2002

From Buffalo Bill's Gold and Tungsten Mine - and the Edison Connection.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:162.00 USD Estimated At:325.00 - 400.00 USD
From Buffalo Bill's Gold and Tungsten Mine - and the Edison Connection.
Splendid A.L.S. of colorful Western swashbuckler, mining stock promoter and engineer John D. ("One-Eyed") Burgess, on his professional letterhead, Tucson, datelined in his hand Campo Bonito 'Old Hat Mining District, Arizona Territory], Aug. 30, 1910, 1 1/2 pp., 8 1/4 x 11, purple on blue. To his business partner, "Dear Buffalo Bill!," traveling with his Wild West Show. "Your letters from Winnipeg and Fargo are received and read with mixed feelings of pleasure & unpleasure! Say Bro(ther) Bill. I don't worry Getchell. I don't bother him at all. I keep my eyes open & write you about them, as you have requested me frequently. I don't believe in him on the Kidney process. I threw away the same process 12 years ago!! The only thing that bothers Getchell is - this: He is awfully afraid he isn't going to get in on everything here. That's all!! I am sending you the long night letter, giving the salient points of this enterprize as they appear to me! I couldn't get it in to either Miles City or Billings, but you got it at Great Falls...No stage on Sunday! We have much new ore on Wilfley Claim! I am cross cutting, trenching the surface, to show ore in width. One truck on the summit, one 100 ft. down the hill, & one 180 ft. down the hill. Gee Old Man - If we show 1,000,000 tons of ore worth $20 to 30 per ton, at an expense of $500 to 600, that will be almost as good work & as cheap as Getchell could do! Well, I'm off for Leyner Mine. Lovely rain...Be a good boy Willie & you'll find it pays. God Bless Pahaska 'Buffalo Bill's nickname]. Lovingly, Jack." Light postal wear, one smudge by Burgess' hand, else fine. A Lieutenant at age 15 in the 6th Indiana Cavalry, Burgess was twice wounded, captured at Sunshine Church, and imprisoned at Andersonville. A West Pointer in 1870, Indian fighter, scout, and adventurer, he was acquitted in an Arizona saloon shootout, later losing an eye when shot by a drunken Indian named Kit Carson.

In a 1938 thesis, a University of Arizona graduate student wrote of Burgess: "No character analysis of the Old West was complete without a word picture of an old-time mine promoter. Such a character was Capt. (One-Eyed) Burgess. Given by nature an exceptionally fine personality, he did not hesitate to use it to convince the purchasers of mining stock that they were certainly insuring their future if they invested in his propositions. Immaculate clothing, carefully trimmed moustache and beard, and the most winning of smiles went to make this romantic personality. It was said that he always kept a new buggy and a fine horse with which to drive his clients to his various holdings. Never did he spoil his record by promoting a mine of value."--"The History of the Lower San Pedro Valley in Arizona," by Bernard W. Muffley. The sizeable Papers of noted Western mining developer Noble Getchell reside at the University of Nevada, whose library is named for him; the Getchell discussed here, Col. L.W., was partner of Burgess and Cody. Buffalo Bill invested heavily in Campo Bonito, his Wild West Show visiting the camp in the year of this letter; in addition to gold and silver, it bore tungsten, which Cody personally sold to Edison for his light bulb filaments. In Cody's richest deal to date, Edison purchased the entire output of the mine in 1911.

The ruins of Campo Bonito are believed to hold forgotten secrets; Treasures of the Santa Catalina Mountains... (Zucker) treats the subject. A sixteen-pound gold nugget was reportedly found in Campo Bonito, but the discoverers were murdered. Cody stone found in his mines, quartz flecked with jewelry-grade gold and silver, is named for him. The 1936 movie, "The Mine with the Iron Door," starring Richard Arlen, was based on Campo Bonito. With fascinating modern research.