Mohave County miner., 1910-12-10
Silver King Mine.

mere mas been numb Of 'SllVer King" mines in various parts of the West, from Alaska to the Mexican line, but to all old time Arizonians there is but one Silver King-the mine of that name in Pinal county. There's only one other mine in the western hemisphere that has yielded such a marvellous wealth of native silver the BatopilaS mine, formerly owned by Boss Shepard, of Washington, D. c. Great chunks of absolutely pure silver were dug out of the Silver King. Tbe superintendent, Aaron Mason, would sometimes drive down from the mine to the mill with string of wire silver several feet long twisted around his sombrero. They sent native silver to the mint and had it made into silver dollars, which was given away as souvenirs. We have heard much, of late, in regard to Thigh grading" plain English, stealing-of rich gold ore in Nevada. Well, at the Silver King the stealing of silver ore was a common thing, and several ''fences" were prosecuted and sent to jail. Men on the big ore teams would throw of chunks of rich ore, which was picked up by confederates. It was said that the dust of the fve-mile stretch be- tween the mine and the mill would at ln1l ir, silver.
 The story of the discovery of the Silver King is one of the romances of Western mining history. Here it is, as it was told to me:
 In 1872, Gen. Stoneman, later Gov ernor of California, established camp near an Apache trail and constructed a road up the face of a mountain of the Pinal range. One of the soldiers, named Sullivan, employed in cutting the trail, returned from work one evening, sat down on projecting rock near camp, and began picking up fragments among which were some small, heavy, black metallic looking Jumps. These, instead of breaking up when pounded on stones, fattened out, somewhat resem bling lead. His term of service expiring soon afterward. he made his way to the ranch of Charles G. Mason, on Salt River, near the present site of Phenix. The soldier frequently showed Mason the black nuggets, without saying where he found them. One day Sullivan disap-
 Meanwhile several attempts were made to find the source of the nuggets. A location was made mile and a half away, and called the Silver Queen, the first location made in the region. Later they established the Globe dis trict, now famous as a producer of cop- per. In 1875, Mr. Mason and one of his neighbors, Benjamin w. Began, formed party of five, consisting of themselves, William H. Long, Isaac Copeland and another to go again to the Globe mine, taking a train of ami mals to fetch out some of the ore. On their way back, March 2l, 1875, they were attacked by band of Apaches, and one of their party was killed. His body was taken to Camp Supply, at the summit of Stoneman Grade, and was buried by his comrades in one of the old stone baking vessels used for bak- ing bread by Stoneman's soldiers. When they reached the foot of the grade near to the water and camp Copeland was sent to fetch a mule which had strayed, and found It stand ing on some croppings at one side of trail, some of which he broke of. He soon after came hurrying into camp shouting, ''I have struck it, and tits good enough for me!'' It was the black ''stuff''-metallic silver.
 The ownership of the Silver King location was then equally divided among the four survivors of the party of five. Copeland and Long sold out to their partners for S0,OOOS, under the impression that the mine was too good to last, but this amount was made from the net profits in less than six months. Then Charles Mason weak ened and sold his interest to Col. James M. Barney of Yuma, for 250,OOOs. At this time the first class ores assayed 8,OOOS to 2O,OO0S per ton. and were ship ! ped to San Francisco by way of Yuma. Soon after, Reagan began to suspect the mine had bottom to it, and sold out to Barney for 300,O00S.