178 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
would yield only a tombstone. The Silver King was a famous pro- 
ducer of rich ore which assayed $2,200 and some of it even $9,000 in 
silver to the ton. Later several rich mines were combined and 
operated profitably until flooding of the largest mine threw the com- 
pany into legal difficulties, during which most people left Tombstone. 
After years of litigation the principal group of mines was sold at 
auction for $500,000, and production at Tombstone was resumed in a 
small measure, for a time. After the silver mines were abandoned it 
was found that the associated deposits of manganese ore could be 
marketed, and in 1918 the old Oregon mine was producing about 
2,000 tons a month of this ore for use in small proportions in iron 
making to improve the quality of the pig iron. Tombstone is now a 
city of 850 inhabitants with hopes that additional ore bodies will be 
discovered some day and restore the former prosperity. It is the 
scene of the Wolfville stories of Bret Harte and many other books and 
stories by various authors and the place where the famous newspaper 
“The Arizona Kicker” was published; the present newspaper bears 
the name ‘“‘Tombstone Epitaph.” Its historic ‘Bird Cage Theater” 
in boom days housed some great actors. 
The small village of Charleston, on the banks of the San Pedro 
River, at one time had a smelter and was noted as a 
wild frontier town. From Fairbank the railroad 
raaerenngee fet. ascends the west side of the San Pedro Valley and 
ew Orleans 1,457 passes northwestward around the northeast side of 
ere the Whetstone Mountains (p. 161). (Turn to sheet 
Fairbank. 22.) At Mescal it crosses (on a bridge) the old 
Elevation 3,853 feet, ™ain line of the Southern Pacific, now used for east- 
bound traffic between Tucson and Mescal, and is 
joined by the line from El Paso by way of Deming, 
Lordsburg, and Bowie. 
Charleston. 
New Orleans 1,464 
ih 
MESCAL TO TUCSON, ARIZ. 
At Mescal the north line (formerly the main Southern Pacific line 
from El Paso to Tucson) (pp. 131-162) is crossed by the south line 
us (formerly the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad from El 
ae eso Paso to Tucson), which comes by way of Douglas (pp. 
New Orleans 1,461 162-178). Thetwol / ly I lel f Mescal 
paseyirrtiegees nearly to Tucson, and practically the same features 
on are to be observed over both lines. The tracks are 
| now so connected by switches at Mescal that all 
westbound traffic, whether from Benson or Douglas, passes onto the 
north track; eastbound traffic comes to Mescal on the south track, 
trains for Douglas diverging just east of the station to the old El 
_ Paso & Southwestern tracks. Near Irene siding, 15 miles west of 
igen the north track with its westbound traffic is bridged across 
. 
bound track and continues south of it into Tucson. 
