July 2017 32 By Robert Bill Picture yourself leaving the old Prescott Depot on a Prescott & Eastern train. As the P&E train wound past Point of Rocks at Granite Dells junction and headed eastward across what is now Prescott Valley to Yaeger. Taking a wide curve in the tracks, southward, after Yaeger the train then stopped at Cherry Creek, Iron King, Chaparral and Huron before coming to Poland Junction. The train you were on was a “mix” consisting of freight, ore, mail and passenger cars. You had business at the Poland Mine and the train you were riding took the fork in the tracks at Poland Junction and headed westward. Henrietta was the first stop, then Eugenie, Providence, Block and finally Poland, a teeming mining camp made possible, as were the others along the way, by the railroad you were riding. Each Dependent On The Other It is impossible to determine whether the railroad made the mines flourish or the mines made the railroad possible. But it is BRADSHAW MOUNTAIN R.R. train Poland siding below smelter and mill. Ore came from surrounding mines by the rail line to be processed at the mill and smelter, making the mining operation at Poland profitable after the railroad was built. (Courtesy Sharlot Hall Museum). Certain that many of the mines along the P&E and the Bradshaw lines were not feasible until the railroad reached them. Freighting supplies in and ore out by wagon team and over the rugged, mountainous trails that led to these mines, spread out over the vast area east of Prescott, was cost prohibitive to many of the operations, eliminating any chance of profitable returns to investors. If the mines had not been there, however, there would have been no reason to build the P&E and Bradshaw rail lines. Potential passenger revenue was far too small to support the lines. In fact, there was considerable debate between Prescott railroad promoter, mine owner and visionary Frank Murphy and Santa Fe executives who Murphy wanted to finance the lines as to whether the freight revenue from the mines would be adequate to make the lines pay. Murphy prevailed. While Santa Fe execs were reluctant to invest in the P&E and Bradshaw Mountain lines, they didn’t want anyone else to own them and knew the determined Murphy would put together a group of other investors if Santa Fe did not back his plan. Poland & Frank Murphy The Poland Mine was named after miner named David R. Poland. It was limited to placer mining in the 1860s and 70s, but by the 1880s enough gold was being found to warrant construction of a quartz mill. Frank Murphy and his associates then bought the mine in the early 1890s. Drilling uncovered a large ore body and shafts were dug. A 20 stamp mill was built, then a concentrator and finally, in May of 1904, the rail branch off the P&E and Bradshaw lines. Poland was typical of “Murphy’s vision,” one he had applied at the Congress Mine with great success. Expand the mine to recover all of the ore possible and build a railroad to the mine to move the machinery in and the precious metals out economically. THE MINE CAMP AT POLAND was a busy place. South Poland Hotel stands at center right of photo near the road. To the left of the hotel is the Poland Saloon and other business buildings. Note scenic setting in pine covered hills. (Courtesy Sharlot Hall Museum). This time Murphy envisioned additional revenues from Walker. He built an 8,017 ft. haulage tunnel to link the rich mines of Walker with Poland, its stamp mill and concentrator, and his railroad. The tunnel fed high grade ore into Poland from Walker, the French Sheldon and many other Walker District mines until 1930. These ores then rode the rails out to Poland Junction and on to the main Santa Fe Line junction at Granite Dells. Walker grew to a town of some 500 miners and businessmen serving them. Adding to the profitability of the Poland spur off the P&E and Bradshaw lines was the Henrietta, a mine that produced over one million dollars in gold before closing in 1910. On your train ride to Poland in the early 1900s, you found a mining camp of some 800 persons. The camp had a telephone, electric lights, hot baths and every business necessary to a mining camp. You checked into the Poland Hotel, but had trouble sleeping. The continuous round-the-clock pounding of the stamps at the mill kept you and other visitors awake. RIDING THE RAILS To Bradshaw Mines There was a time when you could ride the rails into the Bradshaws from Prescott or most any other point along the famed “Peavine” that ran from the north end of Yavapai Co. to the south end. From the Prescott Depot on the main Peavine line, you could transfer to the Prescott and Eastern Railroad that ran to Mayer and then on the Bradshaw Mountain Railroad to the mining camps between Mayer and Poland or Crown King.Names, now but ghosts of the memory were regular stops along the P&E and the Bradshaw line, places like Cherry Creek, Iron King, Henrietta, Eugenie, Poland, Arizona City, Turkey Creek, Middleton, Horse Thief and Crown King. A few of these old mining camps still survive. Most are long forgotten or totally unknown to today’s Arizonans. Ninety years ago, however, the dawn of these two railroads opened up the mountains, mines, mills and mining camps of Yavapai Co. to all and made the county hum with activity for the following quarter century. By statehood in 1912, the mines had started to play out and by WWI, the railroads serving them before they did, Territorial Yavapai Co. had boom times along the rails that increased the quality and richness of life in a way no other event has done since.