Located on the northeast slope of the Bradshaw Mountains, 6 miles southwest of Humboldt on Galena Gulch, the McCabe-Gladstone Mine is a combination of two mines connected on the same ledge.
Early lode mining commenced in the area during the 1860s by prospectors Slaughter and Hatfield, who followed veins along a quartz streak on the surface. Frank McCabe was credited with having located the Sink and Rise claim in 1883, ultimately heightening gold mining interests in the area.
The Silver Belt-McCabe Vein runs more than 2 miles west of the Iron King Mine and southwest to the McCabe-Gladstone Mine. The prevailing country rock includes amphibolitic schist, rhyolite-porphyry and quartz diorite. Ore comprises arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, pyrite and sphalerite. Early development of the mines included ore hauled to the surface in buckets using a horse-powered winch.
Throughout much of the 1880s and β90s, the property remained idle. The Ideal Leasing Co. assumed operations in 1898, having acquired $3 million worth of gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc by 1913. The mine also produced iron, silica, arsenic, antimony and sulfur. A post office was established on Dec. 31, 1897, and operated until 1917. The mining camp of McCabe averaged 450 people and included a small, six-bed hospital operated by Dr. Robert N. Looney, along with a one-room schoolhouse and assay buildings. The camp was notable in that it included a telephone line running to Prescott, while also running a stage line to that destination and to Phoenix.
The McCabe-Gladstone Mine was the largest gold producer in the Yavapai County prior to the closing of the Humboldt Smelter in 1907. Operations resumed the following year with ore from the Gladstone Mine shipped to the El Paso Smelter. George Flammer, A.C. Massey and W.D. Shaw secured a lease on the Gladstone Mine while Cecil G. Fennell, a native of Chistlehurst, Kent, England and early mining entrepreneur in Humboldt, Mayer and Prescott, managed the McCabe-Gladstone gold mines, earning the nickname βthe Duke of McCabe.β
The town survived several fires, including one in 1900 that began at Jerryβs Last Chance Saloon destroying 14 buildings. An outbreak of the smallpox epidemic occurred the following year causing a quarantine of the townβs residents.
An enterprising couple by the name of Broyles escaped quarantine fleeing to Prescott, only to be apprehended and fined $100 and sprayed with antiseptic prior to their departure home to Ashfork. The town evaporated after the closure of the McCabe Mine in 1913, though the post office remained through 1917.
Operations were resumed in 1934 under the guidance of mining engineer Howard Fields and associates, who formed Harbud Mines Co. They successfully dewatered the mine while treating ore and tailings material with a 200-ton flotation mill.
A total of 60,000 tons of ore was processed during the companyβs operations. Workings included the 900-foot-deep McCabe shaft and the 1,100-foot-deep Gladstone shaft, both containing several hundred feet of drifts and separated by a distance 800 feet.
The McCabe-Gladstone Mine was reopened by Stan West at a cost of $35 million in the late 1980s. West used a leaching technique that involved drilling holes into the mineralized structure, then inserting a cyanide solution to dissolve the gold out of the rock. After the ore was processed, an estimated 100,000 tons at 0.036 oz. gold per ton was left in the remaining tailings that could be recovered in the future. The 180-acre McCabe-Gladstone property, consisting of eight patented lode claims, was later sold to Magma Gold Ltd., serving as a copper and precious metals mine until its closure in 1993.
The property has since undergone reclamation under Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd., or BHP. Water and ground materials were tested for contamination, and noncontaminated water was used in cultivated plant growth. The area has been repurposed as a wildlife habitat and for cattle grazing. All that remains of the town include a cemetery, concrete remnants of a mill and miscellaneous building materials.
