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 High
on the western slope of Superstition Mountain, above
the Mining Camp Restaurant, is located the waste
dump of the old Buckhorn-Boulder Mine, known to some
as the old Palmer Mine. This silent dump denotes a
bygone era of copper and gold mining history in the
area. The site is still quite conspicuous from many
points around Apache Junction. Several years ago the
forest service tried to re-vegetate the site and
obliterate it from view, but old mine dump still
remains visible on the western slope of the
mountain.
When this mine was operational there was a head
frame, hoist house, hoist and a vertical cage for
lowering men and equipment down into the earth some
225 feet. Questions are still being asked about the
history of this old mine site and what happen here
many decades ago.
You might say the story began on November 4, 1875,
when Dr. Ralph Fleetwood Palmer was born in
Marquette, Michigan. Palmer attended the University
of Michigan from 1894-1898 graduating in 1898. He
then attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons
at the University of Illinois in 1900. On December
1, 1900 he was made a member of the house staff at
Cook County Hospital in Chicago. On June 1, 1902 he
received his diploma, and immediately moved to
Arizona Territory.
Upon his arrival in Arizona Territory he stayed at
the Halfway House located between Morristown and
Castle Hot Springs, just west of Phoenix. He moved
to Prescott in September of 1902, and from there he
moved to Camp Verde in December of 1902. He spent a
year in Camp Verde, than applied for a position with
the Bureau of Reclamation at Roosevelt. The position
was post physician and surgeon.
 Palmer moved to Roosevelt in 1903. Almost
immediately after arriving he became involved in his
first encounter with the Superstition Mountains. A
group of Pima Indians refused to work on the road
gang building the Mesa- Roosevelt Road because an
old chief was afraid one of his wives was going to
die. The two wives had been in a vicious fight and
one had a severe hatchet wound in her skull. Palmer
was sent to Government Well to see what he could do,
some 37 miles from Roosevelt Dam. Palmer was able to
save the lives of the two women and in doing so he
became a friend of the old Pima chief.
Chief Ash Nash Ni told Palmer he was guarding the
secrets of Ain-We-Gophon (Superstition Mountain) and
further explained that his wives would soon give
birth to a son for him to pass the secrets of the
mountain on to. The chief also told Palmer that his
sons would guard the secrets of Ain-We-Gophon and
would forever make peace with the Pima Earth Gods.
Palmer wasn’t sure there was any truth in what he
heard, but he became intrigued with the mountain for
the rest of his life.
Dr. Palmer had read a lot about the Goldfield area
and knew it had produced a lot of gold just a few
years before his arrival to this area. He dreamed of
opening his own gold mine in the Superstition
Mountain area. He would actually do so some years
later. William A. Kimball located the
Buckhorn-Boulder claims first in 1886. Kimball sank
a shaft and shipped a considerable amount of
high-grade ore from the mine prior to 1900. The
Buckhorn-Boulder claims were the oldest mining
claims in the immediate area excluding the Lucky Boy
claim. An Arizona newspaper reported on February 28,
1900, the following, “W. A. Kimball of Mesa is
shipping some high producing ore from the Buckhorn
Mine, two carloads being loaded yesterday.”
The rich ore referred to as copper and was taken
from a shaft some 75 feet deep. This was interesting
information about the mining district. According to
information available at the Arizona Bureau of Mines
in Tucson, some 3,000 ounces of gold was produced in
the area almost ten years before the discovery of
the Mammoth, Bulldog or Black Queen Claims in 1892.
The old Buckhorn-Boulder Mine is known as the Old
Palmer Mine today. There are reports that the old
Buckhorn-Boulder
Mine produced some $75,000 in gold bullion prior to
1900. The mine had several very rich gold
impregnated Quartz stringers.
W. A. Kimball died on January 20, 1906, in Mesa, and
the mine remained inactive until 1917. A group of
Mesa entrepreneurs acquired the mine and after
extensive investigation they decided to extend the
old shaft to 120 feet in depth. This group of Mesa
men included a young doctor named Ralph F. Palmer.
The Buckhorn and Boulder Mining Company raised
capital and decided to initiate this project. The
shaft was further sunk to the depth of 215 feet a
short time later. During the summer of 1918, a drift
was extended 35 feet to the south of the shaft and
there in an isolated pocket a single specimen of ore
assayed 882 ounces of gold per ton. Many other
assays ran more than ounces to the ton in free gold.
If these assays were correct why didn’t the mine
eventually produce a profit? It is likely the sample
material was taken from a very narrow extremely rich
vein. The history of the Superstition Mining
District reveals very shallow super rich pockets of
gold ore, not more than seventy-five below the
surface. Ore bodies beyond this depth usually
pinched out and disappeared in this particular
mining district.
World War I virtually shut down operations at the
mine in August of 1918. The property then remained
closed until the war was over. There was an
outstanding note against the property for $5,000.
The only activity on the property during the war was
for the annual assessment work done in the name of
the corporation. The property was sold at auction in
pay for outstanding indebtedness in 1926, at which
time Dr. Palmer, bought total control of the
property.
The old mine became a hobby for Dr. Palmer. He tried
to reach the “pot of gold” he believed located
beyond the 220-foot level. Palmer continued his
search off and on for twenty years. Then on December
17, 1947, a tragic accident occurred at the Palmer
Mine. Two men were working at the 225-foot level of
the shaft when an explosion occurred. The explosion
killed Ernesto Jacoeo of Phoenix. He was thirty-nine
years old and he left behind a wife and five
children. Injured in the same accident was Glenn
Belcher, 41, of Apache Junction. Belcher suffered
multiple lacerations and had a hole blown in his
left side by a rock. Both men were working at the
bottom of the shaft and Frank Hedworth of Winkelman
was running the hoist. A couple of local residents
removed Jacoeo’s body from the shaft. They were
Grady Haskins and Steve Barrick. This accident ended
Palmer’s mining operation at the mine. The mine was
soon closed and all the equipment sold and hauled
off.
Palmer passed away six years after the accident at
the mine. His death ended a forty-year quest for the
gold of Superstition Mountain. The old dump has
since been removed. If you look careful toward the
far left side of the Siphon Draw trail, the
Buckhorn-Boulder still stands out against the
backdrop of the western façade of Superstition
Mountain. The site attests to the dreams and prayers
of men searching for gold and those who pioneered
the mining spirit of the West filled with dreams of
riches.
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