Throughout 1918 the Santa Cruz Patagonian featured a column about mining on the front page of each issue. The December 6 issue included an exciting announcement: “Pierce & Gardner Make Rich Silver Strike at Harshaw.” The December 27 issue notes: “The vein of high grade ore which was but 5 ft. wide at the beginning and about $50 in value per ton has widened to seven feet and values have improved to $150 in silver” The full text of most of the articles quoted below can be found in the Library of Congress database, Chronicling America. Images of the Santa Cruz Patagonian are available on The Patagonia Museum website: thepatagoniamuseum.org
The Pierce and Gardner silver strike at the Black Eagle mine, which they leased from the mine’s “locator,” Mariano Soto, brought together two unlikely compatriots: C.A. Pierce, a college educated mining engineer from the Midwest, and Tom Gardner II, the son of a well-known Sonoita/Patagonia pioneer, Thomas F. Gardner, after whom Gardner Canyon is named. They worked the Black Eagle until 1922 when a lawsuit brought by O.K. Franklin of Nogales “compel[led] Pierce and Gardner to recognize his partnership in the property.” [The Border Vidette, 3/4/1922].
Colwell Arba Pierce was born in Providence, RI, in 1886. By 1900 his family had moved to Missouri and in 1909 C.A. married Mary Rood. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy in 1916. He first worked in Cripple Creek and Victor, Colorado as a miner, surveyor, timberman, and superintendent of the Rexall mine. By 1913 he was in the Patagonia area working as the manager of the Mansfield mining properties and the Ruby Copper Mine. The 1920 census lists the family, including two children, as living in Patagonia.
C.A. became quite involved in community affairs, serving on the Santa Cruz County Fair commission, as president of the Patagonia Chamber of Commerce, and the Santa Cruz County Highway commission. In 1922 “C. A. Pierce…has been induced by his friends to make the race for State Senator on the Democratic ticket. He will receive the undivided support of Patagonians and of Democrats of the entire county.” [The Border Vidette, 8/26/1922]. He was elected and served from 1923-25. By 1930 the Pierce family had relocated to Carlsbad, New Mexico, and later El Paso, Texas where C.A. died in 1954.
Thomas Frederick Gardner II was born in Tucson in 1879. His early life was spent on his father’s Apache Springs Ranch in Gardner Canyon. By 1900 he was living with his parents in Crittenden and he married Maria Margarita Torres in Patagonia in 1902. Known to be a good bronco buster and roper, Tom homesteaded in the Tubac area in 1912. By 1913 he had a livery business in Patagonia: “Besides owning a string of first-class horses and a number of stout, easy riding buggies and wagons… Tom is the head of a very interesting family, of which he is justly proud. The latest arrival, a fine girl, came last week. Tom says he is just as proud of the seventh as he was of the first, and says his happiness will not be complete until there are an even dozen little Gardners.” [The Border Vidette, 11/1/1913].
Tom’s direct involvement with mining began with ore hauling contracts, and by 1917 he was working mines under lease arrangements with the Duquesne Company. He later leased the Hardshell, Eureka, and Total Wreck mines. Tom died in 1942 and is buried in the Patagonia Cemetery where Maria Margarita was also buried after her death in 1977. The couple never attained Tom’s goal of a dozen children – they stopped at ten.