|
 Gold
was discovered on the desert west of Superstition
Mountain in the 1880s. The first cries of eureka did
not produce a gold mining boomtown.
A Mormon boy named Ed Jones staked a claim northeast
of the area called the Lucky Boy in 1881. His claim
was followed by several other mining claims staked
by men from Mesa City. William A. Kimball of Mesa
City, staked the Buckhorn-Boulder claim in 1886.
Kimball’s claim did not produce much gold ore.
Four Mesa City prospectors did discover a rich vein
of gold on November 17, 1892, when they staked out
the Black Queen claim. Orrin Merrill, Orlando
Merrill, Charles Hakes and Charles R. Morse worked
the Black Queen through April
of 1893. On April 13, 1893, a heavy downpour
resulted in a flash flood that washed a lot of
timbers away. While gathering up their timbers along
Goldfield Wash they discovered a rich outcrop of
gold ore on April 14, 1893. They filed the Mammoth
No. 1 and No. 2 claims on the richest deposit of
gold ore in the area. By mid-summer of 1893, a
promising community had taken root on the Arizona
desert west of Superstition Mountain.
Goldfield soon had a hotel, livery stable,
mercantile store, butcher shop, stage station, a
rooming house, three saloons, church and school.
Names such as the Mammoth Saloon, Capitol Saloon,
Pioneer Saloon, Gold Tower Rooming House, Golden
Dipper, Petersen’s Mercantile, Riley & Co. Livery
and the Mesa City-Goldfield stage line were common
places with patrons of Goldfield.
William A. Kimball started the first stage line to
the Goldfields in early August of 1893. Kimball
advertised his stage service in the Arizona
Republican, on August 23, 1893. The ad read as
follows:
“Mesa & Goldfield stage line leaves
Mesa everyday except Sunday at 1 p.m. and
arrives in Goldfield at 5 p.m. The stage
carries the Arizona Republican.”
Kimball’s ad appeared once again in the Arizona
Republican on Oct. 1, 1893.
Kimball was the owner of the Pioneer Hotel in Mesa
City, and was a very active entrepreneur throughout
the life of Goldfield. At different times Kimball
owned a hotel, mercantile, livery stable and a stage
line.
Kimball was a master at operating businesses. It
wasn’t long before Kimball had contracts to carry
passengers and freight for the Phoenix, Tempe & Mesa
by A. L. Fisher. Kimball and Fisher christened the
Phoenix to Goldfield stage run on Feb. 10, 1894. By
early 1894 the Mammoth Mine and its famous Mormon
Stope had become one of the biggest gold producers
in Arizona Territory. A month later the Saturday
Review reported the Mesa City to Goldfield Road as
being in excellent
 shape
and trips could be made by stage between the two
communities in three hours.
J. G. Petersen was appointed postmaster at
Goldfield’s new post office on March 25, 1894. The
post office opened on April 12, 1894. The opening of
the post office created the need for contracted mail
service. These coveted mail contracts were awarded
to the lowest bidder. The receiving of a mail
contract often meant the difference of surviving or
not for a stage line in Arizona Territory.
The Arizona Republican reported on May 31, 1894, the
Mesa City & Goldfield stage line was running a
comfortable four-horse Concord stagecoach. It was
further reported the Concord could make the trip to
Goldfield from Mesa City in three and halfhours in
luxury and comfort.
There were two stage lines running to Goldfield by
the first of June 1894. James Byrant had the Mesa
City-Florence Goldfield stage line. Byrant’s driver
was J.P. Levy. Kimball soon became a operating
partner of Byrants. It was sometime in August of
1894 Kimball reorganized the Mesa City-Goldfield
stage line and temporarily named it the Kimball,
Riley & Co. stage line.
On Aug. 17, 1894, the U. S. Post Office advertised
for bids for mail contracts from Tempe to Goldfield.
This advertisement appeared in the Tempe News, Aug.
18, 1894. On Sept. 15, 1895, William W. Wall of
Phoenix, received the mail contract to transport
mail from Tempe to Goldfield. By Oct. 12, 1894,
there were three stage lines operating from Mesa
City to Goldfield. These lines included the Mesa
City-Goldfield line owned by William A. Kimball, the
Hunsaker Daily Stage and the W. W. Wall line. The
heavy competition resulted in Kimball reducing his
daily runs to tri-weekly runs by Oct. 19, 1894. J.
S. Petersen bought the Mesa City- Goldfield stage
line from Kimball by Nov. 23, 1894. The Hunsaker
stage line had assumed the mail contract in a
sub-contract from W. W. Wall. A fourth stage line
begin operation between Phoenix and Goldfield about
this time. William A. Buell made his first trip to
Goldfield on Nov. 22, 1894. Buell’s stage line
connected with the Fisher & Collins Phoenix stage
line and the Byrant’s Florence-Goldfield line.
Byrant agreed to end his trips to Goldfield by the
end of November 1894. There just weren’t enough
passengers and freight to support four stage lines
to Goldfield. About the same time William A. Kimball
had double daily service from Goldfield to Phoenix.
The periodicals were once more reporting Kimball was
operating daily service to Goldfield from Phoenix by
the end of March 1895.
The Nov. 11, 1895, periodicals reported stage line
connections between George Reynold’s Tempe stage
line and the Hunsaker stage line to Goldfield.
At this time Goldfield had been a booming gold camp
for almost two and half years.
Gold production had slowed down considerably by the
end of 1895. Rumors began to circulate the post
office in Goldfield might close.
The means of transportation and roads had improved
considerably since the first stage lines started
providing service to Goldfield from Mesa City.
William A. Kimball had survived all his competitors
and continued to operate the Mesa- Goldfield stage.
Louis Wagner was appointed postmaster of Goldfield
on Aug. 14, 1896. This appointment assured the
operation of the post of the post office in
Goldfield and future mail contracts even though gold
production had slowed down at the Mammoth Mine.
Hi (Hy) George was employed by the Mammoth Mine at
Goldfield to make improvements on the Mesa
City-Goldfield road on Sept. 4, 1896. The
continuation of the post office, road improvements
and mail contracts indicated a very bright future
for Goldfield.
Jack Hall, near the end of September 1896, started
another stage line from Mesa City to Goldfield. He
called his stage line the Owl Express. He made a
daily run to Goldfield from Mesa City while William
A. Kimballhad returned to a tri-weekly run. Hall
advertised his daily run to Goldfield from Mesa City
in the Mesa Free Press on Dec. 25, 1896, which read
as follows:
“The Owl Express leaves Mesa City for
Goldfield everyday at noon with passengers
and freight. The fare is $1 to Goldfield and
a round trip is $1.75, Proprietor Jack
Hall.”
The Owl Express only survived a few months. An
article appeared in the Arizona Republican on Feb.
5, 1897, that reported the following:
“March 1, regular mail service to
Goldfield from Mesa (distance 23 miles). W.
W. Wall will sublet mail contract to Alex
Hunsaker. Contract expires June 30, 1898.
If one peruses the many periodicals between January
1897 and December 1898 concerning commercial mining
and mining activity around Goldfield it is easy to
recognize the decline of this once prosperous gold
mining camp. As long as there was a mail service
contract to the post office in Goldfield there was a
stage line operating between Mesa City and
Goldfield. Newspaper accounts of late 1897 pronounce
Goldfield as dead.
The rich gold vein miners had been mining one day
had disappeared the next day. The mass exodus from
Goldfield had begun by November 1897. The Goldfield
Post Office was discontinued on November 11, 1898.
The last stage to Goldfield carrying the United
States mail was on Nov. 9, 1898. |
