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“Finding and Grinding Rocks in Cochise County, Arizona since 1965”
January 2011
This issue edited by Don Hammer
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The next General Meeting of the Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club is on Monday January 10, 2011 at 7:00 pm at the Sunsites Community Center. Our program will be a video from the series, “How the Earth Works” by Professor Micheal E. Wysession of Washington University entitled “Geology’s Impact on History”. We will resume the “Best Rock” contest so bring your best specimen from the Roostercomb trip and/or the Johnson Mine trip.
Christmas Party
On Monday, December 13, 18 members assembled in the beautifully decorated Sunsites Community Center to enjoy a sumptuous dinner of turkey and all the fixin’s. After dinner we gathered in a circle and drew raffle tickets to select from the collection of rock or club related gender-neutral under $10 gifts. We had the option of keeping our selection or exchanging it for someone else’s choice. Gifts could be traded up to two times and repeated swapping led to some spirited exchanges among the members. Needless to say, everyone had a great time and we kicked off the holiday season in style. We thank Zoe Schnabel for organizing a great party.
January Field Trip
On Sunday January 23 we will go to Tehran Wash to see the dinosaur (mammoth) tracks and collect a very nice red and yellow jasper and gypsum. Meet at the Benson Feed & Supply Store at 9 am to depart at 9:15. Take the 306 exit off I-10, turn left to the stop sign; turn right on 4th and watch for the Self Storage Warehouse on the right. At the warehouse turn right onto the frontage road and then left past Nancy Leverenz vet clinic to the feed store. 4WD is necessary since the wash is likely to be soft. Bring water, lunch, lawn chairs, cameras, bags or pails and light digging tools.
Condolences
The Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club extends its condolences to Carol Wolchik on the loss of her husband, Fred, in December.
Lapidary and Silversmith Classes
Our lapidary, silver soldering and wire wrapping classes are once again available so if you’re interested call Larry Strout at 826-3991.
Dues are due. Dues are $15 for individuals and $25 for a family. Bring your dues to the next meeting or mail your check to Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club, PO Box 87, Pearce, Arizona 85625.
Club Calendar:
January
10 General Meeting
23 Field Trip
February
3 Board Meeting
14 General Meeting
19 Field Trip
March
3 Board Meeting
14 General Meeting
19 Field Trip
31 Board Meeting
April
11 General Meeting
16 Field Trip
28 Board Meeting
May
9 General Meeting
14 Field Trip
26 Board Meeting
June
4 Club Picnic
Upcoming Regional Events
January 2011
7-9 39th Flagg Gem and Mineral Show. Jewelry, gems, beads, fossils, minerals and lapidary supplies. At Mesa Community College. www.flaggshow.info
8-23 Quartzsite Pow Wow – gems, minerals, jewelry, demonstrations, field trips and more. 928-927-5213 Mainevent@rraz.net
14 – 16 54th Annual Gila County Gem & Mineral Society Show. Gila County Gem & Mineral Society Gila County Fair Grounds, Globe, AZ; Hrs Fri- Sat 9-5, Sun 9-4 Live demos, door prizes, food, displays, minerals& jewelry. Nominal admission, Contact: Val Lathem 602.466.3060, e-mailval65@cox.net
January 29- February 14
The Tucson Show www.tucsonshows.com
March
10-13 Rockhound Roundup – the Deming Show. Jewelry, rocks, minerals, displays and demonstrations, guided field trips and auctions. Bud Daily 575-267-4399; Jerry Abbey 575-543-8915 www.dgms.bravehost.com
Officers for 2011
President: Diane Dunn
V-President: Jack Light
Secretary: Jim Brower
Treasurer: Walter Sigel
Deleg-at-Large: Carl Schnabel
Hospit Coord: Zoe Schnabel
Field Trip Crd: Henri van den Bos
Past Pres: Paul McKnight 775-434-8395
A Short History of Johnson Mine
Mexican miners had worked the area north of Dragoon Pass before Geary, Humphrey and Horsfall located a dozen claims in August 1879. Samuel Campbell, acting for a group of wealthy Pennsylvania investors, bonded the claims in early 1880 including paying $95,000 for the Peabody claim. He and A. Harmer, a wealthy Philadelphia investor, formed the Russell Gold & Silver Mining Company to develop the claims. They hired J. G. Wall as superintendent, recruited a force of “American miners” and brought in a steam hoist and placed a smelter along Cottonwood Creek. Several shallow shafts exposed a wide belt of 55% copper ore, carrying $60 in silver to the ton. By 1881 the mine was down 140 feet with 2,000 tons of ore sitting on the dump.
The townsite of Russell was laid out adjacent to the smelter in a basin favored for camping by the Apaches as evidenced by the remains of many wickiups. By May 1882, Russell had between 83 and 100 residents with the company’s adobe offices, a general merchandise store, a saloon, blacksmith shop and a corral along the main street. The smelter turned out 3.5 tons of black copper every 24 hours that included $80 in gold and $27 in silver. Supplies for the town, domestic fuel and coke for the smelter were hauled by mule teams from Cochise Station at Dragoon Pass 5 miles to the south. Cochise Station soon became Dragoon City, the supply and transportation hub for Johnson Mine, Russell and the Golden Rule Mine four miles to the southeast. Russell added more businesses and increased to about 300 residents. But in 1882, a group of Kansas City investors bought the Russell Mining Company, renamed it Cochise Copper Company and J. G. Wall, revamped ore extraction, moved the smelter to within 150 feet of the Peabody Mine, brought in another furnace and laid out the town of Johnson closer to the reduction plant. By May 1883, Johnson had four saloons, three stores, two hotels, a drugstore, barber shop, bakery, a chop house and a school. By then the company employed 140 men and the smelter was turning out 30 tons of 70% percent copper every 24 hours. That dealt Russell a lethal blow and by fall there were more “houses than people” in Russell.
Until February 1884, the Peabody Mine produced good ore but then native copper was encountered in the Mammoth and Republic claims and the Peabody was declared worked out at a depth of 150 feet. In April employees were laid off and the mine closed. The smelter ran until the ore on the dump was exhausted and in the summer of 1885, Johnson was “a deserted village, not a soul in sight”.
There was little activity in the district for nearly a decade. When the price of copper rebounded in 1897, deeper prospecting with diamond drills in the Peabody located a fourteen-foot ledge of copper ore carrying considerable silver. The find was rich enough to re-interest the Philadelphia investors and they bonded the mine for $25,000, secured ten adjacent claims and formed the Dragoon Mining Company. They extended the mine to 300 feet and encountered an ore body that yielded close to $75,000 within a year. In 1900 the company employed 165 Mexican miners and was shipping two carloads of ore to El Paso daily. Johnson had a population of about 300 Mexicans.
The Dragoon Mining Company suffered a series of setbacks though it struggled along until 1907 when falling commodity prices and depleted ore reserves forced the company into bankruptcy. Its assets were purchased by the Bonanza Belt Copper Company that produced 220,840 pounds of fine copper and 7,126 ounces of silver in 1907. During WWI the company shipped two million pounds of copper and 57,000 ounces of silver. Dissension among stockholders forced a re-organization in 1917 and the next year the Peabody Mine was idle.
Philadelphia capitalists once again organized the Arizona Consolidated Mining Company to work 45 claims that included the Mammoth, Republic and Copper King mines. The Arizona Consolidated Copper Company and the Arizona and Michigan Development Company were also active in the area. But the ore was so low grade that it did not cover the expense of wagon haulage to the railroad at Dragoon City and the Arizona & Michigan Company led the effort to construct a five-mile long standard gauge railroad linking Johnson with Dragoon in 1909.
Soon after the Arizona Consolidated re-organized to become the Arizona United Mining Company that brought in a 125-ton smelter to concentrate ore from their claims as well as those of other companies in the area. The railroad was left with hauling coke and supplies to the Arizona United smelter. When Arizona United and Arizona & Michigan were forced into bankruptcy by low metal prices, the mines and smelter shut down and the railroad was foreclosed and sold at auction to the Southern Pacific Railroad.
WWI revitalized Johnson, the mines and its little railroad. It reached its heyday in 1916 when the district shipped more than 80,000 tons of ore and Johnson had about 1,000 residents. It had three hotels, three general stores, three grocery stores, two meat shops, a dairy store, a confectionery shop, two barbershops, a theater, a stage line and a school.
But with falling metal prices the mines all closed and the community faded. The railroad was abandoned and tracks removed in 1925.
Johnson was dormant for many years until William Hooton of Tucson deepened the Republic shaft to 1,600 feet in 1942 and sent the first ore to Douglas to be treated by selective flotation that would separate both zinc and copper from the ore. Several companies tried various mining and smelting methods for the next few years until the Coronado Company built a 200-ton selective flotation concentrator and sank the Moore shaft to tap a large ore body discovered in 1947. They produced a profitable copper concentrate and a zinc concentrate that were trucked to the railroad at Dragoon. For the next 25 years open pit mining and concentrating waxed and waned with metal prices and obliterated the old underground workings and Johnson.
In 1990, Cypress Minerals sold its holdings to Arimetco which constructed a solvent extraction plant and began cathode copper production by leaching the dumps. But declining prices forced Arimetco into bankruptcy in 1998 and Johnson was sold to Summo Metals for $2.9 million. Summo in turn sold its Johnson holdings to Nord Resources in 1999.
Between 1880 and 1970, the Johnson mines produced 1.64 million tons of ore yielding 37,000 tons of copper, 300 tons of lead, 47,000 tons of zinc, 734,000 ounces of silver and 300 ounces of gold. Total value is estimated at $32 million.