Tombstone District, Tombstone Hills, Cochise Co., Arizona, USA

Ref.: The Resources of Arizona - A Manual of Reliable Information Concerning the Territory, compiled by Patrick Hamilton (1881), Prescott, AZ: 36.

Blake, W.P. (1882) The geology and veins of Tombstone, Arizona: American Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions: 10: 334-345.

Hillebrand, W.F. (1885), Emmonsite, a ferric tellurite, Proceedings Colorado Scientific Society: 2: 20-23.

Church, J.A. (1903) The Tombstone, Arizona, mining district: American Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions: 33: 3-37.

Ransome, F.L. (1920), USGS Bull. 710, Deposits of manganese ore in Arizona: 101-103.

Tenney, J.B. (1927-1929) History of Mining in Arizona (unpublished in two volumes), Special Collection, University of Arizona Library & Arizona Bureau of Mines Library: 136-179.

Hewett, D.F. & O.N. Rove (1930), Occurrence and relations of alabandite, Economic Geology: 25: 36-56.

Wilson, E.D. and Butler, G.M. (1930), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 127, Manganese Ore Deposits of Arizona.

Wilson, E.D., et al (1934), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 137, Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining: 122-123.

Butler, B.S., et al (1938b), Geology and ore deposits of the Tombstone district, Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 143.

Rasor, C.A. (1938), Bromyrite from Tombstone, Arizona, American Mineralogist: 23: 157-159.

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Needham, A.B. & W.R. Storms (1956), Investigation of Tombstone district manganese deposits, Cochise County, Arizona, U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigation 5188.

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MRDS database Dep. ID file #10282729, MAS ID #0040050003.

This district is located in T.20,21S., R.21,22E., in the Tombstone Hills, at an altitude of 4,530 feet. It is some 25 miles north of the international boundary and about 25 miles NW of Bisbee

This is a Ag-Au-Pb-Cu-Zn-Mn-Mo-V, mica, clay (As-Cd-Sb-Te) mining area principally famous for its silver mines and located about 20 miles NW of Bisbee. This was the first major mining district discovered in Cochise County once the issue of an Indian reservation was resolved. It was discovered in February, 1878, by Mr. A.E. Sheiffelin, a daring local prospector. He was warned by the soldiers at Fort Huachuca that wandering in this area would earn him only a tombstone. When he discovered the rich deposits in this area, he named the new camp "Tombstone." Tombstone is at an altitude of 4,500 feet on a gravel-floored pediment at the northern margin of a small group of low, dissected mountains, called the Tombstone Hills, that attain an altitude of about 5,300 feet. The Tombstone District is in southwestern Cochise County, 20 miles NW of Bisbee. From 1879 to 1932, this district produced more than 29,843,800 ounces of silver, 35,669,800 pounds of lead and $5,127,300 of gold (period values), besides considerable copper, zinc and manganese.

As interpretted by Ransome, the basement rocks are fine-grained Pinal Schist with intruded gneissic granite which outcrop in a small area south of the principal mines. The unconformably overlying Paleozoic quartzite and limestones have a total thickness of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, with 2,500 to 3,500 feet of Mississippian Escabrosa and Pennsylvanian Naco limestones as their upper formations. Unconformably overlying the Naco Limestone is a Mesozoic series of conglomerate, thick-bedded quartzites, and shales, with two or three lenses of soft, bluish-gray limestone. These formations are intruded by large bodies of quartz monzonite and by dikes of quartz monzonite-porphyry and diorite-porphyry. The region is complexly faulted, and, particularly, just south of Tombstone, the strata are closely folded.

The ores of the Tombstone District occur in at least three ways: (1) As argentiferous lead sulfide with spotty copper and zinc minerals, usually deeply oxidized with enrichment in irregular replacement bodies along fissure zones and anticlinal rolls cut by mineralized fissures in Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary formations. Orebodies are often closely associated with cross-cutting Laramide intrusive dikes; (2) Base metal mineralization, often oxidized, in fault and fracture zones in Laramide volcanics and quartz latite porphyry intrusive; (3) Manganese oxides, argentiferous at times, in irregular, lenticular or pipe-like replacement bodies along fracture and fault zones, usually in Pennsylvanian-Permian Naco Group limestones.

Workings are numerous shaft mines and prospects. Total production of lead and silver ore has been at least 1.5 million tons since 1878. About 9,000 tons of manganese ore and concentrates have also been produced for smelter flux and for manganese.

Production from 1879 through 1936 was some $37,103,008 (period values).