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| Tiger, Arizona, circa 1950s. (Photograph courtesy of E. Swafford.) |
INTRODUCTION
In the 1940s and 1950s, Tiger, Arizona was a bustling community with houses,
dormitories and tents housing almost 2,000 people. Now it sits, a silent,
empty
patch of desert with an abandoned pit mine, old tailings piles and the mine head frame, which barely attest to the fact that a town existed there at all, let alone
give due credit to its history. Therefore this book.
Summer 2008 and a random stop for a cold soda at a small convenience store on the southwest corner of Old Nogales Highway and Sahuarita Boulevard in Sahuarita, Arizona is what did it. My wife and I had, only a two years prior, moved to this small town south of Tucson. I struck up a conversation with the sales clerk about local history. She handed me a copy of Green Valley, Arizona, by a local writer named Philip Goorian. I bought it, went home and read the whole book. A few days later, I tracked Philip down and spent several hours over some awesome Mexican food discussing the local area and historical happenings. He referred me to his editor at Arcadia Publishing, which led to me researching, writing and publishing Falcon Field (2009), a history of Mesa, Arizona’s municipal airport.
Founded in 1939 by Jimmy Stewart and other Hollywood luminaries, thousands of World War II British Royal Air Force pilots learned to fly at six training schools in the United States. Falcon Field was the fourth of these schools (British Flying Training School #4). Meeting some of the pilots, trainers and crew from Falcon Field soon led to meeting members of prominent historical families, which led to poring over hundreds of vintage photographs and reading biographies, newspaper articles and diaries.
This fed the history bug I’d always had, and soon thereafter I began researching a second book for Arcadia and obtained a job as a part-time reporter at Copper Area News Publishers (CANP), which publishes four newspapers in Pinal County, Arizona, located just east of the Phoenix area and just north of the Tucson area.
Before long, editors Michael and Jennifer Carnes had turned me loose in the county and I was digging into the local history of towns long-gone, like Ray, Sonora, Barcelona, Christmas, Kelvin and Tiger. Growing up in Orange County, California, surrounded by an ocean-to-desert cityscape or, as I have always referred to it, “The Greater Los Angeles-San Diego-Riverside Metropolitan Area,” the concept of a “ghost town” was just that…a concept. Now here was the reality. Meeting people who were born in towns that no longer existed was a new and alien thing to me.
With a lot of help from a lot of people, I was fortunate enough to be able to write a series of articles on Tiger, Arizona, for the CANP newspapers. The backbone of the research came from a history written by Kim K. Howell for Magma Metals Company (now part of BHP Billiton). Other information was compiled from written sources, including Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin (especially issues No. 5, 137 and 156); newspaper clippings, letters and reports in the files of the Arizona Department of Geology and Mineral Technology at the Arizona Department of Mineral Resources; patent survey records of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management; material in the University of Arizona Special Collections Department, including the 1927-29 manuscript, The History of Mining in Arizona, by J. B. Tenney; U.S. Bureau of Mines Bulletin (especially issue No. 111); U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper (No. 471); articles in The Minerologist, The Mineralogical Record, Mining and Scientific Press, Paydirt, Magma Copper Company Update, The San Manuel Miner, The Oracle Historian, Mining and Engineering World and A.I.M.E. Transactions; and an unpublished field trip presentation by William Panczner and Robert L. Hockett.
In the 1990s, local historian Farlow C. Davis built upon Howell’s work, putting together an expanded history of Tiger which, with permission from both BHP Billiton and Farlow Davis, I was able, in turn, to build upon.
Summer 2008 and a random stop for a cold soda at a small convenience store on the southwest corner of Old Nogales Highway and Sahuarita Boulevard in Sahuarita, Arizona is what did it. My wife and I had, only a two years prior, moved to this small town south of Tucson. I struck up a conversation with the sales clerk about local history. She handed me a copy of Green Valley, Arizona, by a local writer named Philip Goorian. I bought it, went home and read the whole book. A few days later, I tracked Philip down and spent several hours over some awesome Mexican food discussing the local area and historical happenings. He referred me to his editor at Arcadia Publishing, which led to me researching, writing and publishing Falcon Field (2009), a history of Mesa, Arizona’s municipal airport.
Founded in 1939 by Jimmy Stewart and other Hollywood luminaries, thousands of World War II British Royal Air Force pilots learned to fly at six training schools in the United States. Falcon Field was the fourth of these schools (British Flying Training School #4). Meeting some of the pilots, trainers and crew from Falcon Field soon led to meeting members of prominent historical families, which led to poring over hundreds of vintage photographs and reading biographies, newspaper articles and diaries.
This fed the history bug I’d always had, and soon thereafter I began researching a second book for Arcadia and obtained a job as a part-time reporter at Copper Area News Publishers (CANP), which publishes four newspapers in Pinal County, Arizona, located just east of the Phoenix area and just north of the Tucson area.
Before long, editors Michael and Jennifer Carnes had turned me loose in the county and I was digging into the local history of towns long-gone, like Ray, Sonora, Barcelona, Christmas, Kelvin and Tiger. Growing up in Orange County, California, surrounded by an ocean-to-desert cityscape or, as I have always referred to it, “The Greater Los Angeles-San Diego-Riverside Metropolitan Area,” the concept of a “ghost town” was just that…a concept. Now here was the reality. Meeting people who were born in towns that no longer existed was a new and alien thing to me.
With a lot of help from a lot of people, I was fortunate enough to be able to write a series of articles on Tiger, Arizona, for the CANP newspapers. The backbone of the research came from a history written by Kim K. Howell for Magma Metals Company (now part of BHP Billiton). Other information was compiled from written sources, including Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin (especially issues No. 5, 137 and 156); newspaper clippings, letters and reports in the files of the Arizona Department of Geology and Mineral Technology at the Arizona Department of Mineral Resources; patent survey records of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management; material in the University of Arizona Special Collections Department, including the 1927-29 manuscript, The History of Mining in Arizona, by J. B. Tenney; U.S. Bureau of Mines Bulletin (especially issue No. 111); U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper (No. 471); articles in The Minerologist, The Mineralogical Record, Mining and Scientific Press, Paydirt, Magma Copper Company Update, The San Manuel Miner, The Oracle Historian, Mining and Engineering World and A.I.M.E. Transactions; and an unpublished field trip presentation by William Panczner and Robert L. Hockett.
In the 1990s, local historian Farlow C. Davis built upon Howell’s work, putting together an expanded history of Tiger which, with permission from both BHP Billiton and Farlow Davis, I was able, in turn, to build upon.
* * * * *
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY
Tiger,
Arizona has long been famous among mineral collectors around the world. The
first scholarly descriptions of mineral specimens from Tiger, then called
Schultz, were in 1886 in a German journal and, in 1887, in an American journal.
Dealer advertisements for the sale of Tiger minerals go back as far as 1897,
and every major museum in the world boasts at least one specimen from Tiger.
The geological history of Tiger, Arizona began almost 1.5 billion years ago, when the Oracle Granite crystallized deep beneath the surface of the earth. This granite, which makes up most of the bedrock in the Tiger area, is classified by geologists as a porphyritic quartz, a red or gray-and-white speckled rock formation rising above the scrub and grass.
Much later, geologically speaking, between 69 and 67 million years ago, the Oracle Granite was intruded by a similar kind of rock, called monzonite or granodiorite. All of these rocks were exposed at the Earth’s surface sometime between 30 and 28 million years ago. They provided grains and pebbles and boulders which were incorporated into a conglomerate rock, referred to by geologists as a cloudburst formation.
Some time after the cloudburst formation was cemented into hard, brittle rock, it and the granite beneath were broken repeatedly by movements of the Earth’s crust. The breaks in the rocks were all more or less parallel to each other; they tended to be west-northwestward and were steeply inclined toward the southwest.
Molten, liquid rock squeezed upward along these fissures; it cooled and crystallized about 22 million years ago to form a hard, fine-grained kind of rock called rhyolite. Some of the liquid rhyolite may have exploded out onto the surface of the earth to form part of the abundant volcanic rocks in the area.
The forces which sheared and fractured these rocks continued after the rhyolite had crystallized into solid rock, and the rhyolite and surrounding Oracle Granite were shattered and crushed repeatedly. During the several million years that this cracking and grinding was taking place, hot mineral water was circulating through the cracks and open spaces in the rocks. This hot water carried dissolved silica and sulfur and many different metals.
Gradually, in response to changing chemical and physical conditions, minerals crystallized from the hot solution, replacing fragments of rock and filling open spaces around them. These minerals included quartz, some in the form of purple amethyst, gold and the sulfides of such metals as iron, copper, lead, silver and zinc. The Tiger veins had been born.
As the temperature of the circulating hot water began to cool, and it mixed more and more with cooler ground water, it began to dissolve oxygen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The chemical composition of this water was such that it reacted with the sulfide minerals and produced new oxygen- and sulfate- and carbonate-bearing minerals of iron, copper, lead and zinc. Gold and silver were left behind. This process, called oxidation, took place within the recently formed vein down to a depth of at least 900 feet.
At the surface of the earth during this time, and for millions of years afterward, the exposed rocks were being worn down by weather and running water to form another conglomerate, which geologists call the Gila Formation. The Gila Formation, which is several million years old, is not cemented together as tightly as older rocks, but it is rigid enough to break. And it did break, along with all of the other rocks in the Tiger area, when the Earth’s crust began to move again about a million years ago.
The primary result of this movement was a huge zone of cracks known as the Mammoth Fault. The Mammoth Fault trends north-northwest and is steeply inclined to the northeast, opposite to the dip of the vein. Because of this geometry, and the 700 to 1,200 feet of displacement across the fault, the original vein was broken into two segments.
The lower part moved relatively upward and westward, forming what has come to be known as the Collins vein; the upper part, which moved relatively downward and eastward, was sliced up by smaller faults into numerous slivers. It has come to be called the Mammoth vein. Most of the other veins named by miners in the Tiger area, such as the Mohawk and the New Year, are really parts of the Mammoth vein. One branch of the Mammoth Fault itself had enough ore minerals along it that it was called the Dream vein by early miners.
After the vein was broken and separated by the Mammoth Fault, mineral water again circulated through the cracks, this time introducing molybdenum and vanadium to the minerals already present in the veins, and causing more oxidation. The Mammoth vein is oxidized for its entire depth. The Collins vein is oxidized down to about 700 feet below the present surface of the ground; it is partly oxidized from that point down to about 900 feet. Below the 900-foot level, only unoxidized sulfide minerals remain.
As a result of their extremely complex chemical and physical history, the veins at Tiger have yielded some of the rarest and most beautiful mineral specimens in the world. Almost 100 different mineral species and elements have been identified there, including acanthite, amethyst, andularia, alamosite, allophone, amesite, anglesite, antigorite, apatite, atacamite, aurichalcite, azurite, baryte, beaverite, bideauxite, biotite, boleite, bornite, brochantite, bromian chlorargyrite, calcite, caledonite, cerussite, chalcanthite, chalcocite, chalcopyrite, chalcotrichite, chlorargyrite, connellite, copper, cuprian descloizite, descloizite, devilline, diaboleite, dioptase, djurleite, epidote, fluorine, fluorite, fluorspar, fornacite, fraipontite, galena, goethite, gold, hematite, hemimorphite, heulandite, hisingerite, hollandite, hydrocerussite, iodargyrite, iranite, lead, leadhillite, limonite, linarite, macquartite, magnetite, malachite, mammothite, matlockite, melanotekite, microcline, mimetite, minium, mixite, molybdenum, mottramite, munakataite, murdochite, muscovite, palygorskite, paralaurionite, paratacamite, phosgenite, phosphohedyphane, pinalite, plancheite, plumbonacrite, plumbotsumite, pseudoboleite, pyrite, pyrolusite, pyromorphite, quartz, queitite, ramsdellite, rosasite, sericite, shattuckite, silver, smithsonite, specularite, sphalerite, stilbite, stolzite, sulphur, surite, tenorite, tetrahedrite, tourmaline, tsumebite, tungsten, tungstenoan wulfenite, vanadinite, vanadium, wherryite, willemite, wulfenite, wurtzite and zinc…just to name a few.
The geological history of Tiger, Arizona began almost 1.5 billion years ago, when the Oracle Granite crystallized deep beneath the surface of the earth. This granite, which makes up most of the bedrock in the Tiger area, is classified by geologists as a porphyritic quartz, a red or gray-and-white speckled rock formation rising above the scrub and grass.
Much later, geologically speaking, between 69 and 67 million years ago, the Oracle Granite was intruded by a similar kind of rock, called monzonite or granodiorite. All of these rocks were exposed at the Earth’s surface sometime between 30 and 28 million years ago. They provided grains and pebbles and boulders which were incorporated into a conglomerate rock, referred to by geologists as a cloudburst formation.
Some time after the cloudburst formation was cemented into hard, brittle rock, it and the granite beneath were broken repeatedly by movements of the Earth’s crust. The breaks in the rocks were all more or less parallel to each other; they tended to be west-northwestward and were steeply inclined toward the southwest.
Molten, liquid rock squeezed upward along these fissures; it cooled and crystallized about 22 million years ago to form a hard, fine-grained kind of rock called rhyolite. Some of the liquid rhyolite may have exploded out onto the surface of the earth to form part of the abundant volcanic rocks in the area.
The forces which sheared and fractured these rocks continued after the rhyolite had crystallized into solid rock, and the rhyolite and surrounding Oracle Granite were shattered and crushed repeatedly. During the several million years that this cracking and grinding was taking place, hot mineral water was circulating through the cracks and open spaces in the rocks. This hot water carried dissolved silica and sulfur and many different metals.
Gradually, in response to changing chemical and physical conditions, minerals crystallized from the hot solution, replacing fragments of rock and filling open spaces around them. These minerals included quartz, some in the form of purple amethyst, gold and the sulfides of such metals as iron, copper, lead, silver and zinc. The Tiger veins had been born.
As the temperature of the circulating hot water began to cool, and it mixed more and more with cooler ground water, it began to dissolve oxygen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The chemical composition of this water was such that it reacted with the sulfide minerals and produced new oxygen- and sulfate- and carbonate-bearing minerals of iron, copper, lead and zinc. Gold and silver were left behind. This process, called oxidation, took place within the recently formed vein down to a depth of at least 900 feet.
At the surface of the earth during this time, and for millions of years afterward, the exposed rocks were being worn down by weather and running water to form another conglomerate, which geologists call the Gila Formation. The Gila Formation, which is several million years old, is not cemented together as tightly as older rocks, but it is rigid enough to break. And it did break, along with all of the other rocks in the Tiger area, when the Earth’s crust began to move again about a million years ago.
The primary result of this movement was a huge zone of cracks known as the Mammoth Fault. The Mammoth Fault trends north-northwest and is steeply inclined to the northeast, opposite to the dip of the vein. Because of this geometry, and the 700 to 1,200 feet of displacement across the fault, the original vein was broken into two segments.
The lower part moved relatively upward and westward, forming what has come to be known as the Collins vein; the upper part, which moved relatively downward and eastward, was sliced up by smaller faults into numerous slivers. It has come to be called the Mammoth vein. Most of the other veins named by miners in the Tiger area, such as the Mohawk and the New Year, are really parts of the Mammoth vein. One branch of the Mammoth Fault itself had enough ore minerals along it that it was called the Dream vein by early miners.
After the vein was broken and separated by the Mammoth Fault, mineral water again circulated through the cracks, this time introducing molybdenum and vanadium to the minerals already present in the veins, and causing more oxidation. The Mammoth vein is oxidized for its entire depth. The Collins vein is oxidized down to about 700 feet below the present surface of the ground; it is partly oxidized from that point down to about 900 feet. Below the 900-foot level, only unoxidized sulfide minerals remain.
As a result of their extremely complex chemical and physical history, the veins at Tiger have yielded some of the rarest and most beautiful mineral specimens in the world. Almost 100 different mineral species and elements have been identified there, including acanthite, amethyst, andularia, alamosite, allophone, amesite, anglesite, antigorite, apatite, atacamite, aurichalcite, azurite, baryte, beaverite, bideauxite, biotite, boleite, bornite, brochantite, bromian chlorargyrite, calcite, caledonite, cerussite, chalcanthite, chalcocite, chalcopyrite, chalcotrichite, chlorargyrite, connellite, copper, cuprian descloizite, descloizite, devilline, diaboleite, dioptase, djurleite, epidote, fluorine, fluorite, fluorspar, fornacite, fraipontite, galena, goethite, gold, hematite, hemimorphite, heulandite, hisingerite, hollandite, hydrocerussite, iodargyrite, iranite, lead, leadhillite, limonite, linarite, macquartite, magnetite, malachite, mammothite, matlockite, melanotekite, microcline, mimetite, minium, mixite, molybdenum, mottramite, munakataite, murdochite, muscovite, palygorskite, paralaurionite, paratacamite, phosgenite, phosphohedyphane, pinalite, plancheite, plumbonacrite, plumbotsumite, pseudoboleite, pyrite, pyrolusite, pyromorphite, quartz, queitite, ramsdellite, rosasite, sericite, shattuckite, silver, smithsonite, specularite, sphalerite, stilbite, stolzite, sulphur, surite, tenorite, tetrahedrite, tourmaline, tsumebite, tungsten, tungstenoan wulfenite, vanadinite, vanadium, wherryite, willemite, wulfenite, wurtzite and zinc…just to name a few.
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| Yedlinite,
named for the late Leo Neal Yedlin (1908-1977), a rock collector from
New Haven, Connecticut, who discovered the mineral, is only known to be
found at Tiger, Arizona.
(Photograph courtesy of Van King.)
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Leo Neal Yedlin, circa 1960.
(Photograph courtesy of Van King.)
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