The copper era., 1909-09-30
OLD BILL PARISH.
And the CIiftOn-MOrenci District.A Few Sketches of Early History by
 an Unknown Artist.

Taken from a recent issue of the
 Mining and Financial News:
 "The news of the arrival of Col.
 Wm. B. Parish at Ely to inspect the
 holdings of the Ely Central Copper
 company has awakened a train of
 long buried memories of the south
 vest" remarked a former frontiers
 man the other day.
 "I used to know Bill', as the old timers always called him. He is a
 plain, unassuming gentleman who got
 his first experience of mining in the
 placers of California in the 60s and after that he branched out into quartz mining.
 ''He is probably responsible for
 more big dividend payers among the
 mines of the United States today than any other one man in the sane line of business. Bill always had the courage of his convictions and never
 hesitated to recommend the purchase of property if he thought it's merit justified the expenditure. In this he differed from many others who made their reputations as mining experts by turning down everything in sight.
 ''Such was the case of the United Verde, which is perhaps the greatest of all great mines. The same thing occurred at Clifton. at Morenci, and at Bisbee. All of these camps were condemned time without number by eminent men, but they are today among the greatest copper producers in the world and have made Arizona famous.
 Later, the same conditions existed at Cripple Creek, and at Tonopah and Gold6eld. These camps were knocked by almost every mining engineer of prominence. Bill Parish made the first favorable report on Cripple Creek and was ridiculed by men who stood high in the mining world. but the camp has made good by the production of close to S300,- OOO, ,OOO.
 ''I don't think he examined Tonopah, but it was generally knocked by everybody until o. A. Turner, now president of the Ely Central, came along. He at once glasped the inn portance of the find and tied up the property which later made good. MT. Turner was therefore indirectly re- sponsible for the wave of prosperity which swept over that portion of Nevada at that time.
 1T was placer mining in Gold Gulch, near the present town of Morenci, when the copper deposits were discovered by Jim Bullard, Joe Yankie, John Swisshelm and others along in the 7Os. The Metcalfs, Ike Stevens, the Shannons and others from Silver City, NM, came in later and located claims around Metcalf.
 "Some claim that Col. Ben Craw ford was one of the original dis but I don't recall him at that time, though there is legend among the Apaches that he was living in the country when Coronado's men came up from the Gulf of California to explore that region during the sixteenth century.
 ''I think it was in 1880 that Bill Parish examined and made a favor able~report upon the holdings of the which were mostly on the south side of Chase Creek, and also upon the Metcalf property at Metcalf The report was made for the Arizona Copper company of Glasgow, and on the strength of it the sale was made for about 8, 100000.
 "The company soon met with heavy losses and many discouragements, mainly, through bad management, and the stockholders naturally con cluded that their property was no good. Then string of experts was sent out, all of whom condemned the purchase and advised the closing down of the mines.
 ''The directors came out from Scot land and sent for Parish. He met them, went over the ground carefully with them and partially convinced them that his report was correct. As a matter of fact, they were not con vinced of anything but of his sim cerity, but they were already in so deep that to quit was impossible, so they floundered along for several years, getting deeper into the hole all the time, until they put James at the head of the con- pany's affairs.
 "Colquhoun was chemist and he soon discovered that the losses in the slag amounted to from to Is per cent. Having a level head on his he realized that the mines were not to blame for the company's