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An aerial view of Oracle Ridge Mine, courtesy of ORM.
Apache Camp, Aug. 12, 1911
“Mr. Douglas and Mr. Sherman came out yesterday and said we should continue with the work.” They had started a drift and struck 8% (copper) ore in four feet and so continued for 20 feet averaging 7-8%.”
Sawyer also said that the company had decided to extend the railroad to Tucson (from Bisbee). From Fairbanks (AZ) to Tucson it would cost $2,700,000. Sawyer speculate that if things worked out well at Apache Camp they “may have a spur” to that site, but also said that it would be expensive and hard to build.
In addition, “Gene” Sawyer said that “Mr. D. [Douglas] had asked if he wanted a vacation. He had recounted that Mrs. D, in Santa Rosa, California, at the time had mentioned in her last wire that she thought Mr. Sawyer needed some time off. Sawyer told his mother that he saw no way that he could get away with the work starting up again.
ARTICLE –Arizona Daily Star, August, 1911
“TO CONTINUE MINE WORK AT CAMP APACHE: Copper Queen Company is Well Enough Satisfied with Results Thus Far obtained to Spend More Money
“Work on the Reid [an added claim]-Leatherwood-Geeseman mines in the Catalinas is to be continued. The owners and the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company which holds an option on these properties have agreed to the extension desired.
“E.H.Sawyer, manager at Camp Apache is at present in Tucson and yesterday told a representative of the Star that satisfactory arrangements had been made between the company and the owners and that work would be continued. He has recommended to his company that this be done and the fact that this recommendation is being followed shows that enough is thought of the property by his superiors to continue the expenditure of money upon its development.
“Speaking of the Catalina property yesterday Mr. Sawyer said: ‘I understand that from time to time there have been reports that we have made some big strikes in our work and that the fact that I have never announced any such strikes gave rise to the impression that we were concealing them. Such has not been the case. We are working to develop the mine. There have been no big or important strikes to announce. We meet from time to time with encouraging results and these have been such that I felt warranted to advise that the work be continued. That some officials of the company feel the same way is indicated by the fact that we are to continue. What the reasons for asking for extension were I do not know. That does not come into the province of my duty. There are undoubtedly good reasons however.’
“Mr. Sawyer added that the same force of men now employed at Camp Apache would be continued and that work would proceed with the development as it had been. Beyond that nothing further could be said. “Sinking and drifting is going on and if the property bears the indication of a mine with further work it will undoubtedly be taken over.’
[By the way. this kind of rumor plus assurance has appeared again 2014 regarding the Oracle Mining Co’s dealings with Oracle Ridge Mines.-EJA]
Apache Camp, Aug. 25, 1911
“I have been pretty busy lately getting things under way again since we decided to continue. I had things worked down to the last morsel of supplies such a wood, gasoline, lubricants, etc., so that if we quit there wouldn’t be much loss in supplies left on hand. Also our store was practically empty and for a few days the camp was pretty low on grub until the freight wagons got in with new stock.
“Things are running smoothly again now and I have another clerk and stenographer so it will be a lot easier for me. The mine continues to look promising and it is possible that the next two months may turn us into a good paying business. We started on down with the shaft and in about 25 feet we struck some beautiful ore and we are still in it. It may be a continuation of that we struck on the level above or it may be a new body but in either case, it adds more promise. I am sending a snapshot which is rather blurred, but not bad, of Leo, my horse. I will get a better one some time, but he has a sore on his back and I’m giving him a rest.”
Apache Camp Sept. 4, 1911
“We are still getting heavy rains here, on last night being about the worst yet. Practically a cloud burst. This is probably about the last. The climate up here in the mts. is a little more temperate than it is down in the valley…”
Tucson Oct. 29, 1911
“I came in town day before yesterday on a number of business errands and to get a new storekeeper. I think I have pretty good man and we are going in to camp today. This time I walked in [down the mountain on the Tucson side, apparently] just for a stunt and it didn’t really bother me very much. I left camp at 7:15 and reached the hotel at 5:15 stopping about an hour to rest and eat lunch at noon.
“Among other things I bought a new saddle. I think my old one was not a very good one and was hurting Leo’s [the new horse] back. … I am going back by way of Oracle. I will get a horse there and go to the camp this afternoon. Things are running smoothly there.
Oracle Bisbee, Arizona, Nov. 3, 1911
“Everything is going well but we are all pretty busy. I have a new storekeeper I am breaking in and I think he is going to be a good man. I will be glad if he is, to get rid of a good deal of bother which the store is giving me now. One of our boilers has been leaking and acting badly for some time and we have a boiler maker here for a while to do some repairing on it.”
“I don’t understand the question about ore, that is I don’t understand just what you mean. The ore carried about 4.5% [copper] on average. Besides that most of it has about 2.00 a ton in gold and silver. If the question was regarding the quantity of ore, that is what we are determining. We gave about 30,000 tons “in sight” as that expression is generally used. That wouldn’t make much of a mine, but it is still holding on and there is lots of room ahead for it to expand.”
Apache Camp, Nov. 13, 1911
“A number of things are coming up which I will have to attend to and I will probably have to make a trip to town pretty soon. We have no blacksmith now and are getting along the best we can with a fellow who isn’t a blacksmith but willing to try. I saw Co. Getchell about a week ago and he told me about missing you in Bangor and his phone talk with Pap. I understand Co. Cody is at his camp now with a party of friends and that they plan a visit.”
SANTA RITA HOTEL TUCSON, ARIZ, Nov. 22, 1911
“I have been having a very busy week and now I am in town again still looking for a blacksmith.…I finally located one well recommended here in town and a man who said he had had a great deal of experience at sharpening machine drills, so I took him out with me. He turned out to be an utter failure. He simply couldn’t do the work and he must have known it before I went out and I can’t understand why a man will talk that way. We have lots of cases of the same thing. A man will come along claiming to be an old machine man. We will put him to work and find that he probably never ran a machine before. I might be possible for a man to run a bluff on a machine for a short time, but I can’t imagine what the blacksmith expected to do. I came in from camp yesterday and if I can’t find a real blacksmith today I will telephone to Bisbee for one and go back to camp tomorrow.
“I guess it is 25 miles across the mountains from [Apache] camp to Tucson. It is 35 [joke?] of the damnedest miles you ever saw. They haven’t got over it here in Tucson yet and Shelton, the man with whom I have most of my business here in town says if he ever did a thing like that he would write a book. It didn’t phase [sic: faze] me a bit and I could do it every day. For the last four or five months, I have been coming and going that way regularly on horse. My trip last week I came in that way and when I had finished my business, I rode to Oracle 42 miles [ apparently via Oracle Road] and then in to camp from there the next day.
“My reason for traveling this way is I don’t save time but save money and get lots of exercise. There is not much travel between Tucson and Oracle and to go by way of Oracle, I have to ride 20 miles [from camp to Oracle] anyway and usually have to wait there overnight for an auto and then pay $15.00 to get to Tucson. I takes four hours to ride to Oracle and two hours to make Tucson by auto. I was hardly ever lucky enough to get on without waiting at least two or three hours [for the auto at Oracle].
“So in the long run it is quicker and cheaper to ride through [from Camp] to Tucson which takes between 9 and 10 hours. It is a hard enough mountain trail and takes a good horse and that’s what Leo is. The first five miles out of camp are what you would call uphill, from 5500 ft., the elevation of camp, to 9200 ft. Then there is a widening trail down into Sabino Canyon and out Sabino to the flat country and from there 15 miles to Tucson.
“I am sending you a paper which appeared last week with quite an ad for us on the front page. Of course it is an exaggeration and probably a rumor started by some of the many camp trailers who are trying to sell worthless claims in our neighborhood. Things still look promising but the railroad is not assured yet by any means.”
Oracle Bisbee, Arizona, Dec. 17, 1911
Even though it was his second winter at Camp Apache, Sawyer apparently hadn’t counted on hard-freeze weather: “We have been having a lot of trouble here in camp with our water pipes. We had a few very cold nights last week and everything froze up solid. Consequently all water has had to be carried about a quarter of a mile. We worked on the pipes and have finally succeeded in thawing them out. To avoid any more trouble we have a scheme which I expect to work pretty well. We have made a steam connection to the water pipe and on cold nights we will keep the water running and turn on enough steam to keep it warm all the way through. Yesterday it turned a lot warmer and last night we had about six inches of snow, more than we had at any time last winter. [and, for the first time in these letters, he manages to express appreciation of the view: “The snow covered mountains are a rather pretty sight. “
“Next Saturday I expect to go to Bisbee arrive there Sunday morning, spending Sunday and Monday.
“A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”
To the reader: Information about Oracle Mining Company can be found at http://www.oracleminingcorp.com/overview/
Born at the beginning of the just pre-baby-boom year of 1943, Evaline May Jones was a Kansan until she left, in1968, to teach at a community college campus in Centerville, IA. She grew up on a farm near Frankfort, finished a BA and MA in English education at Kansas State University and taught for a year at Washington, KS, High School and at Catholic high school in Manhattan, KS, the latter while finishing her MA. While in Iowa, she taught English and related courses (journalism, theater, photography). She also earned a Specialist degree in community college education at the University of Iowa (Iowa City) and had journalism courses at Iowa State (Ames). When arthritis in her spine became a real problem, she was advised to take a job in the Southwest, so when the first full-tiime English position at Aravaipa Campus, CAC, opened up, she applied. Although she had to convince them that she REALLY wanted to work at a campus literally on the edge of a wilderness area, she got the job. She began work at Aravaipa in the fall of 1975, moved from Kearney to Oracle in 1976 and has been in Oracle since. In Oracle, she began work with the Oracle Historical Society, was a founding member and President twice. Local history became her most-loved hobby, although she did not forget drama. She produced a play called Deadwood Dick, which became the first play for a theater troupe now known as SPATs: San Pedro Actors Troupe. It was a course taught under the auspices of CAC, but the group preferred to go ahead on their own - and are still going strong on their own. Meanwhile she married Abraham Auerbach in December 1980, in the historic Union Church, holding the reception in the Acadia Ranch Museum. She made sure they returned from their honeymoon in time to celebrate the centennial of the American Flag post office building and the installation of the history plaque (Dec. 28, 1980) They produced David in late 1982 and she took sabbatical to return to Iowa to complete a PhD (in instructional design) from May 1983 through summer of 1984. While back in Iowa City, with baby and husband in tow, she began to have more problems with the arthritis, Once back to Oracle, she was a little better, but eventually had three operations on the spine. She had to retire in 1995 on disability. Nevertheless, she continued to work at volunteer jobs: as a docent at Biosphere 2 (on her electric scooter), at the Oracle Library, at the Oracle Community Center, as a medicare counselor for the Pinal-Gila Council on Senior Citizens, and finally, back to the Oracle Historical Society. More recently she served at the Tri-Community Visitors’ Center and the Copper Corridor group, serving the Oracle through Superior area. Now, she is busy helping the Oracle Dark Skies Committee to nominate the Oracle State Park as a designated International Dark Skies Park. She has also taught some courses through CAC on local history, leading local and out-of-town people to see some of the historic places in and around Oracle. She started a small business selling books about local history which has expanded to be “Evaline’s Local Books, Oracle, etc.” Lately she has given talks on Oracle History and led groups on tours, such as a two-day tour for the Arizona Historical Society docents, coming up soon for the Arizona Historical Society Docent Council. She has written articles about history and done some reviews for local newspapers. David was off to China to work for a while and then to Boston, working in financial analysis at Boston Scientific. In March of 2011, Abe, whom she had been caring for at home for about four years as he became less able, had to enter a care home. In January of 2014, loyal and very supportive to the end - Abe passed away at Grace Manor in Oracle. Evaline plans to keep exploring history, Oracles and her own ancestry. She will continue to write and plans to travel as her own health improves.
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