October 17, 2022
Underground at Tombstone
On Saturday October 15, 2022 I spent the day underground in the mines at Tombstone, Arizona.
This is only possible with permission from the owner.
The Tombstone mines are private property and the entrances are gated and locked.
A number of public tours are available, with expert guides (myself being one of them).
So come on -- let's go!
Andrew sitting just inside the entrance
A group of experienced underground explorers from Las Vegas, Nevada (Jeff and Lila) -- along with a fellow from
South London in the UK (Tony), had been invited to visit the mines.
Andrew and myself were along as guides.
We visited areas that are not part of the regular tours.
We entered via the Girard entrance. This leads into a stope that at first is a crawl but soon
opens up, becoming quite a large open stope. Some old maps label this as the
"million dollar stope". Very likely it indeed produced a million dollars worth of silver,
but the real million dollar stope was at the surface near the mine tour offices and is now filled.
In the stope heading down to the 200 level
For those new to all this, a "stope" is an opening in a mine where ore is or was extracted.
This is to be distinguished from a "drift" or "crosscut" which is a horizontal opening used to
get from one place to another and to move materials. Stopes tend to be irregular in shape
as they follow the shape of the ore itself. A drift or crosscut is what most people
would call a "tunnel" and are orderly affairs like hallways in a house.
Vertical stope above the 200 level
The stope in the photograph above extends up almost 100 feet to the 100 level.
Most mines have organized haulage "levels" every 100 feet, typically spaced
100 feet apart vertically and measured from the surface at the top of some
vertical shaft connecting them. At Tombstone the deepest level we can get
into is 500 feet below the surface. By coincidence the water table is right
at 500 feet, so even if there are workings below 500 feet, they are no longer
accessible to us.
Preparing to "drop" the first hole below the 300 level
We make our way down to the 300 level and go to an area that we are curious about.
There are two deep holes we want to investigate. The game is to rig ropes and
rappel into the holes to find out where they go! We have a pretty good idea from
maps we have made and old maps available to us, but we want to pay a visit regardless.
It is unknown whether we will be able to exit below to the 400 level or whether we
will need to ascend the rope after we get down.
Andrew heading down the first hole
Andrew drops into the first hole and finds himself inside of a "chute". He is able
to squeeze through the chute, get onto the 400 level, and return
the long way around via other routes
that are well known to us. There is nothing along the way to recommend the rest
of us going down, so we pull the rope and go to the next hole.
Andrew half way down the second hole
The second hole proves to be more interesting and we all go down.
Tony and Lila rappelling the second hole
This hole drops down the side of a large vertical stope that we
have visited before and can access without ropes from below.
From here we get into an area known as the 409 stope, which is a large
and extensive horizontal stope above the 400 level.
Lila, Jeff, and Tony at an explosives storeroom in the 409 stope
The heyday of mining in Tombstone was from 1880 to 1885, so many of these workings are over
100 years old, and are seldom visited.
Jeff (above) and Tony in the 409 stope
It is worth remembering that all of these stoped areas were once high grade "bonanza"
silver ore. Tombstone produced about 32 million ounces of silver over the years.
The price of silver today is over $18 dollars per ounce, so all of that production at
todays prices would be worth over 500 million dollars.
Andrew and Jeff in another part of the 409 stope
We roam around in the 409 stope, eventually descending to the 400 level.
This is as deep as we go on this trip (no visit to the 500 level).
We have about 3 miles to cover to get back to the entrance and out again.
It is said that there were once on the order of 400 miles of workings among all
the Tombstone mines. Today some of those are underwater, others were removed
in an open pit operation in recent years, and others are isolated beyond areas
that have caved. Perhaps only 20 miles of workings are accessible today in
the areas that we visit.
Have any comments? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's mine exploration pages / [email protected]