Pinal County Pinal County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's third-most populous county. The county seat is Florence. The county was founded in 187 ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. The town was settled as Schultz ''circa'' 1881 in what was then the

Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona (also known as Arizona Territory) was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of ...

, then later reestablished as Tiger after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

History

The area that was to become Tiger was first settled in 1881 after Frank Schultz located

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

ore 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 ...

in what was to become the Mammoth Mine. The camp that settled around the

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

took the name Schultz, and a post office was established under that name on July 12, 1894. Since water, needed for refinement of ore, was not present near the mine, a mill was established away on the west bank of the San Pedro River, in a town that came to be known as

Mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

, after the mine and the mill. The ore was hauled to the mill by way of mule teams, until just after the start of the 20th century when an aerial tram was completed between the Mammoth Mine and the Mammoth Mill. As the tram's construction neared completion, and the need for the town waned, the Schultz post office was closed on May 1, 1902. The mines reopened in 1915 due to

's increased demand for the molybdenum and vanadium found in the area. When the war was over, the prices fell, and the mines closed again in 1919. Shortly thereafter, the Mammoth Mine property was purchased by Sam Houghton, who renamed both the mine and the town after his college mascot, the

Princeton Tiger ''Princeton Tiger'' or ''Tiger Magazine'' is the second oldest college humor magazine in the United States, published by Princeton University undergraduates since 1882. It is best known for giving the start to literary and artistic talent as wid ...

. When the price of gold increased in 1933, the town again grew in prosperity, and the new Tiger post office opened on March 1, 1939. It was as Tiger that the town reached its peak in the early 1950s. Soon after, the local mines, as well as the town of Tiger, had run their course, and the post office was discontinued on November 26, 1954.

Remnants

After the San Manuel Copper Company acquired the land, they demolished all remaining structures in order to mine the silica on site for its gold content and as flux material for the San Manuel Smelter. However, the material contained too much lead, and the plan proved fruitless. As such, nothing is left of the town of Tiger today, but the filled-in shaft of the Mammoth mine in the middle of town.

Mining

The Tiger or Mammoth mine is a famous

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

locality, especially for

matlockite Matlockite is a rare lead halide mineral, named after the town of Matlock in Derbyshire, England, where it was first discovered in a nearby mine. Matlockite (chemical formula: PbFCl) gives its name to the matlockite group which consists of rare ...

and

wulfenite Wulfenite is a lead molybdate mineral with the formula Pb Mo O4. It can be most often found as thin tabular crystals with a bright orange-red to yellow-orange color, sometimes brown, although the color can be highly variable. In its yellow form ...

. In addition, the mineral yedlinite is a hydrated oxychloride of lead and chromium found only at Tiger, and first noted on preexisting specimens in 1967. The various mines at Mammoth and Tiger had combined recorded production of around: * 400,000 oz gold * 1,000,000 oz silver * 3.5 million lbs copper * 75 million lbs lead * 50 million lbs zinc * 6 million lbs of molybdenum * 2.5 million lbs of vanadium At 1991 prices, this would be worth about $300 million. A History of the Mines at Tiger
1991, ''History of Mining in Arizona''

Geography

The site is located approximately west of the town of Mammoth at (32.7078463, -110.6823227), at an elevation of . The Mammoth Mine (later the Tiger Mine) is located at .

Demographics

US Census data places the population of the town at 500 in 1940 after its re-founding as Tiger, and 783 in 1950. It was after this final census that the town is said to have reached its peak population of approximately 1,800 residents, before heading into permanent decline and abandonment.

References

External links

Minerals of Tiger, Arizona
photo gallery

at Ghosttowns.com {{authority control Ghost towns in Arizona Populated places in Pinal County, Arizona San Pedro Valley (Arizona) Mining communities in Arizona