Description

Hillside Electrical Generator, outside the Hillside Mine, Yavapai County, Arizona.

The Hillside Mine was a lead and gold mine located in the Eureka Mining District, Bagdad-Hillside, Yavapai County, Arizona, at an elevation of 3,100 feet. The Hillside property consisted of seven claims within the vicinity of Boulder Creek.

According to mining records, the sum total during Hillside’s more active years produced more than 13,094 tons of ore. From that was yielded 9,329 ounces of gold and 219,918 ounces of silver, which amounted to about $296,500 initially and eventually amounted to more than $1 million.

John F. "Jack" Lawler was an ex-Kansas City streetcar operator, a prominent prospector-miner and a successful businessman in Prescott, Arizona. He was the locator of the famous Hillside mine in 1887, and with local backing, was the driving force behind the promotion and organization of the Eureka Mining District.

His was an ambitious undertaking. According to an article in the Prescott Evening Courier, September 27, 1937, p. 2, "This mine was located in a crevice of the earth 1500 feet deep in what was called Boulder Canyon without any road or trail leading to it and 84 miles from railroad transportation." The total of Lawler's capital at the time consisted of "two burrors (sic) and two weeks grub."

The initial ores, a combination of lead carbonate rich in gold and silver, were shipped to Pueblo, Colorado. From 1887 to 1892, Lawler and his associates, undertook about 7,000 feet of development work, financed the building of an 84-mile road to Seligman, erected a small stamp mill, and made a considerable profit from the production of ores from the Hillside mine.

In 1892, the Hillside property was sold to H. A. Warner who organized the Seven Stars Gold Mining Company. Guided in part by the advice of T. A. Rickard, a foremost mining engineer at the time, this company carried out considerable development work, erected a mill, and built a 32 mile road to Hillside railway station. The Warner companies, however, failed with the financial panic of 1893, and the Hillside property, after 11 years and 3 months litigation, reverted back to John Lawler.

For several years after 1904, Hillside mine was worked intermittently, mainly by lessees. When Lawler died in 1917, mining operations ceased, until H. L. William purchased the property in 1934 and constructed a new 125-ton mill. Regular operations, employing eight men underground and twelve in the mill, resumed in July, 1934.