Mohave County miner., 1912-08-10


 ing indications of heavy water bear ing.
 South end of the Lucknow takes in what was locally known as the Mund mining claim and the old Thompson claim. The Mund claim carries the high values in silver, the surface ores running we'll up into the thousands of ounces to the ton. The rich ores from this claim were milled at Blackberry when the mines were first located and worked, but latterly shipments were made to the shelter.
 The old Thompson claim shipped many thousands of dollars worth of ore in the early eighties, but after the tragedy enacted there in 1885 little further work was done on them. Thompson brothers, Hitchcock and Daines were the owners of the mines and were shipping rich ores to the shelter regularly. Lee Thompson was the business man of the firm and al- ways made settlement at the Sampler at Kingman. He was addicted to gambling and this lead to dissatisfac- tion among the others, much of the firms money being lost in this manner. Finally Hitchcock and Daines made a camp of their own and began work on another claim owned by the group of men. This angered Lee Thompson, and the rupture became more pro- nounced when Hitchcock and Daines, during the absence of Thompson, took from his camp considerable lumber, which was claimed by both parties. The morning of the tragedy Lee Thompson in going to work walked in- to the camp of Daines and Hitchcock and ordered them to return the lum- Der to his camp before nightfall or there would be trouble. He carried with him shotgun, and after leaving his ultimatum, proceeded to the mine. Hitchcock and Daines paid no heed to tIlC oIuCI anu WUCu CTS, Harry Mehatfy and man named Harmon, a recent arrival from Denver. were seen coming down the trail from the mine the two men armed them selves and laid in wait behind the pile of lum Der. The trail ran close below the camp and when the men came within hundred yards of the place they were hailed and the battle be- gan. Lee Thompson fired his shotgun and the first shot from the Daines- Hitchcock fortifcation struck Harmon in the heart, killing him instantly. In falling Harmon struck Lee Thompson and threw him from the trail. Be. fore he struck the ground he had been shot in the groin. He crawled behind some greasewoOd bushes, where the wind had piled up a little mound of sand and from that point answered shot with shot. The men behind the barricade of lumber were unable to get view of Thompson, who was lying flat on his stomach, and the bullets threw little spurts of sand in his face as they struck in the sand mound. Other bullets flying a little higher tore the clothes from his back and scared his flesh. Darkness came on while this sanguinary battle was taking place, and Daines and Hitchcock were unable to tell whether Thor pson was badly injured or not. Mahatfy and Harold Thompson had gotten out of the way when the battle started and had gone to their camp by different routes. In the meantime Hitchcock and Daines had hitched up their team and started for l1ackb berry. After they had gone Lee Thompson crawled painfully to the tent of Daines and Hitchcock and was there found later by Mahaffy and Harold Thompson.
 Lee Thompson recovered from his wounds and later was killed in a street fight in South American town.
 After the tragedy at the camp no more work was done by either party and the mines were finally abandoned, although they were known to carry excellent ore.
 Now that these mines have become the property of the Nevada Arizona