The Mowry Mine Plummets Back Into The Abyss Of History. By Kevin Franklin I RELEASE THE rock and it plummets into the darkness. I listen to the wind rushing around the canteen-sized stone. The pitch increases. My unmanned probe into this dark maw of a mine shaft is picking up speed. As the sound of the falling rock grows fainter, I look at my footing on the grating covering the hole. Assuring myself it would be impossible to bend such short sections of one-inch rebar with my weight does little to dispel my fear of joining the rock hundreds of feet down. I step back. After a little more than four seconds the rock hits bottom, bouncing off who-knows-what and coming to rest somewhere in the dark abyss of the Mowry Mine. Four seconds doesn't sound like much, but count it out and imagine falling that far. In Ghost Towns and Historical Haunts in Arizona, Thelma Heatwole says the shaft is 250 feet deep. The Patagonia Adventure Guide claims the shaft is 600 feet deep. I'm sure some unlucky critter found out the hard way before the grating was installed. Now only rocks are taking the quick tour. The Mowry Mine ranks as one of the oldest and, for its time, one of the most profitable mines in Arizona. Rumor has it that Jesuit priests mined here for silver during the 17th century. What's known for sure is that in 1859, Fort Crittenden's Lt. Sylvester Mowry, a West Point graduate, bought the mine from a couple of U.S. soldiers for $20,000 (according to Philip Varney's Arizona Ghost Towns And Mining Camps, a must-have book for ghost town aficionados). Mowry promptly retired from the military and began mining the claim. After developing the infrastructure and getting the ball rolling, the mine churned out great quantities of lead and silver. During one three-year period it produced $1 million, writes Lambert Florin in Ghost Towns Of The West. With his newfound wealth Mowry became a great promoter of Arizona, like his contemporary and neighbor, Charles Poston. During one speech given back East, Mowry claimed all of Arizona's rivers teemed with fish good for eating. Incensed by the charlatan's claims, St. Louis Republican correspondent Edward Cross of Tubac ridiculed Mowry in print. Cross wrote the fish in Arizona streams were no more than fingernail-size, and these should be called Mowry trout. Mowry, insulted by the ridicule concerning the size of his, err...trout, challenged Cross to a duel. The first three shots went wild and, rather than continue firing, Mowry shot the next round into the air, went over to Cross, shook his hand and called the matter settled. Mowry's luck failed, however, during the Civil War. On June 8, 1862, he was arrested and charged with treason. Gen. J.H. Carleton accused Mowry of selling lead for bullets to Confederate soldiers. After Mowry spent six months in the Yuma Territorial prison, a judge found him innocent of all charges; but not before Mowry's property had been auctioned off. Subsequent lawsuits against the federal government failed, and Mowry left for England, where he died penniless in 1871 at the age of 39. That federal government can be a real pisser at times. The mine was worked on and off again until 1955, and then Mowry became a ghost town. Looking at some historical photographs, especially the ones in The Patagonia Adventure, I'm stunned at the size of the operation that once thrived here. According to the U.S. Geological Survey photo, a 100-ton per-day smelter, a concentrating mill and a sizable town all sat here in 1909. These were substantial buildings. The size of the smelter looks on par with several large barns, and at least eight houses are visible. Today, standing in the center of town, only oak and juniper remain. Excepting a large slag heap, virtually all of the mill and smelter are gone. A 1963 photo in Florin's book shows the mine office complete with roof, porch and window frames. Now all that's left are a few sections of adobe wall, and not much to those. The stone powder house still stands, but its roof is gone; the crude concrete holding it together is beginning to crumble. Mowry is rapidly disappearing into the hillsides. Getting There Take Highway 83 south to Patagonia. Follow Harshaw Road and Forest Service Road 58 to FS Road 49. Turn right there, go past Harshaw to FS 214 and a sign pointing off to the left for Mowry. A quarter mile in on 214, you'll see some adobe ruins to your left and a small dirt road. Park here, explore the ruins and follow the main road on to the slag heap. The mine shaft is a hundred yards past the slag heap and right on the main track.

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