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Show MINING IN 1882. 591 mines are owned in Boston, and the miners and prospectors come from Nevada. So the place is pleasantly composite. At the time the town site was located, no one supposed there was ore beneath. Now miners work continuously under the street, and in the still hours of the night you hear the constant exploding of giant powder blasts, which is a trifle jarring to the nerves of the property owners on the surface, whose claim to the ground is disputed by the mining locator. There are half a dozen claimants to the ground. These conflicting claims do not seem to seriously trouble the business men, who get the best title they can and go ahead with their improvements. Possession is the most valid claim. It was so in the case of a shoemaker here, who, after paying three months rent to the supposed owner, on the fourth collection day declined to make any further payments, stat-ing that he had possession of the building and lot, also a shot- gun receipt, and would not stand any annoyance from collectors or lawyers. The town is strictly American ; there is none of the Spanish ele-ment. In fact, one seems to have passed entirely out of Arizona when he reaches here. The streets are wide, nicely graded, and laid out at right angles, with sidewalks in good repair. The hotels are good, although small, and the attention and table are equal to any in Los Angeles. Table vegetables are raised also in the neighborhood, and do much to make the fare tempting as compared with other Ari-zona towns, where everything is brought from Los Angeles. On the river at Charleston, nine miles distant, is an ice machine, and every morning the ice wagon goes its rounds, distributing a generous supply of cooling solid. The price is seven cents per pound, but these people have money and patronize the industry liberally. Two companies are on hand wanting a city franchise for lighting the streets with gas and electricity, and also one for a telephone system. When the matter of the franchise is settled, the town will be lighted and telephoned more in proportion to its population than any city on the coast. The busi-ness men located here are ambitious and enterprising, and are willing to pay for all the latest and most advanced improvements of modern civilization. Concerning the mines which have made this town what it is in two short years, and mapped out a great future, they are claimed to be among the most extensive yet discovered. As yet this ore body is only prospected enough to know that it will pay, but mining men concede that in the few mines being worked they have probably six years' ore in sight, and beyond that no one can tell the extent of it. Years ago prospectors knew of rich deposits somewhere in this neigh- |
