An Interesting Bit Of History

This story is an introduction to a future feature about the restoration of historic mining equipment and more in Arizona; stay tuned for the July/Aug. issue.

Publishers Note – We at Arizona Boating & Watersports/Western Outdoor Times had the pleasure of meeting Morris Jackson in 2006. He came on board as an advertiser and quickly turned into a friend. I have learned much from Morris and from his experiences over the years.

It is because of Morris and his interest in rebuilding old mine equipment that we are able to bring you this story. Morris also builds mining models and has developed quite a following for them over the years.

We will be following up in our next issue with more information about the rebuilding of the Castle Dome City 3-Stamp Mill. In the meantime there is more information available at the Web sites listed below.

This story is about the Castle Dome City 3-stamp mill. Castle Dome City is 55 miles south of Quartzite, Ariz. The men who did the renovation at Castle Dome City are Roger Camplin, Chuck Messerschmidt, Charlie Connell, Allen Albertson (owner) and Morris Jackson. You can find more information on this project at http://www.castledomemuseum.com.

Charlie Connell was the leader of the group. Connell has been restoring mining equipment as a volunteer for various museums for almost 20 years. Connell stated, "My focus is to bring the artifact back to operation, so that people can see how the equipment ran many years ago."

You can find out more about Connell and the restoration of historic mine equipment at http://stampmillman.blogspot.com/. For those of you living in the Phoenix area, there is an operational 10-stamp mill at the Cave Creek Museum.