Description

Crown King Mill and P&E RR engine, c. 1905.

Handwriting on the original photograph states: "Elliott of Mine Supply designed the wheels." The Prescott & Eastern Railroad was one of the many railroad building projects financed and promoted by local entrepreneur and businessman, Frank M. Murphy (b. 1855 – d. 1917). According to the June 24, 1917 edition of the Prescott Journal-Miner, P. 1, "The bands of steel which connect Yavapai county (sic) with the world were laid by him."

The distant proximity of the closest railroad to Crown King, at forty miles away, was an impediment to the success of the mine early on. The railroad reached Mayer in 1898 and the Bradshaw Mountain Railway completed the line to Crown King in 1904. Although production at the Crown King Mine was almost exhausted by 1904, it caused a revival of mining activity along the route and re-working former tailings. The expansion of the railroad system throughout Yavapai County, re-ignited the business of mining opened a new chapter and enjoyed a previously unachievable increase in production. The earlier common mode of transporting men, supplies and materials back and forth from neighboring mines, by mule and horse pack trains, paled in comparison to what these "mechanical mules" were able to transport.  

Bringing railroad service to Crown King was no small undertaking, hence the nickname “Frank Murphy’s Impossible Railroad.” According to author Nancy Burgess in her book, An illustrated History of Mayer Arizona, p. 181: It was “one of the most spectacular standard-gauge railroads ever built, it included 28 miles of track which climbed 2,300 feet and included five switchbacks, a tunnel and high trestles. Much of the official grade was 3.5 percent, some as high as 5 percent.” This railroad helped reduce the costs of transporting the ore concentrates and middlings from the Crown King mine and mill and other mining properties substantially. Eventually, the railroad tracks were removed and replaced with a graded roadway to the property and a 300-ton flotation-concentration mill was built.