Discovery of Tombstone's Riches

There was nothing prosaic about the richness of Tombstone's mines. They were founded on romance and excitement, both of which,  dominated the days of their operation. The romance there was in their location.

Ed Schieffelin, in the winter of 1877-78, after a short civilian service with a company of soldiers, was employed to do assessment work on the Brunckow Mine, about a mile north of the site of Charleston. This was the only mine then known in that locality. It had been located in 1858 by a Polish scientist, who had given the claim his own name. But, the mine was valueless. Schieffelin's idle time was spent in the hills prospecting. He was probably the only man in the camp who cared to prospect, for the hill slopes were uninviting, and it was known that they contained Apache Indians. As he started on one particular expedition, a companion queried, "Where are you going, Ed?" "Just out in the hills to look for stones,” was the reply, and the parting observation as he tramped away was: “The stone you will find will be your tombstone.”

Possibly that very day, at a point a short distance below the present town, he traced some rich silver "float" to a ledge on which he set his foot and cried, "At last I have found my tombstone!" This claim, which he named the Tombstone, he recorded at Tucson on September 3, 1877. It was several miles from the later camp of Tombstone and about four miles from the San Pedro River.

His work on the Brunckow Mine finished, Schieffelin went to Silver King, where he learned that his brother, Al, had gone to Signal in Mohave County. He journeyed there and showed his "float" to Dick Gird, assayer at the time in the Signal Mill. Much interested, Gird and Al Schieffelin accompanied him back to Southern Arizona, and soon letters arrived in Signal telling they had struck it rich, causing an exodus of much of the male population of that camp bound for the new strike. The original location, the Tombstone, did not prove of much value, but much better success attended the development of a number of claims staked out on the very site of the town shortly after it was established. These claims included the Tough Nut, Goodenough, Lucky Cuss, East Side and West Side.