After the California Gold
Rush ended in 1859, many of the disillusioned, the well financed, and the
adventurous migrated to Southern Arizona in search of gold. That
started the Arizona Gold Rush of the 1880s.
The Camp Bonito site was one
of the early mining districts formed in the Old Hat mining district,
just south of Oracle and north of Tucson, Arizona in the Santa Catalina Mountains, not far from the YMCA Triangle Y Ranch.
At that time, the town of Oracle, north of Tucson, Arizona, was already
settled with prospectors and homesteaders in the hills north of the
Catalina Mountains. The Old Hat District was a proven producer of silver
and gold
Campo Bonito became an investment for
world-renowned entertainer William "Buffalo Bill" Cody after he learned
of the potential in gold deposits. Cody poured hundreds of thousands of
dollars into the mine which produced little gold, but became a major
source of Tungsten that was used to fuel Thomas Edison's light bulbs.
The persistent legends of a lost city and a lost Spanish mine became overshadowed by recent discoveries of gold in quartz stones that seem to drip from the mountains and flow from the Cańada del Oro, according to newspaper accounts during the late 1880s.
J.
L. Clark and Fritz Ewe originally staked an independent-lode mining
claim in the Old Hat Mining District on January 29, 1887. President
Benjamin Harrison granted patent land rights to J.L. Clark and Fritz Ewe
January 10, 1891.
The
land later became part of the Campo Bonito claims. William "Buffalo
Bill" Cody wrote about his new venture in a letter to friend George T.
Beck on May 4, 1902: “The gold mine is a winner I guess beyond a doubt
its being kept quiet just now as we want some property adjoining it and a
water right from a stream nearby. We are getting out ore and the vein
provides a true fissure.”
Cody was encouraged by the gold samples produced by his partner, L.W.
Getchell. A year later Cody wrote to his sister Julia on March 13, 1903,
that the “long-sought vein of ore had been struck after seven months of
night-and-day drilling, and predicted that the mine would begin to pay
off within four months. As soon as the roads were passable, wagons would
haul ore and their own mill would be built during the summer.” This may
have been in reference to the three searches for the Iron Door Mine
made by William Neal and Cody.
Photo above: The Camp Bonito remains of the
fireplace at the mess hall, near the old Cody-Dwyer mine south of Oracle
in the Catalina Mountains. Photo by Robert Zucker. © BZB 2010.
Campo Bonito Index
Map to Campo Bonito, Arizona
Campo Bonito map
to locate topographic and geological points using Google's map. Zoom
into close range to see the tunnel to one of the major mines in Camp
Bonito. Print out copies in several formats and dimensions.
The Mines of Buffalo Bill Cody
The discovery of precious minerals near
Tucson attracted the famous Western entertainer William "Buffalo Bill"
Cody to Oracle in the early 1900s to invest in several mines in the Camp
Bonito District (also called Campo Bonito). Continue reading about Buffalo Bill and Campo Bonito.
Visiting the Campo Bonito mine
Photos taken at the Campo Bonito site, including one of the nearby mines.
The Southern Belle Mine
One of the mines owned by Cody, near Campo Bonito is the Southern Belle gold mine.
Old Hat Mining District
Mining was designated by districts. Campo Bonito was a part of the Old Hat Mining District
Campo Bonito's Long, Lost History
(Photo) Local Prospector Flint Carter at the Campo Bonito camp site. Carter has held dozens of mining
claims throughout the Oracle, Arizona and Santa Catalina areas. Carter passed away in 2018. © 2011
BZB.
When gold mining in the
Santa Catalinas was in full swing in the 1890s, it attracted even more
people looking for a quick path to riches.
The town of Oracle, north of Tucson, Arizona was settled to prospect the hills north of the Catalinas. Mining in the mountains became a big business. Campo Bonito, also called Camp Bonito, was one of the biggest mining groups.
Campo Bonito is located in what is
known as the Control District, Old Hat District and Santa Catalina
District, south of Oracle. The San Pedro River flows along the east.
Tucson is on the south side of the Catalina Mountains.
The Campo Bonito group consisted of several
dozen mining claims spread through the valley on the northeast side of
the Catalina Mountains to include the Apache Peak area (Juniper claim,
Memory Lane group, the Pair O’ Dice prospect, Red Dog claim, Southern Belle Mine (Southern Belle; Morning Star property/claims), and the Taraldson claim (Coronado NF Mla)..
It also included the Maudina Mine claims/property, the High Jinks Mine
and the Santa Rosa Mine (Cumaro claim). 1091 The land is now part of the
Coronado National Forest and some private properties, including the
privately owned High Jinks Ranch, the YMCA’s Triangle Y Ranch, and
numerous small ranches.
The Campo Bonito Mines also included the Maudina Mine claims/property, the High Jinks Mine and the Santa Rosa Mine (Cumaro claim). 3
The mineral list from the Campo Bonito mines included Calcite, Dolomite, Galena, Gold, Pyrite, Scheelite, Talc and Wulfenite. 1
Photo of Campo Bonito looking towards the San Pedro Valley in the Santa Catalina Mountains. © 2011 BZB
The Location of the "Buffalo Bill" Mining Claims
The Campo Bonito mining district is most well known for its connection to the famous Buffalo Bill Cody. The discovery of precious minerals near Tucson attracted the famous Western entertainer William “Buffalo Bill” Cody to
Oracle in the early 1900s to invest in several mines in the Camp Bonito mining district.
By 1912, several months after Arizona became a
state, the "Bisbee Daily Review" published an overview of mining in the
Catalinas:
"Campo Bonito. To the north and west of Apache camp and at a lower altitude is the scene of the Cody-Dwyer M. & M.
company's operations. The company has thirty-six locations here and a
forty-ton mill has been installed. There is a scheelite gold ore that
yields to the milling and concentrating process. The Southern Bell, owned by the Cody-Dwyer Interests, is now under bond to Capt Jack Burgess.
The property consists of nine
patented and four unpatented claims, a patented mill site and a ten
stamp mill. Pepper Sauce Gulch is the location of the "Buffalo Bill"
claims, consisting of twelve In number. The Coy-Dwyer and the
Cody-Burgess combinations own and control several groups In addition to
the foregoing that are receiving more or less practical attention.
The ore in tho vicinity of Campo Bonito is in places a disseminated sulphide carrying gold and sliver
values. Oxidizing agencies have freed the values to a considerable
extent from their base combinations, making amalgamation practicable to a
certain extent. Both Apache Camp and Campo Bonito are In tho "Old Hat"
district and are easily accessible to Tucson by excellent wagon road.
The E. P. and S. W. railway has surveyed to the former camp and the
course of line runs approximately near to all tho important mining
interests now known in that locality. Its construction is well within
the realms of the possible." 2
Photo: A tub used for cleaning and separating ores sits idle at the Campo Bonito site. @ BZB 2011.
Continue reading about Camp Bonito:
Footnotes and links to sources:
1. Mindat.org Database: Pure Gold Mine, Campo Bonito Mines, Apache Peak area. http://www.mindat.org/loc-130446.html
2. "Santa Catalinas and the Old Hat Mining Districts," Bisbee Daily Review, May 14, 1912, page 5m, image 5 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024827/1912-05-14/ed-1/seq-5/
3. Locality Search, http://www.mindat.org/lsearch.php?from=nsearch&loc=bonito
Robert Zucker,
a Tucson, Arizona native, author, former journalism at the University
of Arizona and Pima Community College; former newspaper publisher of
several community publications.
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