Blasting Open Tombstone’s Silver Mines

Tombstone was built on silver.

But finding a rich vein was only the beginning. The ore was locked inside hard rock, sometimes hundreds of feet below the Arizona desert. Getting to it required muscle, steel—and explosives.

This period advertisement for the Giant Powder Company represents one of the everyday necessities behind Tombstone’s mining boom.

While the Earps, Cowboys and saloons received most of the attention, underground another kind of battle was being fought.

Miners were blasting their way through the rock.

Following the Silver Underground

After Ed Schieffelin’s discoveries brought prospectors into the Tombstone district, mines including the Tough Nut, Contention, Grand Central and Tombstone Mill & Mining Company properties developed extensive underground workings.

The easy material near the surface didn’t last.

As shafts went deeper, miners drove tunnels, drifts and crosscuts through solid rock searching for extensions of the silver-bearing veins.

That required drilling blast holes into the working face.

Before powered drilling became widespread, much of this was brutally physical work. A miner held a steel drill against the rock while another struck it repeatedly with a sledgehammer. The drill was turned between blows until a hole deep enough for an explosive charge had been created.

Several holes might be drilled into a single face.

Then came the powder.

Giant Powder in Arizona

The advertisement offered Giant Powder Dynamite and Judson Powder, with Jas. H. Toole identified at the bottom as:

“General Agent for Arizona.”

That Arizona connection is what makes the advertisement particularly interesting.

Explosives weren’t some distant industrial product. Powder was being marketed directly to the territory’s mines, railroads and contractors.

For Tombstone’s mining companies, blasting powder was a consumable necessity much like timber, candles, drill steel and machinery.

A mine could go through enormous quantities of it.

Drill, Load, Blast

The work followed a basic cycle.

Miners drilled holes into the rock face and loaded them with explosive charges. After the charges were prepared, the working area had to be cleared before they were fired.

Then came the blast.

In the confined workings of a mine, the explosion shattered the rock ahead of the miners and filled the passage with smoke, dust and debris.

But the blast itself didn’t advance the tunnel.

Men still had to return and remove everything it had broken loose.

Broken rock was shoveled into ore cars or other conveyances and hauled away. Valuable material went toward processing. Waste rock had to be disposed of.

Only then could the miners bring their drills forward and begin again.

Drill. Blast. Muck out. Repeat.

A tunnel might advance only a few feet during each cycle.

The Danger After the Blast

Explosives added another layer of danger to an occupation that already offered plenty of ways to die.

A charge might fail to explode.

Those misfires were particularly dangerous. Somewhere inside a partially shattered rock face could remain a loaded hole capable of detonating when miners returned to work.

Loose rock created another threat. After a blast, miners had to examine the newly exposed ground for pieces capable of falling from the roof or walls.

Then there were the fumes.

Ventilation became increasingly important as Tombstone’s workings extended farther underground. Smoke and gases produced by blasting had to clear before men could safely return to the face.

The faster a mine could clear its workings, remove the broken rock and get another crew drilling, the faster it could reach the next body of ore.

Time underground was money.

Powder Was Only Part of the Operation

Explosives alone couldn’t keep a Tombstone mine operating.

Underground workings required enormous quantities of timber to support unstable ground.

Pumps became critical as the mines descended and encountered water.

Hoisting machinery moved miners, equipment and ore between the underground workings and the surface.

Ore cars carried broken material through the tunnels.

Above ground, mills crushed and processed what the miners brought up.

The famous buildings along Allen Street represented only one side of Tombstone.

The other Tombstone existed beneath everyone’s feet.

It was a growing underground world of shafts, tunnels, timber, machinery, darkness—and powder.

The Business Behind the Boom

The Giant Powder advertisement is a reminder that Tombstone’s silver boom depended on an enormous supply network.

Mining companies needed lumber.

They needed drill steel.

They needed machinery and replacement parts.

They needed candles and other lighting supplies.

And they needed explosives.

Those supplies had to be purchased, shipped into Arizona Territory and transported to the mines.

The fortunes being made in Tombstone weren’t limited to the men who owned silver claims. Merchants, freight companies, lumber suppliers, equipment dealers and powder companies all found customers wherever miners were digging.

Beneath the Tombstone Legend

Most stories about Tombstone eventually find their way to Allen Street.

The Oriental.

The Crystal Palace.

The courthouse.

The O.K. Corral.

But the town existed because of what was happening underground.

While Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were becoming part of Western legend above ground, miners were working shifts beneath the surrounding hills, drilling holes into rock and loading them with explosives like those advertised here.

They weren’t looking for gunfights.

They were looking for the next vein of silver.

And every few feet, the search began again.

Drill the rock. Load the powder. Clear the face. Fire the charge.

Then go back underground and see what the mountain had given up.