One of the almost-forgotten men in the founding of Tombstone was Dick Gird. He was a respected assayer at a mine north of the area, and Gird first checked some of the ore provided by the Schieffelin brothers for silver content.
The three went back to the San Pedro region and found even more at what became their Contention Mine. And on April 5, 1878, they filed the paperwork for the Tombstone Mining Di

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War