Shafter is a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
in
Presidio County
Presidio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,131. Its county seat is Marfa. The county was created in 1850 and later organized in 1875. Presidio County (K-5 in Texas topological ind ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. The Texas Attorney General's Office gives a population of 11 as of the
2000 Census. It was named in honor of General
William R. Shafter
William Rufus Shafter (October 16, 1835 – November 12, 1906) was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War who received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Fair Oaks. Shafter ...
, who at one point commanded the nearby (relatively speaking)
Fort Davis. As of 2012, at least one silver mine, La Mina Grande, has been reopened by
Aurcana Corporation.
It is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as the Shafter Historic Mining District.
History
![Shafter Texas Silver Mining Ghost Town Cemetery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Shafter_Texas_Silver_Mining_Ghost_Town_Cemetery.jpg)
Tucked in the
Chinati Mountains
The Chinati Mountains of Texas are a small range in the high desert of far West Texas near the city of Presidio. There is a pass through the mountains on Ranch to Market Road 2810, also known as Pinto Canyon Road, which connects to Farm to Mar ...
on
Cibolo Creek
Cibolo Creek is a stream in South Central Texas that runs approximately from its source at Turkey Knob (in the Texas Hill Country) near Boerne, Texas, to its confluence with the San Antonio River in Karnes County. The creek is a tributary of th ...
, 18 miles north of
Presidio
A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th century, 16th and 18th century, 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Captaincy Genera ...
, Shafter was once a bustling mining town with a population as high as 4000, in 1940.
In 1880 or 1881, John Spencer found silver deposits near this location. Capt. (later Gen.)
William R. Shafter
William Rufus Shafter (October 16, 1835 – November 12, 1906) was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War who received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Fair Oaks. Shafter ...
, stationed at
Fort Davis, and Spencer collaborated to establish the mining operation. This operation consisted of the Cibolo Creek Mill & Mining Company and the Presidio Mining Company, both of which were consolidated as the Presidio Mining Company. The Mina Grande
orebody
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...
was producing by 1883. The ore, 30 ounces of silver per ton, was treated in a 50-ton
pan amalgamation The pan amalgamation process is a method to extract silver from ore, using salt and copper(II) sulfate in addition to mercury. The process was widely used from 1609 through the 19th century; it is no longer used.
The patio process had been used to ...
mill
Mill may refer to:
Science and technology
*
* Mill (grinding)
* Milling (machining)
* Millwork
* Textile mill
* Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel
* List of types of mill
* Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...
. Annual production from 1898 to 1913 was 20,000 tons. In 1913, a 200-ton
cyanide
Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms.
In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...
mill was added. Annual production from 1913 to 1926 was 84,000 tons, with 10 ounces of silver per ton.
When an assay commissioned by Colonel Shafter confirmed profitable amounts of silver were in Spencer's ore samples, he brought in two of his military associates, Lt. John L. Bullis and Lt. Louis Wilhelmi, to join the venture. Each would contribute, first, by acquiring acreage around Spencer's discovery. In all, four sections of land, or 2560 acres, were acquired. Spencer and they agreed they would all share equally in profits from the venture. Then, in June 1882, lacking sufficient capital to develop the acreage on their own, the partners leased a portion of their holdings to a mining group from California which had both the money and expertise to proceed. In 1883, this group established the Presidio Mining Company, which in turn contracted with three of the partners to acquire their interests in a stock-for-land trade. Shafter, Wilhelmi, and Spencer received 5,000 shares and a bonus of $1,600 in cash to complete the trade. Bullis, asserting that his purchase money to buy the acreage had been from his wife's account, refused to join the transaction. This would later be cause for dispute. Nevertheless, development proceeded and a settlement began to grow around the mining operation. A post office opened in 1885 and took the name "Shafter" after the colonel. Company housing was provided for the miners. Company stores provided their staples and a company doctor provided medical care.
The American Metal Co. of Texas acquired the property in 1926. Operations ceased from July 1930 until 1934 due to low silver prices. By 1940, the quality of the ore was 10.7 ounces of silver per ton. The recorded production of the Presidio Mine between 1883 and 1940 was 30,972,286.15 ounces of silver. Production from 1927 to 1940 alone was 11,809,163.8 ounces of silver, 5,406 ounces of gold, and 7,678,049.8 ounces of lead.
United States Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...
died at nearby
Cibolo Creek Ranch
Cibolo Creek Ranch is a historic place in Presidio County, Texas, United States. Established as a cattle ranch prior to the Civil War, it has been used in modern times for hunting and a shooting location for the movie industry. It includes a fort ...
on February 13, 2016.
Geology
![Shafter Presidio Mine Cross Section](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Shafter_Presidio_Mine_Cross_Section.png)
At the Presidio Mine, which started operation in 1880, the
Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...
Cibolo limestone formation is overlain
unconformably
An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval o ...
by the Presidio
formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
, a massive dark-grey
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
. The Shafter limestone rests unconformably on the Presidio formation. Ore deposits are found in the Permian limestone and consist of
supergene
A supergene is a chromosomal region encompassing multiple neighboring genes that are inherited together because of close genetic linkage, i.e. much less recombination than would normally be expected. This mode of inheritance can be due to genomic ...
replacement minerals
argentite
In mineralogy, argentite (from the Latin ''argentum'', silver) is cubic silver sulfide (Ag2S), which can only exist at temperatures above 173 °C, 177 °C or 179 °C. When it cools to ordinary temperatures it turns into its monocl ...
and
cerargyrite along the bedding.
Veins
Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...
and replacement
mineralization
Mineralization may refer to:
* Mineralization (biology), when an inorganic substance precipitates in an organic matrix
** Biomineralization, a form of mineralization
** Mineralization of bone, an example of mineralization
** Mineralized tissues are ...
are present in the overlying Cretaceous beds.
Lode
In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock.
The current meaning (ore vein) dates from the 17t ...
s in the Permian limestone include
Manto ore deposit
A polymetallic replacement deposit, also known as carbonate replacement deposit or high-temperature carbonate-hosted Ag-Pb-Zn deposit,Megaw, P.K.M., Ruiz, J., and Titley, S.R., 1988, High-Temperature, Carbonate-Hosted Ag-Pb-Zn(Cu) Deposits of Nor ...
s and
thrust fault
A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks.
Thrust geometry and nomenclature
Reverse faults
A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less.
If ...
deposits, while those in the Cretaceous rocks are steep veins along
normal fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
s. Smaller mines have operated in the district at various times, but the Presidio remains the largest and most continuous.
![ShafterGeologicMap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/ShafterGeologicMap.png)
Decline
In the 1940s, faced with increased production costs, a shortage of miners, and an attempt to unionize those who were employed, the American Metal Company simply shut down their operation.
Even so, as the businesses established there also catered to the two military bases in the county,
Marfa Army Air Field and
Fort D.A. Russell, Shafter continued to support a population of some 1,500. When Marfa Air Field closed in December 1945 and Fort Russell in 1946, Shafter went into rapid decline.
Today, Shafter is home to only a few families and, over the past several decades, has registered a population ranging from 11 to 30 persons. Still, as noted above, interest and activity are renewed at Shafter. Given rising values for precious metals and modern mining and processing techniques, the little town may well live again.
Education
Shafter is zoned to schools in the
Marfa Independent School District
Marfa Independent School District is a public school district based in Marfa, Texas, United States. In addition to Marfa, the district also serves the CDP of Redford, and the unincorporated communities of Plata and Shafter.
In 2009, the schoo ...
.
See also
*
*
Shafter silver-mining district
References
External links
Shafter, Texas; Handbook of TexasAurcana Corp. owner of the Shafter MineShafter at Acme Maps
{{authority control
Unincorporated communities in Presidio County, Texas
Unincorporated communities in Texas
Ghost towns in West Texas
Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
Populated places established in the 1880s