The Stonewall Jackson Mine

Charlie McMillan was a man, to put it politely, strongly addicted to ardent spirits. One night in 1876, he was doing the town of Globe with his partner Theodore “Dory” Harris. Harris didn’t drink but Charlie made up for that by drinking enough for both of them. By the end of the evening he was so drunk he couldn’t hit the ground with his hat in five tries.

The next morning the two partners were going out prospecting in the mountains north of Globe, but Charlie was still feeling the effects of the night before and he didn’t have any “more of the hair of the dog that bit him.”

He was so hungover Dory had to tie him in the saddle to keep him from falling off and breaking his fool neck.

They’d ridden a few miles north of Globe when Charlie called a halt. He could go no further. He got off his mule and lay down to slumber.

While Charlie was passed out under a nearby shade tree Dory, recalling that 11^th Commandment for prospectors, Take Thy Hammer and Break Rocks, decided to pass the time by poking around with his prospector’s pick and hammer…..and….You guessed it; he uncovered a rich bonanza of silver ore right where Charlie was having a siesta.

They rushed back into Globe to file their claim. Charlie’s hero was the Civil War general, Stonewall Jackson and that’s what they decided to call the mine.

The two partners didn’t reap the big rewards of the strike. They took out about $60,000 in easy-to-get high-grade ore then sold out to a large company for another $160,000. Still, not a bad piece of change for a couple of old sourdoughs.  The new owners named the town that sprung up nearby, McMillanville.

In July 1882, Na-ti-o-tish and his band of Apache attacked the town of McMillanville causing the citizens to take refuge in the Stonewall Jackson tunnel.  The band was finally overtaken and defeated by the army at Big Dry Wash on the Mogollon Rim

Before the mine eventually played out the town grew to 1,500 and the Stonewall Jackson had produced more than three million dollars in gold and silver.

It might be said Charlie McMillan had himself a three-million-  dollar hangover.