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Pearce
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| The street number attached to this board and batten miner's shack in Pearce, Arizona suggests it was hauled to Pearce from another location-or its owner had an odd sense of humor. (PHOTO COURTESY/W. Lane Rogers) |
By W. Lane Rogers/For the Arizona Range News
The street number attached to this board and batten miner's shack suggests it was hauled to Pearce from another location-or its owner had an odd sense of humor.
Pearce took its name from James Pearce, a one-time miner who ran cattle in the Sulphur Springs Valley. In 1894, an ore specimen found by happenstance assayed out at some $22,000 to the ton in silver, $5,000 to the ton in gold.
Pearce staked five claims, one for himself and each member of his family. He called his mine the Commonwealth.
For a time, he and his family worked the strike while mining speculators eager to share the wealth monitored his progress. As promoters suspected, however, Pearce lacked the capital necessary to exploit his claims. When John Brockman, a Silver City, New Mexico banker, offered him $250,000, Pearce sold out-sort of.
If in ninety days Brockman could mine enough gold and silver to pay Pearce $250,000, the deal would be consummated. If Brockman failed, Pearce would retain ownership of the mine including any equipment brought in and all improvements made by the banker.
Apparently, Brockman was a risk taker. Nonetheless, the strike proved so rich that the banker met the terms with alacrity. Brockman got the mine; Pearce got a quarter of a million dollars.
But Mrs. Pearce had her own stipulation. She demanded exclusive rights for ten years to operate a boarding house at Pearce. Despite her wealth, she did just that-for thirty years.
The town sprang up in the blink of an eye. By 1919, with a population of some 1,500, Pearce boasted a school and churches, saloons and restaurants, even a motion picture house.
But as mines are wont to do, the Commonwealth finally played out. During the 1930s, as the nation plummeted into the Great Depression, extraction costs exceeded profits. The mine closed and residents packed their belongings and left.
Among scattered ruins and foundations, a few buildings remain-the post office, school, jail, and an impressive adobe structure built for Soto Brothers and Renaud Mercantile in 1894.
Today, Pearce is largely a ghost town.
Pearce took its name from James Pearce, a one-time miner who ran cattle in the Sulphur Springs Valley. In 1894, an ore specimen found by happenstance assayed out at some $22,000 to the ton in silver, $5,000 to the ton in gold.
Pearce staked five claims, one for himself and each member of his family. He called his mine the Commonwealth.
For a time, he and his family worked the strike while mining speculators eager to share the wealth monitored his progress. As promoters suspected, however, Pearce lacked the capital necessary to exploit his claims. When John Brockman, a Silver City, New Mexico banker, offered him $250,000, Pearce sold out-sort of.
If in ninety days Brockman could mine enough gold and silver to pay Pearce $250,000, the deal would be consummated. If Brockman failed, Pearce would retain ownership of the mine including any equipment brought in and all improvements made by the banker.
Apparently, Brockman was a risk taker. Nonetheless, the strike proved so rich that the banker met the terms with alacrity. Brockman got the mine; Pearce got a quarter of a million dollars.
But Mrs. Pearce had her own stipulation. She demanded exclusive rights for ten years to operate a boarding house at Pearce. Despite her wealth, she did just that-for thirty years.
The town sprang up in the blink of an eye. By 1919, with a population of some 1,500, Pearce boasted a school and churches, saloons and restaurants, even a motion picture house.
But as mines are wont to do, the Commonwealth finally played out. During the 1930s, as the nation plummeted into the Great Depression, extraction costs exceeded profits. The mine closed and residents packed their belongings and left.
Among scattered ruins and foundations, a few buildings remain-the post office, school, jail, and an impressive adobe structure built for Soto Brothers and Renaud Mercantile in 1894.
Today, Pearce is largely a ghost town.
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