b'IN THE BRADSHAWS TIP TOP & GILLETT tunnel from Walker to Poland and had constructed a stamp Many mines were to follow the Peck, including the famedmill and concentrator to process ore from both mines and Tip Top. The Tip Top was some five miles from the town ofready it for shipment out on the Bradshaw Mountain line.Gillett, (sometimes spelled Gillette), reportedly named by By Bill Roberts Reprinted from The Traveler Walker party pioneer Jack Swilling. The P & E had reached the Humbolt in 1899, making the smelter there a viable investment, at least until it exploded The Tip Top vein was as rich as the Peck vein. Within 1903. Murphy needed that smelter to process ore from water from Grapevine Springs and some 1200 miners, amines all along the track to Crown King so he and his boomtown grew up next to the mine with all the amenities.associates bought it in 1905 and built a new and larger Saloons, brothels, gambling houses, a Chinese laundry,smelter to replace the one the blast had destroyed. When restaurants, and more. Five miles to the south, the towncompleted, the smelter at Humbolt was the largest in of Gillett was built around a mill that worked the Tip TopArizona Territory and served mines all along the railroad.silver. The Peck and Bradshaw mining district would be followed by several other districts as new finds in the 1870s,Ores from the Big Bug, Walker, Bradshaw, and other mining 80s, and 90s made the Bradshaws the mineral kings ofdistricts flowed steadily into the Humbolt smelter. The Iron Arizona Territory. Bradshaw Mountain Railroad King Copper Mine at Humbolt added to the towns boom and the population reached 2,000. From Mayer into Crown FRANK MURPHYS RAILROAD King, long-forgotten mining camps along the Bradshaw Railroad and mining investor Frank Murphy, one of Prescottswound its way to Crown King. At Poland Junction, the lineMountain line kept the Humbolt smelter humming.leading citizens, knew from experience that the Bradshawhad a spur running to the famed mining camp of Poland.mines could not be fully exploited without a railroad. MurphyGray Eagle, Blue Belle, Turkey Creek, Middleton, and his group of investors had bought the Poland gold mineYavapai County pioneer Frank Murphy was the primeAlexandra, Saddle, Horse Thief, and Crown King; all names in the 1890s. He knew the mines could not be really profitablemover behind the rail lines and the Poland Mine, as well asthat were well known in Arizona Territory and all along until a railroad was built to service them. many others in the Bradshaws. Without Murphys visionthe Bradshaw Mountain line, that few remember today. At and determination, many of the famous mines of theMayer, the Geo. A. Treadmill Mining Company built an oil-The Pacific & Eastern running out of a junction with theBradshaws would have been less than lucrative.fired smelter, the railroad making this type of fuel possible.main line at Granite Dells reached Humbolt in 1899. ItFrank Murphy and his associates had purchased the Poland was continued into Mayer where it became the BradshawMine in the 1890s. The gold mine had been discovered byBetween Yaeger Canyon at the base of the Black Hills and Mountain Railroad that served mines between MayerDavis R. Poland in the 1860s, but the difficulty and expenseMingus Mountain and Humbolt, Cherry Creek mines and Crown King. Below Mayer, a spur was built at Polandof packing the gold ore out of the Bradshaws had limited itscontributed to the freight to the Humbolt smelter. Below Junction and the railroad went into the smelter at Poland,development. The same obstacles beset mines throughoutIron King, there was Chaparral, Huron, Poland Junction, which also processed ore from Walker on the other side ofYavapai County before the railroads came.and Arizona City before the tracks hit Mayer. From the mountain. Some 800 people lived in Poland in thosePoland Junction west to Poland at the end of the spur, the boom days. Murphy knew that to expand the mine and take fullHenrietta, Eugenie, Providence, and Block mining camps advantage of its rich gold veins he must build a railroadflourished with the railroad. Many of the mines began The Prescott & Eastern ran from the Granite Dells junctionto get equipment in and gold out and to market. Walker,playing out in the nineteen-teens and twenties, but some, with the famous Peavine line to Mayer through Yaegeranother rich mine, was just through a hill from Poland.such as Iron King which operated until 1968, lived on Canyon. From Mayer, the Bradshaw Mountain RailroadWhen Murphy was through, he had built an 8,017 haulageuntil WWII. CONGRESS, ARIZONA80 Acres, Split Survey Recorded. 2 Wells. Power Close. Being Sold in Bulk or Individually.ArizonaRealCountry.com July 2022 31'