia are for sale.

The main house of George Walters comprises 3.85 acres & all the remaining buildings.

There is water with a good flow.

There are 50 claims with approximately 20 acres per claim. (Some claims overlap)

SOURCES

Allan, Cordes, Clairann

Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources

Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project (APCRP)

Arizona State University

Black Canyon Historical Society

Burns, Dave: Historian – Miner – Caretaker - APCRP

Cordes, Cathy – Historian - APCRP

Cordes, Claire Champie – Author - “Ranch Tails and Short Tales”

Dalton, Jr. Rodney “Pug” - Miner

Gill, Larry & Betty: Historian – Miner – Caretaker - APCRP

Gillenwater, Troy – Historian – friend of “Curly” McKibby

Grant, Gary – Historian – Pilot - APCRP

Hall, Allan – Historian - Author – APCRP

Hanchett Jr. Lee - Author

Hart, Kevin – Historian – Author - APCRP

Losee, Richard D. & Jo Ann

McBride, James – Historian - Arizona Mining

Tewksbury, Ann – Historian – Champie Family

Zarbin, Earl – Author - The Swilling Legacy

Please visit the American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project Web Sites to see other historical information on Tussock Spring, Tip Top, plus other interesting historical information relating to Pioneer Arizona etc. at:

http://n.j.dushane.home.apcrp.org

and

http://www.apcrp.org

Columbia Master 012308.doc

American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project

Internet Presenation

WebMaster: Neal Du Shane

n.j.dushane@apcrp.org

Copyright ©2003-2007 Neal Du Shane
All rights reserved. Information contained within this website may be used
for personal family history purposes, but not for financial profit of any kind.
All contents of this website are willed to the American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project (APCRP).

MINOTTO | PICTURES | ROADS | JACK SWILLING | TEN DAY TRAMPS

COLUMBIA, ARIZONA

JACK SWILLING KNOWN TO HAVE VISITED COLUMBIA

GEORGE WALTERS SHOT JUDGE

GEORGE WALTERS SHOT BIKER

“ HARRY ”

COLUMBIA STROLL TO

“CURLY’S PLACE”