Draft:Cody Stone

Cody Stone is a type of quartz which contains a mixtures of gold, silver, copper and tungsten. Its name comes from Buffalo Bill Cody’s gold mine in the Santa Catalina Mountains of Arizona, from which the material was originally mined. Highly sought after by collectors worldwide, Cody Stone is such a rare commodity that is assessed by carat weight on par with other precious gemstones like diamond, ruby or emerald. Although each stone has to be graded individually, visible Gold and Silver in Cody Stone fetches 10 to 100 times the price of pure gold bullion, and is ever increasing in value. Similar to diamonds, the hard quartz provides a strong and timeless durability protecting the soft, precious noble metals.

Cody Stone has been handcrafted into fashion-wear by artists and jewelers alike such as William T. Carter; Gary Holdcroft; Isaac Hunan; Bisbee Bob; Poncho; Buzz Stringer; Steve Montez; Michael Garcia: AAA Family Jewelers in Tustin, CA; the Navajo nation; Will Dentondale, a Navajo artist; Orlando Jewelers UK, James Svoboda, Cornelious Hollander and Loren Breckenridge.

Geological setting
The Northeast slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains where the Cody mines are located have been exploited for multiple precious and industrial metals most notably, tungsten (Dale 1959, Sawyer et al. 1992), gold (Houser 1992, Dale 1959) and copper ores (Houser 1992). The deposits from which Cody Stone was mined are overlain by the Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone on the Northwestern slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains as mapped on the Campo Bonita 7.5' Quadrangle (Houser 1992). These limestones were exploited for rough rock as well as tungsten (extracted from processed WO3) principally from scheelite. Gold-bearing rock is recovered from granitic and quartz-rich veins associated with block faulting of the Mogul Fault Zone (Dale, 1959). Silica-rich brecciated rock and altered limestone of the Escabrosa Limestone Formation are cited as the principal ore bodies for many of the mining claims that were once owned and worked by Buffalo Bill and his colleagues (Dale 1959).

Lithology and mineralogy
A multitude of minerals are present in rocks identified as Cody Stone. The prevalence of a given mineral varies from one mine to the next depending on regional geology. Annotated on the table below are minerals reported from the Northeastern slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains which have historically been referred to by the following names: Santa Catalina Mountains, Santa Catalina District, Oracle District, Oracle Ridge, Old Hat District, and Control District. Mines operated by Cody in the region included: Campo Bonito (Primary source for the samples discussed in this report), High Jinks Mine, Southern Belle Mine, the Maudina Mine and the Morning Star Mine. The host rock (see table 1) from which most of the ore from the Campo Bonito mine was recovered is largely quartz (primary) with minor or regionally recorded occurrences of calcite or marble as cited in department of the interior reports (Houser 1992, Dale 1959).

Native elements and ores of precious metals are prevalent in Cody Stone which made these mines lucrative for Buffalo Bill and subsequent owners in the intervening years. Gold is the most prevalent native metal in the ore body cited in a multitude assay records and department of interior reports. The following additional minerals have been reported and are cited in table 1 below: scheelite (tungsten ore), silver, namely argentiferous galena or "horn silver" (chlorargyrite) and copper ores to include bornite, chalcopyrite, copper (11) oxide, and covellite (Houser 1992, Dale 1959, Sawyer et al. 1992, Mindat report for Campo Bonito). Other minor minerals reported for the Campo Bonito and nearby mines include pyrite, vanadinite, and wulfenite though these minerals appear to be absent or present in negligible quantities in the rocks furnished by Mr. Breckenridge and Ms. Lee. Small amounts of nickel and zinc have been detected in granular debris derived from external surfaces of rock or from fractured facades and vugs as prepared by Mr. Scott Sprader (see section on XRF analysis below).

Chemical composition
Chemical Composition Table: A listing of known host rock and minerals contained in samples from the Cody Mines (Campo Bonito, High Jinks, Southern Belle, Maudina and Morning Star). References are provided for publications and web resources that record the known presence of specified mineral or rock type. Lastly, the final column acknowledges presence or absence of each mineral as observed in Cody Stone.

1850-1890: Gold-Quartz jewelry popularized
First popularized by Tiffany in the 1800s this little-known, extremely valuable commodity of precious noble metals in its natural state was highly prized in the mid 1850-1890’s. Tiffany & Company gemologist George F. Kunz, who published a book popularizing gold quartz in the 1890s, explained that miners would often grind up the stone to extract the gold and silver. Which is why it is so rare today. Gemologists preferred to craft jewelry made from this rare gold or silver in quartz.

1900-1910
The discovery of precious minerals near Tucson attracted the famous Western icon William "Buffalo Bill" Cody to Oracle in the early 1900s to invest in several mines in the Camp Bonito mining district. Campo Bonito, located in a valley south of Oracle, held promising mineral wealth.

By 1910, Cody was fully involved in his mining venture near Oracle. Col. L. W. Getchell, Burgess, and Cody turned six claims at Campo Bonito into a $600,000 corporation under the name of the Campo Bonito Mining and Milling Company. The nearby Southern Belle gold mine became property of the Cody mining enterprise in 1910.

1911: Cody-Dyer Arizona Mining & Milling Co Established
February 27, 1911, By June, Cody and Burgess developed one hundred claims over two thousand acres. Burgess, a mining engineer, acquired many of the claims years ago and was convinced they contained valuable placer deposits. The old Campo Bonito Mining Company was reorganized and formed the Cody-Dyer Arizona Mining & Milling Co., with the hope of discovering more precious minerals. The company started with a capitalization of $5,000,000. 1124 By November the "gold mines" of Cody-Dyer M&M were shipping carloads of tungsten ore to Germany.

The Cody-Dyer Company controlled forty five claims by February, 1911. Cody and a group of partners bought the Southern Belle gold mine in March, 1911, for $100,000. Capitalized at five million dollars, the articles of incorporation reserved the right to mine gold, copper, silver, lead, coal, and any other mineral found. Cody, Getchell, and R.G. Brady was among the incorporators. Dyer was not involved in the company, but he did help inspect the property.

The mines at Campo Bonito contained gold, silver, and tungsten yielded about $30 a ton in 1910. Tungsten was an ore used in hardening of steel and making lamp filaments. With new light bulbs on the market the demand for tungsten began to increase. The plant had a capacity to process one hundred tons a day. "In one part of the estate the ores run to gold, copper and silver, in another to lead, silver and gold, and in another section to gold, lead and tungsten." That could be a profit of $2,000 a day, according to sources in the daily newspaper. Cody was known to carry around a pure gold nugget from Campo Bonito in his pocket. 1127 Worth $60 at the time, the 3.17-ounce nugget would be valued today at over 6729.00.

1911: Cody Acquires The Southern Belle Gold Mine
William Cody, who already had the Campo Bonito mines, publicly confirmed his purchase of the old Southern Belle gold mine in April, 1911. His partner, Major L. W. Getchell, wanted to duplicate the mine's successful record as a gold producer.

By February, 1911, the Campo Bonito Mining Company went through reorganization as a new corporation called the Cody-Dyer Mining & Milling Company with Col. W.F. Cody as president. His partner, Daniel B. Dyer, served as the secretary and treasurer; Getchell was the consulting engineer.

Cody and Dyer started with a $5,000,000 capitalization, but no stock was for sale, so that "every man in the company is already a millionaire in his own right." One of the assets of the purchase of the new company was the Southern Belle mine property. Together with the Campo Bonito property, they had 40 claims they could develop. A one hundred ton mill and new converters were to be installed at the Southern Belle.

After the Southern Belle mine became the property of the Cody-Dyer M&M operations, the claim was passed on to Capt. Jack Burgess. The property was made up of nine mining patents and four unpatented claims. There was a ten stamp mill on the site. By then the Cody-Dyer M&M operation had thirty six locations throughout Campo Bonito with a forty-ton mill.

Cody died in 1917, and the Southern Belle silently continued operation until all visible remaining lode was extracted.

1911: Cody's Mines Supply Tungsten For Edison bulbs
Cody passed through Tucson again in the winter of 1911 to visit Campo Bonito, where a five-stamp Merrill's mill was working on scheelite ore and turning out high-grade tungsten concentrates, used in X-rays and light bulb filaments.

A quartz mill was erected in October, 113 In December, 1911, the Cody-Dyer syndicate took over the Cash group of mines in Yavapai county near Prescott. Cody also invested in an oil claim discovered in 1911 near Agua Caliente. Cody sent $6,500 worth of tools and machinery to drill for the oil.

By February 1911, after three years of operation, the Cody-Dyer mines had a five-stamp Merrill's Mill operating on scheelite ore and turning out high-grade tungsten concentrates. By November besides Colorado, Tucson was considered one of the major shipping points for tungsten. A carload of tungsten ore was taken from the Cody-Dyer Mining & Milling Co., shipped to Hamburg, Germany, to be used "in commerce and the arts."

To accommodate the processing of the tungsten and gold ores, two forty ton mills were installed with another 100-ton mill planned at an expense of nearly $100,000. Thomas Edison and Cody were friends, when Edison's company needed the tungsten ore to fuel his new inventions, he purchased it from Campo Bonito.

Cody was hopeful that after closing a contract with Edison, he, Edison, would build an "electrical reduction works" and purchase the entire output of the property. That never materialized.

1912: Ewing Shakes Up Campo Bonito
E Dward J. (Ernest) Ewing, a mining engineer, joined the Cody- Dyer team at Campo Bonito in early 1912. According to Burgess' description, floods from the Santa Catalinas apparently deposit the gold placers found in the Cañada del Oro in intervals. The gold is deposited throughout alternating stratas of deep red, clayey material nearly uniform in thickness of three to four inches and probably formed between floods. "All the gold is found in well-rounded nuggets ranging from fifty cents to five dollars in value." Apparently a sixteen pound nugget of gold with about forty percent quartz was reportedly found, but the discoverers were murdered in their camp sixteen miles northwest of Tucson.

1912:Campo Bonito Mine Closed
The Campo Bonito mine had closed on May 5, 1912 after Cody was said to have personally spent $100,000 on the property from the time he got involved with it. 1159 In July, with reorganization pending, a small group of men continued some development of the Campo Bonito mine. At this point, Cody and his team directed their attention to gold. The Cody-Dyer Mining & Milling Co. purchased the nearby Southern Belle gold mine and the Maudina Mine that were under bond to 'Jack' Burgess. The company had thirty-six locations and had installed a forty-ton mill in 1912. 'The ore is a scheelite gold ore that yields to the milling 1152 and concentrating process.' The ore was also described as "disseminated sulfide carrying gold and silver values."

1913:Stock Certificates and Codes Issued
A one thousand share stock certificate issued to W.F. Cody from the "Cody-Dyer Arizona Mining & Milling Company. Signed by W.F. Cody, President. March 24,1913, the old stock certificates for collectors have brought up to $7,000 in value. Among some of Cody's papers and list of stockholders was a sheet of "codes" apparently used to disguise activities among the miners. Written on a Cody-Dyer Arizona Mining & Milling Co. undated letterhead was a list of twenty one names and eighty five mining claims with a coded reference. Col. Cody was called "Governor," Ewing was "Idaho," the Southern Belle Mine was called "Beauty," and the Pure Gold Mine was "Arkansas."

1960s - present
By 1960, there were 12-patented mining claims. The mines produced scheelite, galena, pyrite, dolomite and calcite." Cody's impact on Oracle still remains with the Cody Trail, Cody Tunnel (collapsed in 2015), and Cody Loop, all near the Campo Bonito properties. William "Flint" Carter (d. 2018) was one of the last prospectors to retain mining claims in these hills.

William "Flint" Carter, had been mining the Santa Catalina Mountains most of his life. In his mid-60's, he ventured deep into the mountains to service his mining claims. He is the only prospector with a continuously active mining claim in the Catalina Mountains.

After Carter moved to Southern Arizona in the early 1970s, Susan Thurman introduced him to Burton Holly, the man who helped build Hollywood and owned land in the Cañada del Oro. Holly shared with him the legend of the Iron Door Mine. Holly told Carter that he was sitting on the largest gold mine in the U.S. Later, Carter learned more about the history of the area and about the biggest gold legend in the West. The story of that rich mine was just part of the reason the legend still exists and continues to grow. Carter believed that the largest land treasure in the world, over 100 tons of gold, was partially moved out of the Catalinas and carted a few hundred miles east. "The local legend mentions a treasure, but it is more focused on the lost mine," Carter remarked.

It was during one exploration of the Catalinas in the 1970s that Carter and his group stumbled upon more than just an old mine deep within the Cañada del Oro. His claim to discover the Lost Iron Door Mine became overshadowed by the minerals he has been quietly recovering from his claims over the past decades.

Carter's business, Celebrity Stones, only used materials from the Santa Catalinas. The stones are named for past celebrities that owned the sites where the stones were mined. Cody Stone, Geronimo's Gold, the Wilma Huggett stone, the Esmerelda, and others are just an example of some of the precious metals in quartz still found in the Santa Catalina mountains. These have become extremely rare collectibles. There have been fewer than five hundred pieces recorded. They are from the only known source of gold and silver from Mt. Lemmon. Refined gold and silver can be purchased almost anywhere, but one hundred percent natural specimens are almost non-existent. Almost anything of value went through the crushers, and very little remains.

Cody Stone samples are on display in seventeen museums worldwide, including the Mining Hall of Fame, Gem Institute of America, Weis Earth Science Museum, Buffalo Bill Museum, and the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show which highlights the history of this epic gold legend.

In 2010 Carter appeared in the motion picture, Buffalo Bill, Beyond the Legend, to describe Cody's role in the search for the mine with the iron door. He is working on a new film that carries the theme of the Iron Door Mine and continues to recover minerals from his mine.