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AZ - Ruby,Santa Cruz County - 1918 - Goldfield Arizona Consolidated Mining Camp Panoramic Photograph

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Photographic Images Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
AZ - Ruby,Santa Cruz County - 1918 - Goldfield Arizona Consolidated Mining Camp Panoramic Photograph
Session D is a Mail-Bid Only Auction. Absentee bids will be accepted only. No live bidding will be allowed. All winners will be contacted after the auction. BIDDING ENDS MONDAY JUNE 27 AT 5PM PACIFIC TIME!!!
5” x 24”. Caption in White Reads “Montana Mine” Ruby, Arizona 1918. Ruby is considered by some to be one of the better preserved ghost towns in Arizona. Minerals were first discovered by the Spaniards who began exploring the region in the 1700’s. By the early 1850’s mining engineers Charles Poston and Henry Ehrenberg rediscovered the former Spanish placers which were hard to establish due to hostility between prospectors and the local Apache tribes. In time, new prospectors had begun to settle “Montana Camp” underneath what was known as Montana Peak. By the 1870’s new copper, zinc, and lead veins were discovered which led to the influx of new miners. In 1891 a large body of “high-grade” ore was found in the “Montana Mine”. Sample from the “Montana Mine” were assayed between 80 and 90 ounces of silver per ton. This discovery sparked a flood or prospectors. Around this same time period the Ruby Mercantile Company was opened by George Cheney. The Ruby Mercantile Company was bought by Julias Andrews in 1897 and little more than a decade later, Andrews had submitted an application for a post office, finally opening in 1912. Andrews named the post office after his wife, Lillie B Ruby Andrews, which in turn gave the town the name “Ruby.” During the early years of Ruby, Arizona, tensions were hostile between miners and neighboring Mexican settlements which contributing to high volumes of violence and lawlessness. Ruby eventually came to prosper in the late 1920’s and 30’s because Eagle-Picher Mining Company was operating and upgrading the camp, leading Montana Mine to become Arizona’s leading Lead and Zinc producer. However, this success was short-lived and Montana Mine closed in 1940, and no more than a year later in 1941, Ruby had dwindled to ghost town. Good