Harmony Mine

The Harmony Mine is located on the south face of the Harmony Ridge of the Rincon Mountains. It's operated by the Harmony Metals Company using about a dozen paid diggers and two engineers. The mine has three adits and a shaft, with about six thousand feet of tunnels on two levels.
The mine produces gold and silver with a small amount of native copper appearing upon occasion.

Prospecting

In late August, 1867, three men arrived in Tucson: James Morgan, Henry Cornish, and Keith Tremayne. They had worked in the copper mines of the upper peninsula of Michigan and had decided to take a chance on striking it rich in Arizona. Enough people with similar visions were passing through to make it impossible to identify the exact date, but the proprietor of one of the mining supply stores recalled that they had been well-equipped and had only needed to purchase a few items.
They proceeded on to the Rincon Mountains, roughly thirty-five miles southwest of Tucson, where they were observed to be prospecting in a series of gorges on the south side of a western ridge. In March of '68, the men reappeared at the land office in Tucson and registered three claims totaling fifteen acres. After filing the claims, they proceeded to the assayers and then to the bank, where they deposited $272 in silver. For the next six months, one or another of the men would return to Tucson with $200-300 in silver. Experienced hands were highly amused and noted that the men could be earning two or three times as much working in the mines around La Paz.
No one paid any attention to the occasional telegram sent back to Michigan and no one noticed the occasional stranger passing through Tucson and disappearing into the mountains. Everyone did notice when Morgan, Cornish, and Tremayne came into town at the end of November and deposited $85,800 in gold and $6,390 in silver. A dozen men also visited the land office to claim stakes in the area. All of these were former colleagues of the trio and in addition to allowing them to secure a large and clear stake, they provided security to the mine.
These events prompted a frantic scramble of people frantically prospecting in the mountains through the dead of winter. Enough people found trace amounts of silver for word to get out and by spring of 1869, hundreds of (mostly) men were scratching holes all across the range.
Two days after Christmas, Morgan and Cornish deposited an additional $17,420 in gold and $2,200 in silver. All of the other prospectors combined managed to find $420 in gold and $1,200 in silver. Thanks to the Chaffee Laws, the original owners and their partners had control the entire area where the lode was near the surface.

The Harmony Extractive Company

On New Year's Day, 1870, a delegation representing a group of investors arrived from San Francisco and immediately expressed their interest in buying the mine. By all accounts, their initial offers were rejected out of hand, although they were allowed into the mine to examine the lode face. Negotiations dragged through the month, only to suddenly gain considerable energy when a second group represent East-Coast investors appeared at the beginning of February.
A bidding war erupted between the two groups, with no indication that the owners of the mine were looking to sell out. Eventually, a bid of $335,000 from the San Francisco group was sufficient to sway the issue and the parties consummated the deal in Tucson on the 14th of February. Additional arrangements were made and a week later, a wagon left Tucson for Yuma, carrying more than $125,000 in gold and silver and accompanied by a cavalry troop. From Yuma, the miners proceeded to San Francisco and then back to Michigan, where by all accounts they have situated themselves quite well.
The new owners of the mine established the Harmony Extractive Company and set to work converting the mine into a commercial operation.

Early Operations

Within three months, two hundred people were employed at the mine, with another twenty doing ancillary work. An additional adit was dug to allow ore to be moved out more easily and plans were drawn up for a rock mill to be built on the Santa Cruz River. By the end of the year, the mine had produced more than $150,000 in gold and silver for the company, This was somewhat below expectations, but still made the Harmony mine the third most successful in the state.
1871 started well for the company and $2,000 in gold was dug out on the 21st of January. Sadly, that was to be the high point of the year. By March, the primary gold vein was showing signs of being played out. Specialsts were sent for and soon had drilled several cores. In May, a second vein was located and a vertical shaft was added to follow this lead and to provide ventilation. As the year came to a close, the mine continued to be productive, albeit not at the rate which the investors had hoped.
Operations at the mine continued apace in 1872 until an accident shut work on the active face down for two weeks in April. A pair of miners hammered a rock drill into a stick of dynamite that had been placed but not detonated. The resulting explosion killed seven men and brought down a thirty foot section of the tunnel roof. Another week was lost in June when a tremendous rainstorm flooded much of the mine knee-deep. While the mine was flooded, a third adit was added. This helped considerably with the drainage, but the wind blowing across the vertical shaft would now make a mournful wail whenever the wind shifted to the north. This could clearly be heard in the town of Harmony.

Sale of the Company

The string of bad luck at the mine came to end in November when a significant vein of silver was found. Five months were spent following this until it narrowed and dove almost vertically. Given the depth within the mine, a shaft chasing silver was never going to be profitable.
A meeting was held in San Francisco in late spring of 1873. The mine had never been profitable. While it was able to cover its operating expenses most of the time, it was returning no yield on the investment. The investors were quick to come to the decision to move on, but deciding what to do with the claims, the equipment, and the mine itself was more difficult. A bitter and vocal minority was in favor of moving everything into the mine and then blasting the whole thing shut using dynamite. A few more practical individuals approached the mine's managers to see if they would be interested in purchasing the assets.
The fortuitous extension of the Military Telegraph to Tucson allowed for hurried negotiations and a deal was made to transfer the company and its holdings to a group of Tucson and Harmony residents for the sum of $15,000. In three years, the Harmony Extractive Company had lost 95% of its value.

Harmony Metals Company

The assets of the Harmony Extractive Company were sold to a new company calling itself Harmony Metals. Fifteen hundred shares were issued and sold in blocks of one hundred. with the proviso that they could not be resold for five years. Three individuals purchased two hundred shares each (Seymour Peavy, Orville McFadden, and Basil Arndt) while nine others each purchased one hundred shares.
The mine now operates with a significantly smaller crew. In this reduced state, it is steadily profitable, but not at a level that is going to make any of the shareholders wealthy.